LOCATION, LOCATION: Some are shrugging but I like the new Murmuri hotel in Barcelona, not because I care that there is now a Kittichai (or whatever Ian Chalermkittichai is calling his newest restaurant) in Spain, thanks, but because the new hotel is all the way up by the Diagonal. Sure, that one’s a nasty piece of work as far as city boulevards go, but map-wise, you look and see its nearly equidistant between the all-important Parc Guell (that bit of Gaudi frivolity up in the hills) and the waterfront. Perfect placement, if you can’t stay in the Born, which has always been my pick (and will always be – call the Banys Orientals, just make sure you do it well in advance.)
ON, WISCONSIN: It’s a busy summer for Milwaukee, a city that I absolutely love — at least from May-October, when the weather’s delightful. I’m not sure that the Fonzie statue will be up and running this season (dream the dream!) but we do know that Harley-Davidson will be debuting a monster museum on the edge of downtown. Plus, there’s that Calatrava wing of the Art Museum I bet you haven’t seen yet (that’s a picture up top), frozen custard (yes, please) at Leon’s and the World’s Largest Friday Fish Fry at Serb Hall — yes, reservations are recommended. Best of all? You can fly the last great American airline, Midwest Express, nonstop from LGA, to one of the only airports I know with a used book store. Take me with you.
GREEN SCENE: I am no climate change skeptic. I know the climate is changing. I am concerned. But does the travel industry need to harness this current issue as yet another vehicle to unload rubbish product on to the public? You won’t ever see me covering green initiatives by hotels, tour operators, airlines or anyone on this blog, or in the paper, because I’m not satisfied that anything these folks are doing is actually that helpful — they’re just using it to get their faces in the news. This, after all, is the industry that tried to convince everyone that them not changing the linen and towels in your room was solely out of concern for the environment. Next!
AND I STARTED OUT SO CHEERFUL THIS MORNING: I generally tolerate the pointless lists magazines seem to rely on increasingly to get attention. Usually, there’s a grain of truth in there somewhere. However, the latest — Conde Nast Traveler‘s Top 54 Spas in North America and the Caribbean, and at sea (no kidding, that’s the full name of the survey) — is a total stinker. First of all, any serious spa-goer will agree with me that a survey giving the #1 spot to the Rancho Bernardo Inn — an okay golf/conference resort outside of San Diego — is bogus. Not because the spa is atrocious, it isn’t, but because I can think of two — wait, three, no four — other resort spas within a couple hours drive that deserved a higher rating. None of which are on the list. The rest of the survey is a horror, with one or two exceptions. No insult to you, dear reader, but sometimes, these reader polls do nothing but cheapen a magazine’s brand. Okay, so now the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix (madness!!) is going to trumpet that it is one of Conde Nast Traveler’s top resort spas in the United States in 2008, and lots of people visiting that resort will be reminded of the existence of the magazine. But, I ask you, how does it benefit Traveler to have an uninformed observer that doesn’t know the spa is talking about a lame reader poll (just 4,000 people responded, btw) to see that CNT has given a facility the guest thought was crap their seal of approval? One thing readers did get right, though: Cunard got the nod for top cruise ship spa operator. That’s on the back of the line’s Queen Mary 2/Canyon Ranch partnership though, which Cunard dropped for Victoria, where the spa isn’t so great. But that’s another grumble for another time. I need a massage now.
