hotel Archives - Foodology

In Hotel Review

Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort: Accommodations in Osoyoos

December 11, 2015

Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort is located in an area known as the Napa of the North in the fertile South Okanagan wine country of British Columbia, overlooking Osoyoos Lake. The resort is conveniently located just five minutes from the Canada/US border. You are surrounded by the rolling vineyards and sun-drenched landscapes of wine country.

The parking is up at the top of the hill by Nk’Mip Cellars. Just check in at the building on the right. There’s a lot of free parking.

We stayed in the One Bedroom Villa, which faces East to see the beautiful vineyards and Okanagan Lake. Its base occupancy is 2 people but can have a maximum of 6 people inside.

It was a pretty nice day when we were staying here, so it was nice to be so close to the vineyards.

I found it interesting how the blocks of the villas were named after the types of wines.

There was even a fountain outside our door.

Once you walk inside, you will get a homey vibe from the decor. It felt like a home away from home.

There’s a dining table, couch with sofa bed, TV, fireplace and desk.

The space is great for families or people who are staying for a few days. Since it was just M and I, we didn’t really need the extra space.

In the kitchen, there are the usual appliances like fridge, sink, stove, oven, microwave, dishwasher and a coffee maker. There’s also a washer and dryer in the villa.

The first bathroom was a sink, shower, and toilet.

The bedroom has its own tv, king size bed, and separate bathroom.

The bedroom has a tub and toilet in a separate room, but the sink it outside in the bedroom. I thought it was a little bit odd.

Outside on the patio is a soaker tub and some furniture so you can sit and enjoy the view. There’s also a BBQ Grill you can use too.

You can walk around the vineyards through a open gate by this huge map.

It’s a pretty nice stroll and you get to see their different types of grapes growing on the vines.

Try to get a room that faces the lake instead of the mountains.

They have many amenities that guest can enjoy, but a visit to their outdoor pools, hot tubs, and fitness centres seem to be popular. There are dining options at the resort too such as Talon’s Restaurant and Sonora Dune’s Grill.

Overall, it was a nice stay, but because it’s situated in a dessert, we did find many little critters hanging around in our villa. I ended up killing a few spiders in the bedroom and bathroom. Other than that, no other issues that we noticed.

Address:
1200 Rancher Creek Rd, Osoyoos, BC

Website:
http://www.spiritridge.ca/

In Golden

Kicking Horse Lodging: Glacier Mountaineer Lodge Review

October 14, 2015

Glacier Mountaineer Lodge was where we stayed in Golden, BC. It’s located in the heart of the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort alpine village – at the base of the Golden Eagle Express Gondola. The mountain is around 10 minutes away from the downtown area of Golden, BC.

It’s a good location to stop at if you are enjoying the snow in the winter or heading up the Gondola to hike or sightsee in the Summer.

We pulled up to the front of the building, walked through the lobby to check in. It definitely has a rustic mountain-feel to it.

Since it was low-season and we were checking in past 6pm, they left our envelopes at the front with our keys and other information.

We stayed in their one bedroom suite and it was quite spacious for the two of us. You will find their fully furnished living rooms with satellite TV, gas fireplace, and private balconies. It was clean and reminded us of home away from home.

There is also a fully furnished kitchen with fridge, microwave, oven and coffee maker.

The bedroom had an old CRT TV with cable, views of the mountains and a closet. We spent more time in the living room since it was more comfortable watching TV there with the flatscreen TV.

The tables has 3 chairs and a bench. I quite liked the bench feature. Makes me want to get one for my own place.

There’s lots of sitting space if you were to entertain guests. Very cozy.

The entrance to the balcony/patio gave us a great sight of the slopes. There’s not much to see during the Fall, but it was cool to see the changing colours of the trees and the snowboarding trails. In the Winter, it will be more beautiful.

There’s lots of hooks and space to hang any winter gear you have.

The washroom has a tub, a shower, toilet and sink. Nothing fancy, but it does the job.

They also have a fitness centre, hot tub, and a steam room to enjoy at the lodge.

The view of the other mountain peaks are just amazing even in the Fall. Its so nice to see the snow right on the peaks of those large mountains.

Overall, it was a pleasant stay and I love the surrounding nature. Mountains on all sides with some beautiful Fall foliage. The only bad thing about coming here during low-season is that there’s nothing open up here, so you will need to head to the town to get lunch or dinner. The lodge has vending machines, so you can get pop, water or snacks. When it’s their normal season, it won’t be a problem at all. M and I didn’t mind since we were carry a lot of snacks and drinks with us since we were on our roadtrip.

The best part about going to Kicking Horse Lodging is this crazy bridge you have to drive across. Only one car can pass at a time. I’ve never seen anything like this, so I was super excited.

Address:
549 Kicking Horse Trail, Golden, BC

Website:
http://www.kickinghorselodging.com/glacier-mountaineer-lodge/

In Hotel Review

Aria Resort and Casino: Hotel on The Strip

May 1, 2014

When we were in Vegas, we spent 5 days staying at Aria. We got a good package via Allegiant Air and we heard it was a nice family friendly hotel. It’s crazy big and has about 4,000 guest suites, 16 restaurants, 10 bars/nigh clubs and a big gambling space. As a guest, you have access to the pool space and facilities. Currently, they are hosting Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil.

It is located right near the middle of the strip and is super convenient to get around either by taxi or walking.

They have these huge statues out front. It probably has some symbolic meaning.

You check in on the right side of the lobby. It takes a bit of time to check-in if there’s a long line.

Checking Out is much easier! You can check out by texting or emailing. Once done, you can just drop off your electronic keys in the boxes by the exit. It literally takes seconds to check out. I was really impressed how much they would make the process as painless as possible.

Getting to the room was a maze because of the shape of the hotel. It twists and turns but just follow the signs and you will find your way.

Our room was a Deluxe Room with 2 queen-sized beds with an adjacent room connected by a door. Perfect for a family of 5.

The room was all controlled by a tablet beside the bed. It controls the TV, temperature, lights, blinds, etc.

It was a nice space, but do be aware, if you move anything from the mini fridge, you get charged $50. Pretty steep, but I think it’s because they don’t want you to use it to cool your other beverages if you have any.

The washroom is nice, but the frosted glass may be a bit scary for some. No one really wants to kind see you do your business. Just make sure you close the main door to the washroom.

The shower and the tub are in the same glassed area. You can take a bath and a shower at the same time.

The Monte Carlo and New York New York and be seen from the lobby area. Taxi’s come quickly and isn’t a problem at all. But then again, taxi’s are everywhere on the strip.

When you check out, you can leave your luggage at the hotel until it’s time to go. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we wanted to spend some time getting lunch and picking up a few souvenirs.

Overall, I enjoyed our stay and would definitely consider Aria again.

Website: http://www.aria.com/

In Gangnam

Tria Hotel in Gangnam, Seoul: Review and Travel Tips

September 2, 2012

My travel agent in Hong Kong did a horrible job at finding me a decent place to stay in Korea. The hotel that they wanted to book me in looked really rundown and was way overpriced for what it looked like. I decided to find my own accommodations and Trip Advisor suggested Tria Hotel for a nice budget hotel in the Gangnam area. It was under 100,000 won per night.

Since I was traveling on my own, I needed to find a nice and safe hotel that was affordable.

If you are wondering, I didn’t see anything related to the Gangnam Style song by PSY. I actually didn’t hear about this song till weeks after I came back home. (It’s a pretty good song FYI)

A lot of people complained about how the streets are filled with “sexy” hotels in the area. They aren’t wrong, there are a few around, but no one really bothers you during the day or night. There are lots of restaurants in the area, so it’s convenient if you want a snack or a meal.

Since I did book very last-minute, there was only a double bed room available.

The bathroom is very weird in my opinion. The wall and doors are frosted so you can kinda see into the bathroom. I was so glad I wasn’t travelling with anyone because this would be awkward seeing someones silhouette in the washroom.

They provide you with a TV and computer, but I didn’t use them since I brought my own laptop. There is wifi access in the room and there is no password to it. Just connect to the network with your room number.

They provide you with complementary combs, hair product, shower caps, hair ties, and mosquito repellant.

They also have toothbrush, toothpaste, a razor, and shaving cream. If you forget anything, they have you covered.

They also have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.

They have a kettle for you to boil hot water for tea and coffee.

There was also a fridge in the closet. When I opened it, there were 2 bottle of water, a can of orange juice and a can of coffee. It was complementary!

I took all the coffee, juice, tea, and bottle of water. I hid them all in my suitcase so the cleaning ladies would replenish my fridge. It was complementary, so might as well take it all right?

If you need anything else like additional drinks or meals, they have a menu that you can order from their cafe. Do keep in mind, you do get complementary breakfasts every morning in their cafe. Unfortunately, I never went for the breakfasts since I wanted to go out for food.

On the last day, they have breakfast delivered up to the room. They will call you once you are back and they ask you for a time you want the food to be delivered. It was a sandwich and a coffee.

The coffee was drip coffee and you can add your own sugar and cream.

The sandwich is really big and it has a lot of vegetables, egg, chicken, and cheese. It was a decent sandwich. I think it tasted better because it was breakfast in bed. It was a lovely touch!

Travel Tips

Buy a T-Pass from the convenience store once you get out of the arrival gates. Having it will save a lot of time and effort of figuring out how to pay for transit. Just load it up and tap it everytime you get on the buses or subway. I would suggest taking the 6703 KAL Limo Bus from Incheon Airport since it takes over an hour to arrive at the hotel.

It costs 14,000 won and it saves the trouble of overpaying for a taxi or switching subway lines. You can also take a nice long nap! The bus is air conditioned and the seats are confortable.

Get off at Renaissance Hotel and walk a few blocks. It’s not very far.

After getting off the plane, if you need a cell phone. The Incheon Airport has a few companies offering rental cellphones. I chose S-Roaming since it was one of the cheaper option. Plus, you get 50% off when you reserve a day before. You can rent smartphones or regular phones. I chose the smartphone since I wanted data to look at maps and use travel apps. It was a fair price and comes in VERY handy.

Final Thoughts

Tria Hotel was a nice hotel to stay at especially when having a last minute booking. The staff was very helpful and could help me store my luggages since my planes came at strange times. There are other cheaper options around town, but compared to other hotels, this is a good option. It’s nice looking, clean, and has a lot of amenities.

The location is far from most tourist locations, but the subway is very convenient and the green line does go to most tourist places, so not a lot of transferring.

Address:
677-11 Yeoksam 1(il)-dong,
Gangnam-gu, Seoul,
South Korea

Website:
http://www.triahotel.co.kr/html/ENG/AB/w_AB_010.html

Number:
+82 2-553-2471 ‎

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In Downtown

Fairmont Lobby Lounge: Carvery Luncheon

March 19, 2011

I bought a Social Shopper coupon for a Carvery Luncheon at the Lobby Lounge at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. The deal is good for $20 for 2 Carvery lunch sets ($40 value).

The Lobby lounge is located on the first floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim. As you can tell by the name, it is located near the lobby. It is an open space and has lots of comfy chairs…VERY comfy chairs. It’s a great place to have a few drinks, appies and have a good chat or a meeting.

For a drink, I was feeling like a non-alcoholic drink, so I ordered the Flower Pot ($8). It’s not a tea or anything, it’s just a soda. It was really good and refreshing, but $8 was quite steep ..but it is the Fairmont, so its expected.

The carvery meats used in the sandwich is cut in the dining room, if you sit close enough, you can see them cutting the prime rib and doing their thing.

The Carvery Luncheon ($20) comes with choice of soup or salad, fries, prime rib burger and condiments on the side.

We could choose from a tomato and garden soup or Caesar salad. Flo said the soup was pretty average and nothing too spectacular. I chose the Caesar salad, lightly dressed, cheese on top and has 2 crouton things on the side. I enjoyed it!

Both choices are healthy alternatives and you can’t really go wrong.

The fries that come with the luncheon were very poorly made. It was not crispy and they were very limp. It seemed like the frozen fries you would get at the grocery store and make at home. We were both very disappointed since we expected more from the Fairmont.

The main item of the luncheon is the prime rib sandwich. Comes in a nice toasted bun, super tender prime rib slices, and a bit of sauce. You can also add a bit of stuff to your sandwich. The is mustard, horseradish, pickles, hot peppers, pickled onions, and beef juice.

You can spread the horeseradish and mustard into the sandwich or dip it as you go. Many endless possibilities of how you want to go about eating it.

If you don’t want to use your hands to eat this, you can use your knife and fork. I found that the best way to go about it was to cut the sandwich in half so you can dip it into the sauces.

Overall, great luncheon for the Social Shopper deal (Saving 50%!). If you don’t have the coupon, you can order this during lunch time for $20 per person. The service was very poor in my opinion. We made a reservation but there was no one at the Lobby Lounge entrance to lead us to the reserved table, so we just walked in and seated ourselves. We waited a long while till a server came to greet us.

Even though you use the coupon, there is a social shopper gratuity added onto the bill so you do have to pay about $8.

We Rate Lobby Lounge at Fairmont Pacific Rim:

Address:

1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.fairmont.com/pacificrim/GuestServices/Restaurants/LobbyLoungeandPatio.htm

In Four Beakers

The Empress Afternoon Tea

September 6, 2010

The Empress in Victoria has the most elegant afternoon tea! During the long weekend, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy, M and I decided to go to Victoria and explore the sights and sounds of Victoria! Even with the 1 hour of sleep we got earlier during the night, this did not bother our trip…not even the 5% amount of oil left in my car ( it eventually started flashing -61…but at least the car didn’t break down).

We drove around finding parking for the day and found the cheapest option EVER. Take this as a very good tip if you ever want to drive to Victoria!!! Park at the Valet at The Empress and say you are going to Afternoon Tea, they will not charge you since the Valet is for the people staying overnight. We just tipped them after leaving the car there for the whole day! If you are just walking around downtown and doing a day trip here, this saves you a lot of money!

We went in our “business smart” dress code as instructed on the website, but we soon found out we were dressed up a bit too much since there are a lot of tourists going for Afternoon tea in their t-shirts and shorts.

The décor of the room was very elegant and you could kinda feel a chill as you drank your tea because all the furniture and décor was so dated. Even walking past the elevators felt a bit eerie because they were so old. Apparently, there’s a rumor where the hotel is haunted (GASP!).

As we sat down and was greeted by our lovely waitress, she explained how the afternoon tea works and what we should be expecting. We choose a type of tea – the Empress Blend, which is made especially for the Empress. Which I find very hyped up because it just tastes like red tea.

Before the tiers of food came, they gave us seasonal fruit with whipped cream on top. It was a very nice beginning to the meal. The seasonal fruit was strawberries!

Next came the tiers of food, even though it didn’t look like a lot of food, if you ate slowly you will surely be filled. We started at the bottom with the sandwiches.

There was a curry sandwich, carrot sandwich, egg salad croissant, salmon pinwheel sandwich and mushroom crostini. I think my favorites were the curry sandwich and the mushroom crostini. M went nuts over the egg salad croissant. Apparently its very hard to make such a miniature croissant and have all the ingredients work really well together.

The second tier were scones with shipped butter and jars of jam. Embedded in the scones were raisins and had a very nice rich taste to it. It was well made but you can tell there was a lot of fat to this scone. It was quite filling and probably was the item that stuffed us the most. The scone was not particularly overly enjoyable or too exciting.

The last tier and probably the tier that is most interesting to devour! It came with a strawberry meringue tart, sugar cookies, tulip chocolate Ganache with candied blue berries, checkered cake covered in fondant, and greentea cheesecake.

When we finished and asked for the bill, the waitress gave us a gift of complementary Empress Blend Tea which was a very nice touch and made the afternoon a bit more special! I guess that had to do that because the bill came to a shocking $200+ for 4 people. That probably came out to be $65 per person after tax and tips. (OUCH!)

The experience of going to a super nice afternoon tea location was very nice, but probably overpriced. After this experience, I would not go again because I don’t think it was worth the amount of money we paid. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, it was a bit expensive for my taste. Next time perhaps I will go to the Secret Garden or The Market for some High Tea for a cheaper price.

We rate The Empress Afternoon Tea: