Affordable Hotels In Carolina Beach|"Peninsula Hong Kong The Best Gets Even Better"

Source             :   forbes.com
Category         : Affordable Hotels In Carolina Beach
By                   :   Larry Olmsted
Posted By      :   Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Affordable Hotels In Carolina Beach

Even among this column’s very elite group of some of the world’s best hotels, the Peninsula Hong Kong stands out. It is simply a masterpiece in every respect, from service to rooms to food to spa to facilities.For readers unfamiliar with this recurring column, here is the three sentence lowdown: I travel a great deal and stay in many exceptional hotels worldwide, but only the very best make the cut for Hotels I Love. In almost every case – including this one – these are properties I have stayed at multiple times over a period of years, so I know great service was not a fluke. It’s not “Hotels I Like,” or even “Hotels I Really Like,” and I only manage to find a few each year that qualify – they have to be that good.I’m certainly not the only one who thinks the Peninsula Hong Kong makes the cut. Readers of Travel + Leisure Magazine gave it the number one ranking of any hotel in the world for service in this years’ World’s Best Awards survey, with a score of 98.78. ForbesTravelGuide gives it the highest possible Forbes 5-Star Rating, plus another 5-Stars for its spa, which is only fitting because Peninsula is the only chain to have every single one of its US properties rated 5-Stars, and Hong Kong is the flagship of the entire brand. And in Cigar Aficionado’s annual expert Travel Poll (which I oversee as contributing travel editor), where votes are cast by top tier travel agents, experts and journalists, rather than readers, for years this hotel has taken world’s best honors.But here’s the crazy thing – the Peninsula, after a huge facelift, is better than ever, even though it was already the best.

The bulk of these upgrades were in guest room technology, with a focus on comfort, convenience and ease of use. While many new hotels have gone for high tech rooms, they are often undecipherable to anyone who is not a teenager, with everything from turning off lights to controlling temperature a chore. Not here, where the interface is as simple as it could be, yet puts room mastery at the bedside (or the other bedside or the desk, as every room has at least three wireless tablets to choose from). Here’s a quick laundry list of new features in every room: a large 3D (active) television and Blu-ray player, with loaner goggles and 3D movies available; sound bar surround sound; internet radio with thousands of channels; free ultra-high speed, high bandwidth Wi-Fi delivered to each room by a dedicated fiber optic line; unlimited free local and international direct dial calls; Nespresso coffee/espresso maker; desktop charging station with four international outlets (no need for adaptors), USB and iPod chargers; complete mini-office with wireless laser printer/fax/copier/scanner; and the tablets are loaded with high quality, custom produced Hong Kong tourism information. They also control lights, climate, drapes, and very good black-out curtains. My favorite tech touch of all? If you go out for just a short while and want your room serviced, hit the “Make Up Room” button and it instantly sends a message to your maid’s smart phone.I was invited back to the hotel (my third visit in the past dozen years) to see the grand reopening of these advanced rooms, a prototype for future Peninsula developments, like their newest property opening next spring in Paris. But the visit also underscored the existing features that make the hotel so special, with or without lots of admittedly useful gizmos. The service, as always, was so good as to be near telepathic. Until I first stayed at this property, I used to make a habit of calling for the bellman upon checkout while still packing so I could utilize the time it would take him to get to the room. I stopped doing that after visiting “The Pen,” where he shows up in seconds. In addition to the famous fleet of custom “Peninsula Green” Roll Royce vehicles, the hotel now has Peninsula Green Mini-Coopers too, and will put one, complete with chauffeur, at your disposal for a few hours – for free.

The slate of restaurants is impressive in variety and style as well as quality, with the most renowned afternoon tea outside the British Isles in the grand lobby; fine dining at the Philippe Starck designed top floor Felix with stunning views; upscale Cantonese at Spring Moon; classic French (Hong Kong’s oldest such option) at Gaddi’s; modern Japanese at Imasa; a bizarre speakeasy bar hidden below the lobby; and the most unique of all, Chesa, serving Swiss alpine classics like spaetzle, raclette and fondue in a charming, laid back, barn-like mountain atmosphere that is both totally surprising to find here and totally enjoyable. I don’t normally go to Asia to eat rustic Swiss food, but if I lived in Hong Kong, I’d go here all the time. Even the basic hotel eatery, Verandah, is standout, with a breakfast/brunch buffet that will wow even people who hate buffets, with a made to order congee station, made to order eggs and omelets, a large assortment of dim sum, plenty of luxury cured meats and cheese from Europe, unusual fresh fruit juices like peach, and really good coffee. For a weekday hotel breakfast buffet (not Sunday Brunch) it is the best I have ever seen.

Every hotel in the chain offers a unique slate of experiences and classes for guests through Peninsula Academy, and here they range from learning to make dim sum in the professional kitchen to exploring Hong Kong’s cutting edge art scene with an expert. The aforementioned 5-Star ESPA is spectacular, as is the very unique and stunning partially open air Roman-bath style pool, with waiter service terrace. Both the pool and the state of the art fitness center have unobstructed drop-dead views of the harbor. But the one thing that really makes the Peninsula unique, even among its many 5-Star Asian peers, is the rooftop helipad. There is no compelling reason to fly in from the airport, as many well-heeled guests do, since it is a short and comfy ride in a house Rolls. What the helipad is awesome for is short sightseeing excursions over Victoria Harbor and all the less visited islands comprising Hong Kong, a world-class view that can only be appreciated form the air, and the Peninsula is the only hotel with a helipad in the city. They offer an expertly guided aerial tour of the UNESCO Hong Kong Geopark, and even have surprisingly reasonable packages combing evening flights with dinner, and if there’s a better urban hotel date night than that, I have yet to see it.

Source:forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2013/09/01/hotels-i-love-peninsula-hong-kong-the-best-gets-even-better/