We just got a look inside the long-awaited Fenway Hotel in Tampa Bay, a place that first opened in the 1920s and just came roaring back to a new life. Some of the time here at Hotel Scoop we’re checking into a hotel soon after it opens, but this time we got into one the same day the local mayor and developer were doing a ribbon cutting ceremony and throwing open the doors.
The Fenway opened in 1927, despite there not being a whole heck of a lot of people on the Gulf Coast of Florida then, much of the area more occupied by orange groves than people. It was a grand affair that attracted high society, not least because of the speakeasy barely hidden on the ground floor. It was a jazzy joint, a place filled with music, something the new developers have wisely highlighted again. It operated seasonally through 1961.
The building went through many lives, including a radio station and several colleges, but also a squatter site and a threatened empty lot.
In 2014 a savior came along and bought the abandoned building and land for $2.4 million. The non-profit Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA wanted it to become its new national headquarters and a new international center for its parent society. As they went through various approval processes, it became clear that making it a boutique-sized hotel again was going to keep the regional stakeholders happy and serve the society as well—with their less ambitious set of community townhouses in the back. They packed it out with member bookings for the first week of November.
Unlike with beach hotels that are crammed in next to each other in nearby Clearwater Beach, there’s plenty of room to breathe at this waterfront property. Lawns and palm trees are on three sides, then in a courtyard area in the back, there’s a long rectangular pool with lounge chairs and some shade much of the day on one side or the other.
Eventually the green space will bring guests back to a more genteel time without addictive screens, with croquet, bocce ball, and badminton on the expansive lawn. The Fenway is near one of the greatest rail-to-trail projects in the USA too, a 36-mile run that goes all the way down to St. Petersburg in the south and up to Tarpon Springs in the north, all flat and off-road.
The HEW Parlor & Chophouse is the only restaurant on site for this 80-room hotel, with an open kitchen, plenty of natural light, and just a few hints of the retro vibe. There’s a long list of good restaurants in downtown Dunedin though, which is close enough to walk or a five-minute ride away on the complimentary hotel bikes.
There are 7 breweries in small Dunedin, and close to 70 now in Tampa Bay, so the Hi-Fi Rooftop Bar gets props for staying local with the tap selection and not selling out to the mass brewer distributor pressure. Despite all the good beer and cocktail bars around though, this rooftop bar is going to be an instant success: it’s one of the few places north of Clearwater Beach where you can look out at the Gulf of Mexico while having a drink. (The photo at the top of this review is the view from there.) It’s a breezy, shaded, attractive space that will be great for socializing while watching the sailboats go by. The public has access via the lobby elevator or directly by climbing 51 steps from the parking level.
There’s another bar in the lobby, where a jazz band will often be playing. You can belly up to the bar there and look toward the water, or take a lounge seat in one of the sitting areas. As with the roof bar, you can find some local craft beers on tap or order a classic cocktail that’s been around since the ’20s.
Rooms are not all that large, and baths are shower-only, but they make up for it with good design, modern touches, and a few musical cues. Two queens or one king bed sit on carpet and are surrounded by light color tones and dark stained wood. The conventional layout has a long row of counters and cabinets opposite the bed, with a wall-mounted TV, minibar, and closet with Florida-appropriate cotton bathrobes.
It’s not the 1920s when it comes to electricity: charging units beside the beds have two regular outlets and two USB outlets. A customized Amazon Alexa Dot unit functions as a speaker and tourist information source. Some of the beds have nifty fold-out reading lights on each side.
Each room has some kind of a musical touch, like a shiny cymbal on the wall with the Fenway logo. Suites have double the space, with a separate living room.
While The Fenway Hotel is run by the same group as the excellent Epicurean Hotel in Tampa, it is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, which means you can cash in points to stay here or earn points to add to your loyalty account.
There was still a bit of construction going on in the soft opening phase and some areas weren’t open to see, but based on who is behind the project, it should be a well-run affair with all the right details in place. There were 26 weddings booked before the place even opened. The property meets ADA standards for accessibility, with wheelchair elevators to the check-in level and to the roof deck, but there’s only one guest elevator serving the entire building—hopefully they bought one that doesn’t require much maintenance!
Rates are expected to run $200 to $300 per night for now, with no sneaky fee add-ons. (If you bring a car, it’s $15 a night for valet parking.) See more details at Marriott’s Autograph Collection site and check rates there, at TripAdvisor, or at Hotels.com.
]]>There aren’t many airport hotels that can brag about their backyard. Set minutes from the Fairbanks International Airport, Pike’s Waterfront Lodge offers the best of two worlds – a convenient location to hop a flight and a scenic riverfront locale that’s impressive regardless of the season.
Along with 180 rooms in nearly a dozen room categories, Pike’s Waterfront Lodge offers 28 cabins. Double queen rooms are the property’s most popular room type and its standard room equivalent. Located on all three floors of both buildings, rooms have two queen beds, a desk, and armoire. Some rooms have a small balcony.
Riverview Deluxe rooms have two queen beds or one king, upgraded linens and towels, and a balcony overlooking the Chena River. Room 131 boasts a forest green and burgundy color palette. Rich fabrics drape the windows and bathtub/shower combination, creating a feel reminiscent of Alaska’s gold rush heyday.
Regardless of category, every room offers a microwave, refrigerator, and coffee/tea maker. All rooms are non-smoking.
Pike’s Waterfront Lodge offers a number of what can only be described as atypical hotel amenities. Rocks by the bucket full are available for guests to throw into the Chena river. In addition to a putting green, you can purchase golf balls to hit (or try to hit) across the river. The property also boasts a fitness center, aromatherapy steam room, and two Bocce ball courts.
The property offers a quirky take on Alaskan history. An outdoor walking tour that leads from one colorful sign to the next, teaches guests about pioneers that once called Fairbanks home. There’s a commemorative arch from when the Iditarod was staged in front of the hotel in 2003 and 2015, because conditions were too warm in Anchorage. Paintings throughout the property are from the owner’s private collection of Alaskan art, and in true Alaska lodge fashion, there’s an assortment of taxidermied animals in the lobby.
A buffet breakfast is served in the Binkley Room, overlooking the Chena River. Selections include the likes of oatmeal, sausage and egg biscuit sandwiches, hash browns, French toast, cereals, yoghurt, and assorted breads and pastries. During the summer season, an Italian buffet dinner is also served Sunday through Wednesday in the Binkley Room.
Lunch and dinner are available at neighboring Pike’s Landing restaurant. Dinner choices range from Center Cut New York Steak and Flat Iron Steak, to chicken nachos and Alaskan King Crab Bisque.
During the summer, Pike’s operates shuttle service to downtown Fairbanks for a fee. Self-service, coin-operated laundry is located on the first floor on the main building. Guests that want to be alerted when the Northern Lights are visible, (weather permitting, in fall, winter, and spring) can let the front desk know.
Pike’s Waterfront Lodge is just minutes from the Fairbanks International airport, and 15 minutes from downtown and the Alaska railroad. A number of Aurora Borealis viewing tours pick up from the hotel. For guests wanting to explore Fairbanks and beyond that are not booking organized tours, a rental car is recommended.
Double queen rooms range from $119 in low season; to $267 in high. Riverview Deluxe rooms from $157 in low season; to $303 in high. Breakfast is included mid-September through mid-May. Wi-Fi is complimentary but does not work in rooms even steps away from the lobby. Free self-parking. Make your reservations at the hotel website or Expedia.
Review and photos by San Francisco Bay Area travel writer and television correspondent Dana Rebmann. Her stay was organized by Explore Fairbanks, but as always her thoughts and opinions are her own.
]]>While the outside retains the shape of a resort built in the early 1970s, the interior has been completely changed. Everything was custom-designed and unique to the property, from the chandeliers with their shades crafted of selenite (a translucent crystalline form of gypsum) to the polished raw edge big-leaf maple desks to the Native American motifs used in the carpeting.
Thin slices of chrysocolla — a blue-green copper phyllosilicate mined in Morenci, Arizona — are hung over the lobby fireplace and in the restaurant corridor. Other translucent slabs of minerals are spotlighted on glass shelves.
Opaque slabs of local stone, put together in trios, form tables in the guest reception area. Original artwork (including stained glass and oil paintings) plus landscape photographs are on display throughout the hotel.
There are 247 guest rooms (including seven suites), each of which features down bedding, wool carpeting, Spanish tile showers, and granite countertops. Instead of the seldom-touched irons and ironing boards found in the typical hotel, rooms at Little America – Flagstaff each have clothing steamers. There’s also a 42-inch flatscreen television, complementary WiFi, a mini-refrigerator, and coffee maker.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the Silver Pine Restaurant & Bar. On the wall is a distinctive bas relief made of foam and plaster. Artist Ellie Ellis sculpted “Ponderosa Pine Cones and Needles” to highlight the eatery’s name.
Five hundred pine-covered acres surround the Little America Hotel – Flagstaff, set at the base of the San Francisco Peaks (floor-to-ceiling windows in the guest rooms provide magnificent views.) Marked walking trails meander through the evergreens.
A heated outdoor pool is open only in the summer, but the hot tub is available year round. Little America – Flagstaff also has a fitness center, kids’ playground, and business center.
And, as they say in the infomercials: wait! there’s more! The Little America Hotel – Flagstaff has 10 meeting rooms ranging in size from 225 square feet to an almost-6,000-square-foot ballroom. The banquet corridor is often used for vendor tables, registration, and buffet lines. Prefer to gather outdoors? That’s available, too.
The hotel is the perfect anchor for a hub-and-spoke tour of Northern Arizona. Several major attractions are within 80 miles of the hotel, including the Grand Canyon’s south rim and the eclectic offerings of Sedona, a town filled with New Age shops, spas, and art galleries.
Seven Arizona state parks also are within a drive of an hour or so. Other nearby attractions include these:
Lowell Observatory offers guided tours, widescreen multimedia shows, tours of the Universe in the 3-D space theatre, and opportunities to view the sky through the Alvan Clark Telescope.
Wupatki, Walnut Canyon, Tuzigoot, and Montezuma Castle National Monuments provide visitors with views of Sinagua Indian life 500 to 1,000 years ago.
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument gives visitors a chance to experience the Colorado Plateau’s youngest volcano, born in a series of eruptions sometime between 1040 and 1100 CE.
Meteor Crater (actually a meteorite impact crater) is an international tourist venue that was used by NASA as one of the official training sites for the Apollo Astronauts.
Arizona Snowbowl, open year-round, offers skiing, snowboarding and more in the winter, plus hiking the rest of the year. At a base elevation of 9,500 feet, the Snowbowl is up to 40°F cooler than most Arizona deserts during the summer.
And, just beyond the hotel gates is the Historic Route 66 town of Flagstaff, now boasting nine craft breweries, and a host of little shops and restaurants.
Little America Hotel – Flagstaff is one of eight properties in the Grand America network owned by the family of the late Robert Earl Holding, a native of Utah. All are in the Western United States.
Rooms start about $150. You can make a reservation on the hotel’s website, or any of the usual hotel booking sites such as Priceline or Hotels.com.
(Photos courtesy of the Little America Hotel – Flagstaff, and Susan McKee, who was a guest of the hotel)
]]>I find myself in New York fairly frequently, often at times when hotel rates in Manhattan are cringingly expensive. Those are the times when I expand my hotel search and often find myself choosing a hotel in Newark, New Jersey, instead. It may not be as convenient as walking to everything from your hotel door, but the combination of easy public transportation and a lower room cost make it a reasonable trade-off.
For convenience in Newark, both to Newark Airport and for access into Manhattan my go-to hotel is the Hilton at Newark Penn Station.
The hotel has been going through renovations and updates, and most of the rooms are now complete with the new contemporary decor along with beds and furniture from the Hilton Serenity Collection. Workspace is big enough to spread out, there are lots of plug-ins, and the chair is ergonomic. I spend a lot of time at those desks and all of that matters. Wi-fi is complimentary, and that matters even more. There’s plenty of light, it’s a comfortable room, and even though it’s directly across from the train station – and I usually have a room facing the station – the noise isn’t all-encompassing. I rarely notice the routine traffic noise.
Bathrooms are a disappointment here, though, and despite the upgrade, the granite counters seem dated. The vanity is well light, the products are mid-range quality, but it just doesn’t have the same new feel as the rest of the rooms.
There is an Honors level floor, for loyalty guests, but the Executive Lounge went away earlier this year.
Customer service can sometimes be hit or miss, and I think it’s more of a east coast vs. west coast communication style than actual indifference.
The convenient location of the hotel is what makes it a draw for me. There is skybridge access from the hotel to Penn Station Newark, giving you access to trains taking you anywhere you want to go. New Jersey Transit (NJT) is about a 20-minute trip (currently priced at $5.25) into Penn Station New York, giving you access to the rest of the city. The PATH train lets you avoid the hectic activity of Penn Station NY and takes you directly to many locations around Manhattan, including the World Trade Center stop.
The hotel is also connected by skybridge to the Gateway Center business complex, making it a favorite with corporate travelers having business there. It’s also close to the Prudential Sports Center, home to the New Jersey Devils and also a popular concert/entertainment venue, and Red Bull Arena. If you’re more inclined to cultural events, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) is less than half a mile away.
There is a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport, running 6 am to midnight, based on availability. Upon arrival, take the Air Tran to station P4 and then call for the shuttle. Upon return to the airport, the shuttle drops you off at departures. Caution, however, during peak traffic times the usual 15-minute ride can easily become an hour of stop-and-go. If you arrive outside of the shuttle operating hours or are looking for an alternative, New Jersey Transit trains take less than 10 minutes from the airport to Penn Station Newark, then take the skybridge between the station and the hotel. The current charge is $8.50 one way.
If you don’t want to deal with shared transportation from the hotel or via train, a cab will run you around $20, an Uber slightly less, and a limo/car service around $30. The same caution regarding commute time and traffic applies. And if you have a car, self-parking at the hotel will run you $30/day. (During sporting events and concerts, parking availability is difficult.)
Market Street Bar and Grill is located on the lobby level and offers a respectable menu selection, albeit leaning toward the expensive side. The bar closes at midnight, so don’t plan on this for a post-game or theater nightcap as you’ll likely be arriving at last call.
You’ll find more casual food options in the skybridge area connects the hotel to the train station, and there are surprisingly good take-out options at the station itself (including Zaro’s, a family bakery now operated by the fourth generation). Just beyond the train station is the Ironbound District, an ethnic neighborhood with lots of other restaurant and bar choices. I suggest trying one of the Portuguese restaurants, the hotel can provide recommendations and help with reservations. I generally walk to the Ironbound during the daytime or in a group, a shared ride service will be around $7 most anywhere in the area.
The Hilton at Newark Penn Station is more business quality than luxury, but if you’re attending an event in the area, or want a more affordable choice than staying in Manhattan, it’s everything you need it to be.
The Hilton at Newark Penn Station is located at 1048 Raymond Boulevard, Newark, New Jersey, directly across the street from the train station. Rates start around $137/night, although expect to pay more on event dates. You can compare rates at Hotels.com.
]]>Quick, what’s Canada’s second largest ski area?
Canada’s most famous winter sports destinations – Whistler-Blackcomb, Banff, Mont Tremblant – have a lot to offer ski and snowboard fans, but it’s another British Columbia mountain, with 4,270 acres of terrain, that claims the title of second largest in the country.
Near the city of Kamloops in BC’s Thompson-Okanagan region, family-friendly Sun Peaks Resort flies under the radar, despite its size. With a compact ski-in, ski-out pedestrian village, it offers convenient access to its 130+ trails and to other winter adventures, from dog-sledding to fat-tire biking to snowshoeing.
When I visited Sun Peaks this summer — well before the snow began to fall — I had the chance to check out several of the mountainside lodgings. Here’s the scoop:
The biggest news, lodging-wise, is with the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel, the village’s most upscale accommodations. Since I last stayed at the Grand several years ago, the hotel has launched a major update of its 221 guest rooms.
They’re doing away with the traditional furnishings and pink accents, replacing them with a much more contemporary earth tone palette and more modern amenities. They look quite grand!
Most of Sun Peaks’ other accommodations are condo-style, handy for families who want to prepare at least some of their own meals or who want more than a standard hotel room.
One of these convenient-to-the-lifts apartment-style properties is the 70-room Hearthstone Lodge.
The majority of the Hearthstone’s units are studios or loft studios, outfitted with sturdy, functional furnishings. All the units have sofa beds, fireplaces, and efficiency kitchens equipped with a full-sized refrigerator, dishwasher, and stove top.
The Hearthstone Lodge has a small gym and two outdoor hot tubs, and several restaurants are connected to the property.
Nancy Greene’s Cahilty Hotel & Suites
Canadian ski racer Nancy Greene, who won a gold medal in the giant slalom event in the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, and her husband Al Raine, built the first condominium hotel in Sun Peaks Village, which opened in 1995.
Greene is now Sun Peaks’ Director of Skiing — you might see her on the mountain, where she often skis with guests — and she and her husband live in her namesake property: Nancy Greene’s Cahilty Hotel & Suites.
All individually owned units, the Cahilty Hotel’s 150 rooms come in a large number of different types, ranging from compact standard lodge rooms with two queen beds, loft units with a sleeping space upstairs and a living area below, studios, and one- and two-bedroom suites. They’re not fancy and could use some modernizing, but they’re functional.
Some of the most spacious units are the grand studios on the top (4th) floor, which have high, sloped ceilings. In some, the small bedroom is separated from the living area — not an entirely separate one-bedroom space but more private than a standard studio. Families might opt for these units, or the larger suites, since the standard rooms would be cramped with the kids in tow.
Most of the lodge rooms have mini-fridges and/or microwaves, while the larger units have either a kitchenette or full kitchen. The Cahilty Hotel also has a small fitness room, as well as indoor and outdoor hot tubs.
One unique feature about the Cahilty Hotel is that, on Sunday evenings, Greene and Raine regularly meet guests at a welcome reception. It’s not every day that you get to chat with an Olympian, is it?
That’s just one more surprising fact about Canada’s second largest ski resort.
Rates
Room rates for all three of these Sun Peaks properties start at about CAD$150 per night for their smaller units, although prices rise on winter weekends and for larger rooms and suites. Go to the resort website to make a reservation or an online booking agency such as Hotels.com
Hotel feature by Vancouver-based travel, food, and feature writer Carolyn B. Heller. Ski lift photo courtesy of Sun Peaks Resort. Other photos © Carolyn B. Heller. Thanks to Tourism Sun Peaks for arranging my stays.