The day started off picture perfect – I slept in, had breakfast and checked out of Hotel Atmospheres in Paris. My Eurostar train from Paris to London was scheduled for 1 p.m. so I had time to leisurely stroll around the city one last time before bidding adieu. The sun […]
A long time ago, I had a quick day in Milan with my fun Italy bus tour for pensioners and then an overnight many years later during August when the city pretty much goes on vacation and shuts down. If I’m honest, I didn’t quite discover the charms of the […]
The note in the Platine hotel elevator alerted guests that the taxi drivers would be on strike the next day in Paris. The taxi strike would definitely be chaotic, in my opinion, and I wasn’t quite sure how it would solve the dispute at hand which was the arrival […]
You want to go to Paris? Great, now where to stay? If you are like me, you often default to the US chain hotels such Marriott, Hilton and Starwood first and then have massive sticker shock when you find a room and do both conversions – Euro € to US $ […]
***Note: The hotel is no longer a Kimpton property as of February 4, 2016, my stay occurred in 2015 when still a Kimpton managed property and this review is reflective of that. To my knowledge the owners are not making changes to staff or decor so all should hopefully be […]
My nieces have four cats so when I visit, Smoky tries to sit by my head when I’m on the couch while George attempts to get me to pay attention to him by walking over my lap (the other two gave up a long time ago). The cats know I’m […]
After nearly three weeks in Italy and too many pastas, pizzas and bread sticks, when I arrived in Florence, I was on a mission to find The Hard Rock Café Florence. I had left the U.S. a month before on a boat of mediocre food, practically overdosed on the fabulous […]
Marilyn Monroe was glamorous and her image lives on in Paris at the Platine Hotel, a four star boutique hotel find on Hotel Tonight under the “hip” category. I booked a week in advance ($215 a night was awesome deal saving over $100 a night) which is a nice feature […]
History can be a bit dry at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning in Paris sitting on a full tour bus of 45 people when the first attraction is more than a two-hour drive away and the tour is all day long (12.5 hrs). You may want to sleep until […]
I had to look twice as the train went over the Venice lagoon as we approached the city as I thought I saw a dragon boat and then a kayaker. In a city long associated with the gondola I thought it odd but then I learned it was the weekend […]