Hotel review - Hilton Moorea, French Ploynesia

 

Five stars out of five

 

This has got to be my favorite Hilton property. It is a resort with bungalows instead of normal hotel rooms, nestled in a lagoon on the north side of Moorea – a small island just off of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Extremely nice rooms, even if you do not splurge for the overwater bungalows. And the staff is fantastic – always happy to help with anything you need.

 

We pre-arranged transport to the hotel from the ferry dock. The hotels are not allowed to run their own shuttles, but they are allowed to arrange transportation for you through the local taxi companies. This cost about half the price of a regular taxi, however, there were plenty of taxis available when the ferry arrived, so we could have taken one of those if we did not have the shuttle waiting.

 

Another advantage of arranging transport through the hotel was that they knew when we were coming. As a result, the check-in process was amazingly smooth. The room was even ready early, so we could head straight over and freshen up – very nice since our flight arrived in Papeete at 6:00am.

 

While overwater bungalows are available, they cost a little more than our budget would support, so we ended up on land. That was not a bad thing, however, since we were upgraded to a suite – essentially two bungalow rooms together. This gave us two full baths, a full-sized living room area and a huge bedroom. The on-shore bungalows also come standard with a private balcony and small pool.

 

The hotel tries to be environmentally friendly – they make extensive use of solar panels for hot water and power. They also have a switch, triggered by your hotel key, that turns off almost all power when you leave the room (and take your key). Frequent travelers should note that they do abide by their stated policy of only taking towels left in the tubs (as opposed to many hotels where they take everything even if you rehang the towels). The towels were not always replaced immediately, but we never ran out. We received 2 complimentary bottles of water each night we were there, even though the hotel says that it will only provide bottled water on arrival.

 

The hotel has a full range of amenities, including:

·         2 restaurants (1 for breakfast, 1 for lunch; both serve dinner) plus 2 bars which also serve food

·         A large swimming pool

·         Free kayaking and snorkeling equipment

·         Drinkable water (not common on Moorea)

·         2 American-style power outlets in each bungalow (no need for adapters)

·         An activities desk that has a set of pre-selected activities available for purchase and a concierge that will help arrange pretty much anything else

·         Weekdays at 4:00, by the pool, there is a short, complementary demonstration of a specific aspect of Tahitian culture – ranging from husking coconuts to creating a lei.

 

The local lagoon has some decent, if not world-class snorkeling and is shallow enough that beginners can feel comfortable in the area.  We saw puffer fish, tangs, angels, gar, and many others – as well as a lot of urchins. There is also a public beach about 1 km from the hotel that has even better snorkeling Though we didn't see any, there are also stonefish  and other creatures that can ruin your day in this part of the South Pacific, so water-goers should watch where they step and be careful to only look, not touch (and if you are walking in the water, shuffle your feet so you will nudge fish not step on them).  

 

Something to watch for: black-tipped reef sharks congregate around the crepe restaurant (on the pier) after dark. It is magical watching their sleek bodies swim through the lights. Definitely worth staying up for.

 

The restaurants are expensive, as one would expect. Breakfast is served as a buffet and has a nice selection of hot and cold items, however it will run you about 3.500 PF (approximately 37 USD) per person if it is not included in your room package. For dinner, the main courses begin at approximately 2750 PF each with drinks ranging from 450 – 1300 PF (soda to cocktail).  There is a special Polynesian dinner buffet and show on Saturdays (7000 PF / person) which is expensive but definitely worth the money – the buffet has a huge selection of seafood items and the show contains some interesting components that are atypical of “normal” Polynesian shows.  (It should be noted that the price of the dinner buffet does not include any beverages.).

 

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Hotel review - The Cardinal Hotel in Palo Alto

2 stars out of 5 (do not recommend)  

 

I stayed in this hotel as part of a group business trip to Stanford in Dec 2011.

 

The hotel is well located, just off of University Ave in Palo Alto, easily within walking distance to Stanford and close to a number of good restaurants and coffee shops.

 

The Cardinal Hotel is a boutique hotel stuck in the 1920s, when it was originally built.

 

This means that the hotel has a beautiful sweeping lobby that welcomes people into the building and is perfect for meeting friends. There is also a single elevator servicing the hotel, with an old-style double door (you have to manually slide the outer door open yourself when the elevator appears). While the elevator is quaint and adds atmosphere, it is slightly inconvenient if you are trying to maneuver large bags into the small entrance. Unfortunately, this hotel has more problems than advantages. My major concerns:

• Some of the rooms have a shared bathroom. Further, they don’t tell you in advance whether you will get one of these rooms. If you are looking for a dorm room or a budget hotel, that is ok, but for those of us who expect privacy given the prices this is totally unacceptable.  As a business traveler, I have never stayed in a hotel that expects me to share a bathroom.
• The windows are single pane windows that do absolutely nothing to block either sound or outside temperatures. You can clearly hear every conversation or vehicle on the street below, which can interfere with a good night’s sleep. Given the hotel is at the corner of two fairly busy intersections, this is a major problem if you actually have to get up in the morning.
• There is a single source of heat in the rooms (and no cooling) – a water radiator. While I don’t really care whether the heat is from air or water, I am concerned that there is no thermostat associated with the radiator. That means that you have to get up in the middle of the night to manually turn the heat on and off to adjust the temperature within the room. Unacceptable.
• There is no parking. None. At all. There is a public lot a half a block away and street parking a couple of blocks away, but the hotel has absolutely no parking associated with it. When I asked about this, I was told, “We are downtown.” Well, having stayed in hotels in downtown San Francisco, Washington DC, San Jose, Seattle, and many other cities, this is an excuse not a reason. For whatever cause, the hotel has chosen not to develop any parking or provide a valet service for their guests. Unacceptable.
• The hotel uses keys instead of card locks. While this is not, in and of itself, a problem, the fact that the doors do not close – much less lock – behind you is a significant security and fire concern. It has been so long since I have been in a hotel that does not have this basic security feature, I thought it was code. Apparently not. Combine that with the fact that other than a single, extremely old deadbolt, there is no way to secure the door from the inside and you have a place that you want to avoid if you are security conscious.

 

Other minor inconveniences:

• The rooms are small. Not horribly small, but having to shoehorn yourself into a small room, with a double bed, is not what I would expect for a decent business-oriented room. For example, there is a single small shelf in the bathroom that is not sufficient to hold all standard toiletries, and  if you sit at the desk, you back into the bed.
• The internet does not work reliably. Some members of our party had significant problems maintaining a connection when trying to email moderate sized files. This was ultimately resolved by using a different network connection at a different business..  
• The hotel staff appeared hurried and disengaged when we tried to obtain information. It is almost as if they felt they have better things to do than answer customer questions. They also don’t have a concierge available at any time during the day to help address questions / concerns.

 

In my mind, any one of my serious concerns is reason enough to not stay here – unless you are trying to save money (although the hotel is not particularly inexpensive)-  and I would strongly encourage people to consider alternate accommodations.