All posts filed under: Stay

Dublin Cool: The Dean

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We were in Dublin for a good time, not a long time, so The Dean was the perfect place to elevate our stay in one of the coolest cities in Europe. As much as we would have loved to stay longer to linger on the rooftop balcony over a few Guinesses and try the brunch menu at Sophie’s upstairs, or sample an Irish whisky at the entry bar, we found this place helped us to stay in style, while also hopping about Dublin easily. Definitely a superior crash pad, and one that we imagine would have some pretty awesome post-rock show parties. The Dean was so damn great because of the attention to detail – the room card that was ‘The Key to A Deadly Time’, the cheeky do not disturb signs, the Smeg fridge and subway tiles in the bathroom, the vinyl player with well curated records (Chemical Brothers! Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks!), the craft beers and ciders and boutique snacks not to mention barber products, the punchy prints, bright rug and those blue …

STAY: Koa Kea Resort, Kauai, Hawaii

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Choosing to stay on Kauai was easy. Choosing somewhere to stay on Kauai was hard. There are the Marriotts, Hyatts, Sheratons of the world which I wasn’t that interested by, and then I was very tempted by The Palmwood, but given it was our honeymoon, we actually wanted to sip cocktails by the pool if we so chose to, so the B&B vibe was less what we were going for. The pick of the bunch seemed the St Regis Princeville which is on the North Shore (which we discovered was our fave part of the island), but holy shit dude it be expensive! So, we opted for the Koa Kea Hotel and Resort which is a resort, but a slightly smaller resort and pretty perfect for what we were after. Situated on the south of Kauai, the Hawaiian island known as the Garden Isle – which is the luscious green paradise that this implies (check out this post on our helicopter ride over the island to see just how green) – Koa Kea sits next …

Hawaii Cool: Surfjack Hotel, Waikiki

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Aloha bitches! What if I told you there’s a renovated hipster hotel in Waikiki with 1960s surfer vibes, a killer restaurant by one of the hot names in the Hawaii food scene, and that it’s reasonably priced – oh, and just a couple of blocks from the beach?! Nobody told me any of that, but when trawling online through all the hotels available in Honolulu, I was left feeling pretty uninspired. It was all flashy chain hotels (apart from the glorious Royal Hawaiian Hotel in which we were to spend our first night) or places that looked like they lacked character, especially for the hefty price tags. So to not only discover this relatively new and stylin’ hotel The Surfjack, but discover that it had the name of one of my favourite songs emblazoned on the bottom of the swimming pool, it was definitely a no brainer for me. We arrived here for the last few days of our honeymoon, just fresh from 5 nights in Kauai. Having only spent one night in Honolulu on …

The Slow Canggu Best Hotels Bali

Bali Cool: The Slow, Canggu

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In room tunes curated by the Allah-Las, Japanese minimalism meets surfer chic design, a restaurant with an ex-Rockpool chef at the helm, and smack bang in the heart of Canggu – there is loads to love about The Slow: Island Stay. I was lucky enough to interview co-owner (of Ksubi label fame) George Gorrow for my Bondi Beach Radio show while I was staying here. He’s a stylish, laid back guy originally from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, who now calls Bali home and lives there with his young family. “It was actually going to be our dream island home,” explains Gorrow, who bought the place for such a purpose, but after returning back here after a lengthy stint in New York, realised that Canggu had become suddenly hugely popular. It instead became the ‘Island Stay’, and we’re not complaining. This place is ace. AESTHETICS The Slow is unique, it’s stylish as hell, comfortable, has well-curated snacks and toiletries, the rooms were large and the materials are mindful of the tropical location – polished concrete …

Fjærland Fjordstove Hotel, Norway

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Fjærland Fjordstove Hotel – one of my faves of all the hotels over all the years – features 15 cute, white rooms, an on-site restaurant serving up appetising Nordic cuisine, and a welcoming owner who really is living out his picket-fenced dream – and inviting you to be a part of it. Do people still harbour the ‘white, picket-fence house’ dream from the 1950s or whenever? Pretty sure for my friends (in Sydney at least), it has been downsized to the ‘owning real estate at all’ dream. Either way, if you’re not there yet, you should consider finding a homely, white hotel in which to live out these fantasies – even if for a little while. Like, perhaps one that hangs over the water in the fjords of Western Norway, that has a bright, window-encased sitting room with little book stacks on the sills. Charming Communal Spaces I couldn’t stop gushing at the front sitting room, with it’s large windows that keep the fjord in view, cosy chairs and scattered stacks of books – this …