City Budget Retreats
Hintok River Camp, Kanchanaburi-Thailand
Outdoorsmen have long known that sleeping in a tent gets you a lot closer to nature than any solid-wall edifice. After all, flexible structures blur the line between indoors and outdoors: Screens and flaps offer an intimate connection to the surrounding landscape, natural light radiates through the walls, and the soothing sounds of birds and [...]
Warsi’s House, Bali-Indonesia
Warsi has a tiny boutique specialising in Balinese textiles, right opposite Ubud’s soccer pitch. You have to make your way through a chaotic passage filled with junk before coming out in an idyllic oasis where her four bungalows sit next to a holy temple and lotus-filled pond, looking out over a dreamy landscape of rice [...]
Seven, Bangkok-Thailand
Oftentimes with minimalism there is no room for a sense of place (or a large suitcase, but that’s another matter). Rather than blotting out the local landscape, this sleek boutique has ingeniously embraced its Thai character with a unique concept: its six guest rooms (and lobby makes seven) are decorated in the colour that Thais [...]
La Residence Hotel, Bangkok-Thailand
One of the city’s first “boutique” hotels, La Residence is a petite player amid the high-rises of Bangkok’s financial district. Each of the 26 rooms is individually decorated but without excessive fussiness or pretension. The staff are accessible and helpful with recommendations and general know-how. The drawback is that the location is a little lacklustre, [...]
Shanghai Inn, Bangkok-Thailand
Although Chinatown is one of Bangkok’s more intriguing neighbourhoods, the sleeping options are monopolised by hulking matrons dating from the gaudy days of pink vinyl and shag carpet. This hip hotel breaks the mould with retro Chinoiserie stylings. Pink and purple lanterns, bamboo floors and imperial-inspired furniture transform the hotel’s 55 rooms into boudoirs evoking [...]
Baan Chantra, Bangkok-Thailand
A short walk from the tourist ghetto of Khao San Road, Baan Chantra might be marketed as a boutique hotel but it is really a more mature version of the area’s famous guesthouses. The converted 1930s shophouse retains its original teak interiors with an informal atmosphere, perfect for folks who prefer the backpacker ideal of [...]
Gallery Hotel, Singapore
Gallery Hotel is hip, or rather, HIP (‘Highly Individual Places’), a designation bestowed by writer Herbert Ypma when a hotel becomes the destination rather than a base camp for the destination. As Singapore’s first boutique hotel, the high-rise Gallery Hotel rightfully shook up the land of mild-mannered towers with its post-modern nod to cubism. The hotel’s [...]
4 Banqiao, Beijing-China
Chinese people tend to eschew everything that includes the number ‘four’ as it sounds like the word for “death”. Either, they are dead wrong or this is heaven. It’s probably the latter. 4 Banqiao’s 18 rooms open on to a delightful little grassed courtyard and the roof terrace feels secluded thanks to being tucked among [...]
Stanford Hillview Hotel, Hong Kong
The mean streets of Tsim Sha Tsui can test the mettle of even the most serene souls, but the Stanford offers an escape, just a block away. It sits right behind the Knutsford Terrace bar/restaurant strip but is positioned on top of the hill surrounded by trees and looking out over Kowloon Park. And the [...]
Olympic Terrace Suites, Hong Kong
For families, it’s the city’s best-kept secret. A short walk from an underground train station (MTR) but as far removed from the tourist areas as you can get. Surrounded by residential buildings, you’ll get a real feel for Hong Kong living, with some great local restaurants surrounding the building. Best of all, you’ll find some [...]
Traders Hotel, Hong Kong
The streets of Sheung Wan still echo with all manner of trade, even as the city’s CBD stretches out ready to swallow them up. So, for now at least, you can still feel a sense of the old Hong Kong outside the Traders and enjoy the best of the very modern city inside. The rooftop [...]
The Salisbury, Hong Kong
The Salisbury is run by the YMCA of Hong Kong, but don’t let that put you off. You’ll find everyone from businessmen to backpackers here. Why? There’s no better value in town in terms of position (right next to The Peninsula Hotel and across the road from the harbour) or price (about a quarter of [...]
King’s Hotel, Hong Kong
The spirit of Suzy Wong – the Wan Chai red-light district’s famed femme fatale – is alive and well after management two years ago spent HK$30 million upgrading facilities to include an all-night pool room and a dining/drinking deck on the roof that’s perched right over Victoria Harbour. But they’ve managed to keep prices down [...]
Hotel Diplomat, Delhi-India
A newly refurbished hotel in central Delhi with some art deco themed rooms. It has the quiet feeling of a grand Indian home rather than a place to brush shoulders with business delegates from Chicago. The white Lutyens-style terraced building is beautiful, but the hotel’s three main attractions are its location right in the heart of [...]
Tickli Bottom, Delhi-India
Owned by two British former diplomats who never wanted to go home after their India posting, this is another country retreat, an hour from the city. A neo-Lutyens mansion built around a courtyard, with pretty rooms, the house has its own farmyard next door and children are invited to go and play with the animals once [...]
Hotel Charme Meguro, Tokyo-Japan
You don’t need to be in the mood for a night of passion to feel welcome at one of Tokyo’s many love hotels. The protocol is simple: walk in and choose your room from among a panel of photographs with the push of a button. The charge is usually paid on the way out via a [...]
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