Hip Hotels [antikvár]

introduction In llie age of "liurrv tlicro and hurry back' the choice of iiotel plays a more important role in our travel |)lans than ever before. As distances have become smaller, so too has the lime allotted lor the journey. Get into town, do as much as possible in as little lime as possible: lhal's the mantra of the frequent flyer. WTien people still made leisured journeys on lazy liners accompanied by massive steamer trunks, and trips were measured in months not hours, the choice of hotel was not of such |)araniount importance. There was always time to Seoul around for new digs if you were not enamoured with the accommodation. But now, when the journey, including getting there and getting back, lasts just days, the hotel is the travel experience. In the world of modern city travel, you are where you stay. And we all want to stay in a place with personality. We crave an injection of individualism to counter the soul-destroying sameness ol airports, duty-free shopping centres, and airlines themselves, a sameness aptly summed up by the old Holiday Inn slogan, 'the best surprise is no surprise'. The good news is that highly individual |)laces do exist. Hip Hotels: City is devoted to them. This is a guide to hotels in the world's most interesting and frequently visited cities; to hotels that cater to that most neglected victim of twentieth-century progress -imagination. Travel, even business travel, can still be an adventure. A Hip Hotel can turn a boring business jaunt into a stylish and stimulating experience. But much as we all want something individual, we do all have different tastes and preferences. That is why, unlike most guide books, an enormous effort was made to photograph extensively every hotel. Words, especially brochure adjectives like 'charming' and 'beautiful' mean different things to different people, and in the end mean nothing. Pictures are less ambiguous. The pictures in this book are a record of my visit to each hotel, and every photo hiyoul is a reflection of what was worth recording. If a hotel has great bathrooms, bars, restaurants, views, lood, I'urniture, pool, or indeed all of these, then that is what determined the choice of photographs. My goal was to capture the essence of each hotel. So now there is no excuse lor an unimaginative trip.