Tag Archive for hotels

Let’s Drink to Chocolate!

Share:

After writing about Chocol Ha café in Campeche (it’s right near Casa Don Gustavo!), we had chocolate on the brain. This quaint, colonial café specializes in herb-infused chocolate drinks. But, if you can’t make it down to sunny Mexico to sample these unique libations, try whipping some up at home. Here’s a roundup of some interesting, internationally inspired cocktails with chocolate as the star ingredient.

 

Chocolate Cocktails

Photos courtesy of Creative Culinary, Mozart Distillerie and Recchiuti Confections

Mexican Hot Chocolate with Tequila and Cayenne Pepper: With good melted chocolate, your favorite tequila and a dash of cayenne, this warm cocktail puts an adult spin on the classic spicy Mexican hot chocolate.

Herbal Chocolate: Using Mozart Dry (a unique chocolate spirit from Salzburg), this chocolate cocktail incorporates a fresh twist with sage leaves and peppercorns. What better way to bring a little European spin into your chocolate recipe collection.

Sweet Basil Chocolate Martini: With muddled basil, top-shelf vodka and smooth melted chocolate, this martini will definitely turn some heads at your next cocktail party. Chocolate lovers rejoice!

It’s Festival Season

Share:

This week, we wrote about Lake La Quinta Inn in California’s expansive Coachella Valley. Naturally, we found ourselves a little disappointed, as we were too late to attend the area’s renowned outdoor music festival (aptly named the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival).

Good thing it’s still April, because that means we have a whole summer’s worth of festivals to take advantage of, the world over. So, on that note, here are a few events we think are worth checking out.

Music Festivals

Photos courtesy of Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, NXNE and Life Is Good

Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals: Technically these are two festivals, but for two glorious weekends every summer The Fort Adams State Park in beautiful coastal Rhode Island turns into an internationally renowned celebration of some of this country’s oldest genres. This year’s folk fest features giants like Feist, The Avett Brothers and the Lumineers, while the Jazz lineup later in the summer presents Grammy winners Chick Corea and Esperanza Spaulding.

Lollapalooza: As one of the United States’ biggest and most anticipated festivals each year, the Chicago-based Lollapalooza is a welcome destination for those trying to avoid the standard campout festivals. So head to Chicago this year, check out an eclectic lineup (spanning from Mumford & Sons to The Cure to Queens of the Stone Age) and grab yourself a hotel room to spend a little non-festival time exploring the rest of the Windy City.

Glastonbury: Boasting about 150,000 attendees per day (that’s right, per day), this epic England fixture turns plenty of heads each year. This time around, headliners include Arctic Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Public Enemy and Phoenix (among many, many others). Talk about an excuse for a trip to Europe.

NXNE: The Canadian counterpart to Austin’s SXSW music and film fest, this northern display of entertainment requires very little explanation to attract droves of international film, music and art lovers alike. Sure, there are your standard music headliners (this year: Social Distortion, Big Boi, and the National) but the city-wide event also debuts indie films and modern art exhibitions.

Life is Good Festival: While it may not garner the armies of attendees like some of the others, this festival proves its worth in a much different way. Organized by the lifestyle brand of the same name, this festival puts all of its proceeds (yes, 100% of its profit) toward the Life is Good Playmakers charity to help kids in need. While they haven’t announced the lineup this year, with past acts including Dave Matthews Band, Sara Bareilles and Ben Harper & Relentless 7, this is definitely a can’t-miss opportunity to give a little back to the community.

Where Eco-Friendly Meets Travel-Friendly

Share:

Eco-friendly Hotels

Photos courtesy of Green Natura, Crowne Plaza Towers Copenhagen and Laguna Azul Ecolodge

With hot button debates like fossil fuel emissions and the infamous global warming on everyone’s minds, it’s tough to get away from those “go green” reminders. But when on vacation, the only thing we really want to think about is kicking back and, well, not thinking. Luckily, there are plenty of hotels who have done the legwork for us and already have eco-friendly products and practices in place.

So in honor of eco-friendly month on SniqueAway, we took a look around and found some of our favorite hotel amenities and services around the world that help preserve the environment. A relaxing stay and the opportunity to keep things green—it’s a win-win.

Kimpton Hearts Hybrids: Kimpton is no stranger to the eco game. Perhaps one of the best incentives for purchasing a car with the environment in mind is this hotel brand’s Hybrid Parking Discount. Rather than paying the full valet rate at Kimpton hotels, drivers of hybrid vehicles get a substantial discount (often 50%). How’s that for “green?”

Biodegradable Water Bottles: Okay, we swear that isn’t an oxymoron. At Jicaro Island Ecolodge (a hotel made almost entirely from local trees already downed from a hurricane), guests are given oxo-biodegradeable water bottles to use for their stay. After a few years, the bottle can be thrown out as they start to breakdown to water and compostable mass.

Biking for the Environment: Plenty of hotels around the world offer on-site rental car services. But, if you want to get around and keep your exhaust emissions down, seek out a hotel that offers on-site bike rentals. Most Fairmont resorts around the world even offer upscale options like BMW Cruiser Bikes. Style, exercise and a clean conscience—nothing to lose!

Eco-friendly Soap: While it may not seem like a big deal, wasted bath amenities at hotels can add up to a serious environmental footprint. Sure, some make it into our drawers at home. But Yellowstone National Park Lodges have a different strategy. These eco-friendly accommodations offer Green Natura soap with a section removed from the middle of the bar. When have you ever used an entire bar of hotel soap, anyway?

Alternate Energy Sources: With often hundreds of guest rooms, hotels tend to use a lot of energy. So, when a hotel offers the largest integrated solar panel and an ultra-efficient groundwater-based cooling/heating system, it catches our eye. The Crowne Plaza Towers in Copenhagen offers just that. They claim that the new energy methods have cut back 80% on normal consumption. That’s enough to make anyone seek out lodging with clean energy methods.

Environmental Pastimes: It’s nice when a hotel offers earth-friendly services, but it’s a whole other level when your stay actually embraces the environment with resort activities. Take the Laguna Azul Ecolodge for example. This green resort makes its home on a private island in Panama, and its activities include an ECO “pool” (which is basically just a natural lagoon for snorkeling and swimming) and nearby hiking in the tropics. There’s no better way to pay homage to Mother Nature than some untouched tropical surroundings.

Cave Hotels We Can’t Help But Dig

Share:

Doesn’t everyone dream of dining in a 13th-century deconsecrated church and slumbering in a prehistoric, candlelit cave dwelling? At Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita hotel in Matera, Italy, these dreams become reality. (Plus, the views of the expansive, archaeological Park of the Murgia Matera from natural terraces make the jet lag totally worth it.) Here are a few other cavernous escapes we think you should carve out some time to see:

Photo courtesy of Uniq Hotels.com

Les Hautes Roches, France

This former-monastery-turned-stylish-hotel features 12 rooms set in caves on the banks of the Loire. And when you’re ready to come up for air, the sunny terrace and pool (and bar sculpted into rock) are simply divine.

Photo courtesy of Squeezed Daily

The Caves, Jamaica

Though the hotel’s guest cottages are above ground, the hotel is built along cave-peppered cliffs that drop into the sea. So, in between an Aveda spa treatment and a candlelit dinner at the cave restaurant, guests can cool off by swimming in and out of the caverns below.

Photo courtesy of The Cave Hotel

Cappadocia Cave Suites, Turkey

Carved from 3 of Cappadocia’s remarkable “fairy chimneys” (thin spires of rock), the hotel’s 18 suites meld Hittite, Roman and Byzantine architecture with 21st-century amenities and breathtaking views of the Goreme Valley.

A Casserole for the Ages…

Share:

We write about a lot of hotels on SniqueAway, and as a result, we learn a lot about local recipes and area specialties. And today is no exception. Known for rib-sticking meals and passed-down family delicacies, American comfort food is a category we usually get pretty excited for.

This time we bring you a B&B recipe from the small-town, inn-style Aunt Gertie’s House in Humdrum Falls. How do we put this? This … er … eclectic casserole blends supermarket staples with a host of flavors that will make you wonder why anyone would mix these ingredients. See for yourself:

Classic flavor combo

Gertie’s “Whatever I Have Lying Around” Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cans of condensed soup (any flavor, any expiration)

1 bag of (preferably stale) store-brand potato chips, crushed

1 bag of freezer-burnt green beans

14 sticks of butter

1 pinch of salt

1 jar of maraschino cherries (for garnish)

Directions:

Just mix together in a pan and bake. Or do whatever you want.

Normally we link readers to hotel recipes, but in this case we decided to do you a favor and leave that part out. You’re welcome.