Posts tagged travel

engagethinking: Pick a weekend and stay at a hotel in your home city or home state. Why? Experience your hometown in an entirely new way.  I recently did this in NYC due to a long unused credit at a hotel. The experience completely surprised me. I saw things I never knew existed, like the beaux arts building in the photo above. Looking out over the city, I was reminded that New York City looks very different through the lens of a traveler. We received recommendations to local restaurants, and hotel staff kindly offered suggestions for things to do as they obviously assumed we were from somewhere else. A good exercise in learning how your hometown does customer service and an easy, effective way to change your perspective. (the building in the photo is the former NYC police headquarters, now a co-op. I first saw it from my hotel room window on Saturday when we checked in, then ironically found one of the duplexes listed in NY Times real estate section on Sunday.)  From the weekend. We stayed at Mondrian Soho, which is a completely dreamy, beautifully designed hotel.

engagethinking:

Pick a weekend and stay at a hotel in your home city or home state.

Why? Experience your hometown in an entirely new way. 

I recently did this in NYC due to a long unused credit at a hotel. The experience completely surprised me. I saw things I never knew existed, like the beaux arts building in the photo above. Looking out over the city, I was reminded that New York City looks very different through the lens of a traveler.

We received recommendations to local restaurants, and hotel staff kindly offered suggestions for things to do as they obviously assumed we were from somewhere else.

A good exercise in learning how your hometown does customer service and an easy, effective way to change your perspective.

(the building in the photo is the former NYC police headquarters, now a co-op. I first saw it from my hotel room window on Saturday when we checked in, then ironically found one of the duplexes listed in NY Times real estate section on Sunday.) 

From the weekend. We stayed at Mondrian Soho, which is a completely dreamy, beautifully designed hotel.

On a recent trip to Paris, I bought a candle at Cire Trudon and burned it throughout my stay. It’s now at home and each time I light it, I am reminded of the fantastic apartment we rented on Ile de la Cite (and all the memories that come with it). The post below was written for work, but the idea works for all journeys. Find a scent from the trip, place, or experience and bring it home with you. Helps with the memories. engagethinking: In his book, À la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust wrote about the smell that brought him sharply back to the tea-soaked madeleines his aunt gave to him as a child. The passage sparked a discussion about the importance of scent on our ability to remember - that scent memory is perhaps the strongest and longest-lasting emotional memory trigger.  Hotels have recognized this and are using it as a way to drive customer loyalty. Sicilian Fig, a candle with the signature scent of W Hotels, is for sale in hotel retail shops and online. Hotel Costes took it one step further and created a perfume out of the lavender-coriander-juniper-musk fragrance that fills the hotel hallways and guest rooms. Evoke positive memories from your next gathering with your own signature scent. Find a fragrance that enlivens the meeting spaces you’ll be using throughout the event, and give your attendees their own travel-size version to take home.  KC, Jersey City/NYC *The candle in the photo is Ebenus (Ebonywood) from Carriere Freres Industrie, bought & burned in Paris, now evoking memories in Jersey City.

On a recent trip to Paris, I bought a candle at Cire Trudon and burned it throughout my stay. It’s now at home and each time I light it, I am reminded of the fantastic apartment we rented on Ile de la Cite (and all the memories that come with it).

The post below was written for work, but the idea works for all journeys. Find a scent from the trip, place, or experience and bring it home with you. Helps with the memories.

engagethinking:

In his book, À la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust wrote about the smell that brought him sharply back to the tea-soaked madeleines his aunt gave to him as a child. The passage sparked a discussion about the importance of scent on our ability to remember - that scent memory is perhaps the strongest and longest-lasting emotional memory trigger. 

Hotels have recognized this and are using it as a way to drive customer loyalty. Sicilian Fig, a candle with the signature scent of W Hotels, is for sale in hotel retail shops and online. Hotel Costes took it one step further and created a perfume out of the lavender-coriander-juniper-musk fragrance that fills the hotel hallways and guest rooms.

Evoke positive memories from your next gathering with your own signature scent. Find a fragrance that enlivens the meeting spaces you’ll be using throughout the event, and give your attendees their own travel-size version to take home. 

KC, Jersey City/NYC

*The candle in the photo is Ebenus (Ebonywood) from Carriere Freres Industrie, bought & burned in Paris, now evoking memories in Jersey City.

hotelsociety: Tablet has a nice feature on top 10 museum quality hotels - hotels that are as rich with artwork and art-like goodies that can rival the local art galleries. Featured above is the Semiramis Hotel in Athens, Greece.  Some fantastic hotels on this list. Adding: The James, NYC and Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia.

hotelsociety:

Tablet has a nice feature on top 10 museum quality hotels - hotels that are as rich with artwork and art-like goodies that can rival the local art galleries. Featured above is the Semiramis Hotel in Athens, Greece. 

Some fantastic hotels on this list. Adding: The James, NYC and Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia.

So far this year, I have been to Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Minnesota, to name a few places. Richmond, VA. and California don’t even count as “destinations” anymore, I’m in both places so often. All of these trips have been for work, and for that, I consider myself to be extremely lucky. But traveling so often for business makes leisure travel challenging. I find myself wanting to go to places that are very far away from my everyday life, thinking I’ll be forced to mentally disconnect so I don’t miss anything (or at least feel less inclined to check email). Getting to those places requires time and money, of course. So, until I can spend 3 weeks exploring Patagonia, I need to get serious about the value of my personal time. Turns out, all it takes is some sunshine and a swimming pool to remind me.

To get a brief respite, we spent memorial day weekend in Palm Springs. While not exactly an exotic locale, the desert does wonders for one’s state of mind. The vast arid landscape, shocking blue sky, and even extreme heat, reinvigorates in its own way.

We stayed at The Parker, a hotel that does quite well in making guests feel as though they are disconnected from the rest of the world. Rooms are spread across the resort, connected by lush pathways with secret seating areas nestled around water fountains or fire pits. Hammocks and outdoor games are laid out on secluded lawns for relaxing or quiet entertainment, two pools sit at opposite ends of the property - one for adults, one for families. 

It took an afternoon before we got comfortable not doing anything, but once we settled down on our lounge chairs with some reading, the transition got easier. By day two, forgetting about the rest of the world was a piece of cake. We rode bikes around town (for all of 30 minutes in 100 degree heat, but still…), then traded our bikes for icy lemon drinks and made our way to the Petanque court. Laid out with bistro tables and surrounded by trees, I truly felt like I’d been transported to the south of France for a little while, spending a few hours trying to beat Dan at the game of Boules.

I’d successfully put off email and my phone for 48 hours. Suddenly, pushing everything off until the first work day after the holiday made much more sense when I could be swimming instead. Though I did check into Foursquare (and by default, Facebook and Twitter). How else was I going to make everyone jealous?

Images of Old Oakland, from my visit last week.

Two excellent items: The note at the end of the parking instructions to “Have A Nice Day” and The Trappist, incredible selection of Belgian beer, excellent music, and seasonal menu.

Oakland has some pretty cool architecture, too.