Jasper2009

Interesting rating! Any chance getting a review of the Israel properties?

GetSetJetSet

Certainly. The Ritz in Herzliya is a bit outside Tel Aviv. There's not much to do in the area, so if the 15-20 min back and forth to the city is a concern, keep that in mind. I'd stayed at this RC before, so I knew this in advance. The rooms are nice, there's a great rooftop pool, it's the soft product that's the problem. This is like a RC building being staffed by a 3-4* crew.

The Scots was lovely. Beautiful hotel grounds, close to the Sea of Galilee, nice gym, decent pool. Staff were the best of any hotel we stayed at in Israel. We were only there for one night, but all the meals seem to be buffet style in the hotel if that's a concern.

King David looks tired, part of the hotel is being renovated. As a result, there were signs of construction in some places. Again, as seems to be the trend in Israel, we did not have a positive customer service experience here. The first room I was shown had poor aircon and I could hear everything in the room next door through the walls. They offered me another room that was "basically the same," but was clearly smaller. I refused, then had to leave for a dinner engagement. When I returned, they tried to show me another room about 1/2 the size (but for the same price of course) and I again refused. Finally they showed me a decent room and I agreed to move. They told me while the room was clean, it needed to be signed off on again before I could move. I spent ~1 hour waiting for this to happen. Finally after three phone calls, I was allowed to move to the new room well after 10pm. Very relaxing intro to the hotel. Just because I was feeling petty and angry at the hotel by this point, I went over the room with a fine tooth comb. Even after the cleaning and "inspection" that was required before I could move there, I found and photographed various parts of the room, including the bedding that were still dirty. In the aftermath of this the GM said she was going to make things right and would contact me later in the day to figure out a solution...she never called, nor did anyone else from the hotel. If this is the level of service from a "5-star" hotel, color me unimpressed. I also didn't care for the pool area.

Basically, if you go to Israel, don't expect luxury or to feel like you're getting a hotel/service commensurate with the price paid. I don't know about the new Setai or the Norman in TLV, but for the Ritz and the King David, lower your expectations.

GetSetJetSet

Curious to hear what the problem was at Bagni di Pisa? They upgraded us to a suite (had booked a junior suite) and the room was lovely. Enjoyed the baths and had a nice lunch on the patio and drinks in the Shelley Bar. As for the Aman, it's explained in detail in another thread: HERE

mstraveler

Welcome to FlyerTalk shawfield. Please let us know about your travels; there is a lot of wisdom and assistance here some great luxury travel ideas. Mauritius sounds lovely.

offerendum

Here my report from 2014. For me no luxury hotel. Service was OK but found the suite odd.

GetSetJetSet

Hmmm, we stayed in the same category of room and I quite liked it. The seating area was awkward but I found the bathroom plenty spacious. The aircon could have been better. Also, there are five pools, not three. The first spa has one indoor, one outdoor, then there are three indoor pools in the second spa. I enjoyed the outdoor restaurant for lunch and the bar. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

offerendum

Indeed!

Epicura

bhrubin

MacMyDay

That may turn out to be slightly more difficult than initially planned

Epicura

Thank you and of course I will report back. And especially for you will run an A/C test .

I booked a paid rate (pretty "cheap" in summer time anyway) but will ask about awards on site. I did read many good things about this W, which is supposedly one of the best W resorts. Will let you know if we would qualify it as luxury. Pre arrival communication has been very good so far. Apart from the WOW's . But they did address me as "Mrs" instead of the usual W hipster talk.

ncsuactor84FT

Headed to Greece soon. Staying at the following:

Grand Bretange in Athens
Salt Suites in Milos
Grace Santorini
Lindos Blu in Rhodes
Kokkini Porta Rossa in Rhodes Town

I'll post my thoughts of each when I'm back home. I'm not really as particular/picky as some of the reviews that I've been reading here, so I'm not sure how much use you'll find my thoughts. Honestly, I'm pretty easy to please, and I'm sure I'll have a great time at each place. I'm mainly just looking forward to experiencing the Greek culture with my wife and seeing the incredible landscapes and views of the Aegean.

Regarding Santorini, I searched the forums on Grace Santorini vs Katikies as that seems to be the two best hotels on the island... I saw a lot of posts here suggesting that Katikies was better. They were 10 years ago so perhaps things have changed. I went with Grace because the views just looked more stunning in the pictures. Also the food looked a little better at Grace and they include something like a 5-course breakfast (I'm a huge fan of great breakfasts). I'll walk over to Oia and have dinner at Katikies just to check it out one night.

My one regret is that I didn't book a few days at Amanzoe... I didn't even know that property existed until after I made all the arrangements. Will probably come back to Greece one day in the future and check it out.

Aventine

FS Jumeirah Beach and an air conditioner test for HRH @bhrubin.

Lambi

September - San Francisco - Ritz Carlton
December - New York - Undecided (asking for recommendations in another thread)
Late February - Shanghai - The Peninsula
Early March - Bangkok - Undecided (looking at MO, Pen, Okura Prestige, Kempinski - Hard product and location is much more interesting than soft product in a city I know well enough)
April - Dubai - Leaning towards FS Jumeirah Beach, Armani or Bulgari. Would love recommendations, a good beach and location is very important. Started looking at O&O The Palm, but I read that food and drinks at the pool area was forbidden so that's off the list.

Pausanias

This weather system was on the ITN and BBC TV news today. Must be serious then. Also seriously, if you only plan to go to Lanai there's not much point in my view in going all that way to Hawaii. You have to see Kauai and the Na Pali coastline, the landscapes and the Captain Cook memorial of the Big Island and Pearl Harbor on Oahu at the very least. I went to Lanai when it was the Manele Bay Resort - pleasant but ho-hum. Not really Hawaii in any meaningful way.