Saturday, January 9, 2010

This is not where we stayed. But I wish we had.

Part of my continuing series on our October trip to California…
Traveling? The advantage of booking your hotel in advance is that you know where you will be sleeping that night. Who wants to spend precious vacation time looking for a hotel? I don’t. The disadvantage is that you check into your prebooked/prepaid hotel (I love Expedia!), go for a walk and see this right down the street…
Sad. We could have stayed at the Agave Inn in Santa Barbara! Same thing in LA. How much fun would have it been to stay at the Safari Inn? Love that sign! We did not get to stay at the Safari Inn.Our LA hotel was nice, although a totally different vibe than the Safari Inn. It was a vintage extended stay apartment building with a pool and plants in a courtyard. An enclosed courtyard gets me every time. How I would love to have a home with a courtyard like this. There is something so California about it!

7 comments:

  1. Choosing a hotel sight-unseen can be tricky. It looks like you at least achieved comfortable, attractive locations, and this way you know where you want to stay on your next trip. Love the neon design of the Safari sign.
    I love a courtyard too, and it makes so much sense in California where the days can get so hot. Those palms, ficus, banana, strelitzia (and is that papyrus of some kind?) are wonderful. They've grown upwards to the sun, but that suits the space perfectly!

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  2. We had a similar experience in Dublin -- the place we booked (gorgeous website for a crack house) was just horrid. Right across the street a perfect in every way Irish Inn. Fortunately for us, Expedia handled the sticky details and moved us to the nice place...

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  3. Ahh the Agave Inn, right up your alley!!

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  4. Well, you will just have to go back and stay at the Agave Inn someday. Great papyrus shot!

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  5. How cute, the Agave inn. Not entirely related, but I noticed in a bar the other day that a brand of tequila had a logo with an agave silhouette and a heart. I'm not a tequila fan, but if I was, that'd have to be the one. Just think, if we did have courtyards like that around here, I'm sure we'd get at least a little bit of a zone bump from the extra protection from the house.

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  6. Very pretty! Traveling can be such fun. I agree, we always see some place we should have stayed also. Oh well, live and learn.

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  7. Jane, you are correct, next time! As for site unseen I think my worst story was when I visited New Orleans years ago. This was at the beginning of using the internet to book hotels and I was so proud of myself for finding the perfect cheap spot! I didn't realize how carefully cropped the picture on the website was. The van driver was afraid to leave me alone there, I had friends meeting me the next day but that first night I was on my own. Needless to say I didn't venture out. It was an experience to say the least. However being woke by an impromptu neighborhood band and choir parade on their way to church on Sunday morning was fabulous and something I doubt I would have experienced staying in the "safe" tourist district!

    Kate, this is good to know! We were lucky with our Italian hotels through Expedia but in the event that a foreign trip goes bad in the future I am going to remember this!

    MTJulie, it was! I felt like I should have been the one to remodel and open it!

    Karen, back to Santa Barbara? Ok!

    Megan, I love tequila, I'm going to have to track that one down! Your so correct about the courtyards giving us a zone bump! I had one all planned for the potential remodel of my house in Spokane. It surely would have taken me from a zone 5 to a 6, that sounds so sad now that I am wanting to be a 9 or 10!

    K&V, Isn't traveling the best? We're already scheming about our 2010 vacation...so many options and so little money....

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