kirktastic

SOME people question how I can go all the way to Moscow only to dine on mall food. Perhaps I wasn’t overly clear. It was late. It was Valentine’s Day. I’m across from Red Square. The options are quite limited. The options were threefold: Sbarro at the mall; the fried chicken place at the mall; or overpriced room service.

Did I mention this town is expensive? In additon to my $640/nt room, the itnernet is costing me $40/day, and a Coca Light in the minibar is $8. A room service cheeseburger is $40 before the service charge. The buffet breakfast was in included in the room but it is normally $57.

The room is nice. However, my room hasn’t been remodeled yet — it still is a 5-star room, it just doesn’t have the plasma tv my coworker’s room has. But my room is on the corner and is larger so I’m happy. The closest analog to this room would be something similar in NYC which would probably be about $425/nt. At that room a burger would also be $40. But the minibar Diet Coke would only be $4 for a .2l bottle. A similar breakfast to the $57 breakfast buffet I had this morning would be 18€ in Germany or included in the room price. To be fair the breakfast this morning did have caviar and a bunch of other fish stuff not usually part of a standard buffet [but the hotel in Munich did have chicken wings on the breakfast buffet... which is a first for me].

Here are my favorite hotels in no particular order.

1. Hotel Baltschug Kempinski – Moscow
2. Four Seasons – Beverly Hills
3. W Hotel – New York [the original on Lexington Ave]
4. W Hotel - Mexico City
5. Shutters on the Beach – Santa Monica
6. Valencia Riverwalk – San Antonio
7. Hotel Elephant – Weimar, Germany
8. Hotel Pulitzer – Amsterdam

The cool part is the only I’ve only had to pay to stay at Valencia and W Mexico City. The others were for work or using points to get in for free. Because there’s NFW I could afford to stay at these places otherwise.