I know this is going to sound a bit much coming from a Flight Attendant, but sometimes you get sick of staying in the same hotel room. I mean, my airline does change it up every now and again - we don't stick to one chain, but after 5 years of being in this job you crave for a hotel with a bit of personality. So I was incredibly shocked when I stayed in this hotel in Johannesburg...


It doesn't take a lot for me to be impressed with hotel rooms, but just the little details that went into this hotel was so incredibly refreshing. Even just something simple such as the wallpaper made you feel so welcome and instantly relaxes you when you walked in the door. But at the same time it gives you the impression that "We're not your ordinary 4-star Hotel!" and that if you had a problem or a special request then the staff actually had the capacity to think outside the box to solve it rather than give you the stock standard service manual/training response that the inexperienced resort to when faced with a challenge. I wish I could give out the name of this hotel, but alas, for security reasons I cannot, regardless I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

I reckon in my airline the top chains we stay at would be Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn and Sheraton. Depending on the destinations we may totally luck out and get ourselves lodged in a Kempinski, a Le Royal Meridian or an Intercontinental, in which case you just feel like royalty and find yourself spending waaaay too much time in the nice fluffy towels and the 800-thread count sheets that they use on proper guests. For some reason, at the hotels we frequent the most the towels can often feel like cardboard against your skin and the pillows are just not fluffy, or maybe even they're not firm enough, and getting a comfortable pillow is the key to effective rest, which is after all the REAL reason we get put up in cushy hotels. If there is anything these hotels have in common is that they can be very sterile, and more often than not they're lacking in personality.

Which brings me onto the focus of today's post. Here I present to you guys what is, without a doubt, the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed in. You can tell the minute you walk through the door that every detail about it has been meticulously picked out and decided upon. I first heard about it from my best mate Oz, and knew that if I was going to book a trip to New York again then I'd have to book a stay here. Totally inappropriate for my airline, which is totally what I was after, I present to you all the ACE Hotel, 20 West 29th Street, Manhattan, New York.


The lobby. Absolutely dead at 6am when I went to get my coffee and breakfast, but at around 2-3pm it has a very loungey vibe to it and 10pm it is basically standing room. And being here by myself for the latter part of my holiday it was a nice change to head to the elevator and have a random conversation with random New Yorkers about random stuff. I don't really consider myself a social person but you turn into one the minute you walk through the doors. And despite all this, when I got to my room it really was nice and quiet - you couldn't hear any noise from downstairs at all. I have no doubt in my mind that this hotel was the biggest crowd puller within a 5 block radius as well.


Pretty much my standard breakfast. The French toast Pastry is just divine -nice and caramelised on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perfect accompaniment to the coffee. I'm still searching for a recipe :-)


They have a sandwich shop in the hotel as well - No. 7 subs. I came here for lunch once and tried the Brussels Sprouts sub with a blood orange soda, which was a nice change but nothing amazing. I came here for breakfast as well and tried the Bacon Yogurt and Grapefruit sub - Wow! Without a doubt THE BEST thing I ate during that trip! My only disappointment was that I booked my trip over the Thanksgiving period and found the sub shop closed, so I couldn't eat a sub from there every day for Breakfast and Lunch. Did my best for breakfast though...

So on actual Thanksgiving morning, when everywhere was closed, I decided to give the in-house restaurant, The Breslin, a visit. I had the daily special, which was some sort of pulled pork hash with potatoes cooked in duck fat. Very artery-clogging and very very tasty, as this picture effectively demonstrates -


Finished the whole bowl before I even thought of photographing it! I later found out that The Breslin has just earned it's first Michelin star, which didn't surprise me in the slightest. Though not that I would know - this was my first 'Michelin Star' experience... Food was so amazing though, I just wished that I had more room in my stomach to order an additional dish!


So what about the actual room? Well I got the cheapest option available, which was the bunk bed room. Had my mate Oz stay for a few days so he just stayed in the top bunk. Was very happy and actually somewhat inspired by it. Every time I went there I didn't want to sleep - I was working on the blog, or working on an iTunes Playlist, or editing some photos, or sending out some emails. I felt kind of productive in there, which is strange.

The laundry bag that you see on the right was something that I deemed a"must have" as a memento of my stay. Unlike the bathrobe though there wasn't any visible price. Oz was saying "Just take it!" but they had my credit card on file anyway, so I decided against it. Then when I checked out I saw they had the laundry bag for sale! Super stoked :-D


How cool is the minibar? Was half expecting some roadie to wheel it out and back in the room every time it needed re-stocking.




Ace Hotel also remain the only hotel I've been to that actually provide a full set of chopsticks for their guests to enjoy pot noodles with. Nice to eat while watching the Food Channel ;-)



Every room had some sort of mural. Mine was a little small but still very cool to look at none the less. The walls were lines with vintage phone book pages.




And unlike my previous holiday in New York, I was loving the fact that I had a bathroom I didn't have to share with 8 other hotel guests! Ahhhh, the simple things!

Labels: Airline Stuff, Holidays, Layovers, Random Thoughts, Work

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