Be at the right place , the right moment.
An agenda for the year around best events on the planet.
You, where do you want to be?

For the summarized english version click here:

savas kazantzides
travel connoisseur

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Asia: By definition, seclusive, exotic and focused on soothing your five senses, this continent was never behind the design scene. Asia has to offer some of the world’s best design, boutique hotels* with unparalleled service…

1. Bali, Indonesia: Sentosa Villas

It is a World class contemporary resort with a team of attentive yet discreet staff, who are committed to providing exceptional service.
The quintessential island charm is something for which the people of Bali are renowned;
they pride themselves on their welcoming hospitality.
Sentosa is an exclusive ensemble of 38 luxurious villas; all set in idyllic landscaped gardens with private pools. The lavishly adorned villas with their chic interiors will astonish discerning leisure and business travellers alike. The villas provide guests with a sense of privacy and ultimate luxury; far superior to a hotel room environment.

2. Bangkok, Thailand Dream Hotel

Asia fashion hotel shot in the arm, Dream Bangkok blends the funk of East meets West with style, sensation and good taste. An evocative in your dreams design brings a new level of surrealism and splendor to the world of accommodations and entertainment. Guests who enter this realm of theater and art find that its their dream.
Dream Bangkok just provides the room service. With a combo of elegance and hit the edge sensation, Dream Bangkok also offers on-point service professionalism that begins at the front door and filters throughout all zones of the hotel.

3. Bangalore, India Park Hotel

Bangalore is the equivalent of Silicon Valley in India, a booming city, flooded with technology companies. Turn off M G Road, the city’s most exciting upscale retail, fashion and corporate district, to reach The Park Bangalore. The first contemporary Indian boutique hotel, it is designed by Conran and Partners, UK, as the perfect urban retreat. Small, luxurious and intimate. Lavish tech’d up rooms provide complete relaxation. Houses the country’s best Italian restaurant I.T-alia where a team of celebrated Chefs creates authentic dishes with imported and fresh ingredients. Bangalore’s first lounge bar I-bar continues to drum up the right energy every night.

4. Beijing, China The Emperor

Located on a quiet, tree-lined avenue in the heart of Beijing, a short walk away from the Forbidden City,
Tiananmen Square and the famous shopping mile Wangfujing. Housed in the former premises of the Qinghua University Alumni club, The Emperor stands adjacent to the Imperial Palace, nestled amongst traditional temples and houses – a tranquil oasis in the midst of an exciting, hectic and fast-evolving metropolis. Though fronted by a classical Chinese brick facade, The Emperor features a cutting-edge interior conceived by internationally-renowned designers, Graft Labs.
Its 46 rooms, eight suites and one Emperor Suite all boast a modern aesthetic accented with traditional symbolic touches, as well as wall-mounted flat-screen TVs, wireless Internet and butler service

5. Hong Kong, China Hotel LKF

Discover Hong Kong’s latest jewel, Hotel LKF by Rhombus – quintessential, cozy, trendy, exclusive and private. Our excellent location allows access to all parts of Hong Kong via the major transportation services in the city located within walking distance from the hotel. The fashionable, chic and stylish design of Hotel LKF by Rhombus makes it an extraordinary boutique hotel that reflects a “joy of life” and one’s desire to be right in the pulsing heart of Hong Kong Island.
The Hotel’s 95 rooms and suites offer unrivalled space and comfort for business and leisure travelers

6. Yangon, Myanmar: The Strand

Rich in culture, blessed with ethnic diversity and some of the most striking scenery in Asia, Myanmar is a destination that rewards repeated returns.
The capital of Yangon can trace its history back about 2500 years. Almost totally destroyed during the second Anglo-Burmese War, the city was rebuilt by the British soon after,
using a Victorian grid pattern of geometrical symmetry. That mix of British colonialism and Myanmar Buddhism has shaped a city of lakes and parks, of legendary pagodas, museums and tree-shaded boulevards.
In the heart of it all sits The Strand, with views across Strand Road to the city’s central port. Since the beginning in 1901, the hotel has been regarded as “the finest hostelry east of the Suez”.
Recognized as a national landmark and completely renovated to reflect the epoch of the 1920’s and 1930’s, the three-story late-Victorian colonial hotel maintains its legendary charm and history.

7. Shanghai, China Hotel Jia

The sequel to the Philippe Starck-designed JIA Hong Kong is a new direction for a successful franchise. JIA – Shanghai’s new truly designer-led boutique residence has just opened its doors, adding yet another facet to this vibrant city’s attractions. Set in a stunning 1920’s building in the heart of
Shanghai, JIA is cool, hip, playful and intimate, offering chic yet informal environments for travellers who want to get away from predictability and convention. All you have to do is make yourself at home to enjoy – Just Style. Just Comfort. Just JIA.

8. Siem Reap, Cambodia: Amansara

Looking as if it might have been lifted out of swinging Southern California, the one-story Villa Princier welcomed everyone from Jackie O to Peter O’Toole before falling into disrepair under the Khmer Rouge. Restored and rechristened by the Amanresort group in 2002, this contemporary design gem is once again an elegantly modern perch from which to explore one of the world’s ancient wonders. Perfumed with jasmine and ornamented with stylish objects, the Amansara is among a handful of truly luxe Cambodian properties, but with its breezy Zen decor and intimate vibe it feels more like a private guest house than a hotel. Besides the hotel is located the astonishing site of Angkor Wat.

9. Singapore, Singapore: Hotel New Majestic

So chic it hurts! Score one for truth in advertising: the New Majestic is new, converted from a classic ‘20s building (once the just plain Majestic hotel) by Singapore’s DP Architects, and is indeed majestic, its soaring spaces and cozy bedrooms designed in a sort of modern ironic high style by Ministry of Design principal Colin Seah. It’s grand and glossy, to be sure, and nothing if not playful — the clockwork-orange white lobby floor sits beneath a ripped-out unfinished ceiling, and diners in the hotel’s modern-Cantonese restaurant look up through porthole windows through the floor of the rooftop swimming pool. Just 30 rooms, each one telling a different story, some viewable from pairs of deep freestanding copper bathtubs.


10. Tokyo, Japan: Claska
In the city of design, Claska is the epitome of minimalism. It is virtually impossible to get a room at Claska — it’s got just twelve rooms, nine Western and three in traditional tatami style, and those twelve rooms are much in demand among the fashionable souls who populate Claska’s lobby scene. So it’s not out of lust for your money that we bring this fantastic hotel to your attention; it is simply for the love of a well-made hotel.

*Article copyrighted © by Savas Kazantzides, Athens , February 2009

DISCLAIMER: All these hotels represent the editor’s choice and are selected after personal inspection. By no means they represent any selection or proposal offered by other media nor they are connected to advertising purposes or fees collected.

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Everyone needs to know about these hotels*.
They’re trendy, cute, different, sexy and ready to spoil you forever…

1. Barcelona: Hotel Neri

In an eighteenth-century palace in the centre of Barcelona, the echoes and character of the past have been masterfully combined with a wholly contemporary style. All the ingredients of an elegant epoch have been integrated into the design of Neri’s guestrooms and common areas, transporting modern-day visitors to another period.

2. Brussels: Fashion Suites

The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Place in Brussels has opted for extreme personalisation by entrusting the decoration of a selection of their guest rooms to Belgian famed Fashion Designers. The Fashion rooms offer a fundamentally different world of experience to travellers seeking novelty, sensation and exclusivity.

3. Florence: Gallery Hotel Art

Leonardo Ferragamo’s vision of beauty, art and hospitality. The son of Salvatore Ferragamo , since 1995 creates its own world of hotellerie in Florence.
4. Frankfurt: 25 hours

24 hours are not enough in a day. The Goldman 25hours applies nightclub principles to a hotel, resulting in a flowing, funky space that works both as a hideaway and a local hot spot.

5. Istanbul: A’jia Hotel

A realm of dreams and fairytales at the seaside of Bosporus in a mansion that combines future and past with a magical touch of white and deep blue.

6. London: Blakes

Created by Anouska Hempel, the London hotelier and internationally renowned designer, the hotel offers her style, elegance and sensational service to the well-travelled connoisseur.

7. Madrid: Puerta America

Nineteen architectural and design firms representing 13 nationalities were involved in the construction and each of the 12 guestroom floors; each bears the imprint of a single cutting-edge designer

8. Paris: Le petit moulin

This 17th century building, the site of an ancient bakery, has been completely renovated by Christian Lacroix and now is one of the sexiest hotels in the world. “I always loved the idea of hotels, of the journey around a room” Christian Lacroix.

9. Verona: Byblos Art Hotel

Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà in Verona offers a unique and evocative setting with all the characteristics of a classical Venetian-style Villa with a Byblos touch and a permanent contemporary art exhibition.

10. Vienna: Le Meridien

Entwining old and new, the irresistible Le Méridien Vienna marks the front line of the city’s famous Ringstrasse, reflecting 21st century European lifestyle, this urban chic hotel maintains its chilled out essence whilst delivering ultra attentive service that attracts sophisticated travelers.

RUNNER UP’s

Not in the top 10 list but very close:

11. Paris: Kube

Tucked into a tiny, quiet street at the summit of Paris’ Montmartre is a retro-future hotel that defies the classical clichés of Paris, fitting rather into a Jacques Tati vision of modernity.

12. Copenhagen: Fox Hotel

For the launch of the new Volkswagen Fox 21 international artists from the fields of graphic design, urban art and illustration turned Hotel Fox in central Copenhagen, into the world’s most exciting and creative lifestyle hotel.

If you want to download this article click the-10-best-boutique-hotels-in-europe

*Article copyrighted © by Savas Kazantzides, Athens , November 2008

DISCLAIMER: All these hotels represent the editor’s choice and are selected after personal inspection. By no means they represent any selection or proposal offered by other media nor they are connected to advertising purposes or fees collected.

Book with Otel.com & get 5% cash back on next booking!