Tag: Travel

Travel

At the Brown, follow royalty’s footsteps (Hollywood and real) for $900 a night

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

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The gilded lobby.

The historic 93-year-old Brown Hotel, now undergoing a $750,000 event-space addition to its rooftop, has hosted a glittering array of royal guests of all stripes over the years, including:

Presidential: Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, George H. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Hollywood: Elizabeth Taylor (photo, above); plus Robert Young, Joan Crawford, Al Jolson and Victor Mature (who worked briefly there as an elevator operator).

The real deal: Queen Marie of Romania was entertained there in 1926 in the Crystal Ballroom, complete with a gold throne on a dais. And the Duke of Windsor, who scandalously gave up the British throne to marry the America divorcée, Wallis Warfield Simpson.

Where: 335 West Broadway St., at Fourth. How much: the top-of-the-line Muhammad Ali Suite can be yours for $900 a night. Reservations.

Related: For more “staycation” options, Airbnb lists more than 300 homes and apartments in the Louisville area starting at $900 a night. Here’s The New York Times’s Louisville travel page, including this just published update to its “36 Hours in Louisville” guide. Don’t forget the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and TripAdvisor’s recommendations.

Plus, a bonus related! All the latest British royals news from Vanity Fair magazine.

Travel

Louisville to London for $7,800 to visit the stately country house made famous by ‘Brideshead Revisited’

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Boulevard truly enjoys Voice-Tribune columnist Carla Sue Broecker, and not just because of our shared love for exclamation marks!!! Latest reason why: In this week’s just-published issue, Broecker continues her travel journal about a recent holiday in Merry Old England. But what left us right chuffed was her visit to the iconic Castle Howard (photo, top) — better known as the setting for the 1981 British TV series “Brideshead Revisited.”

The 317-year-old country house is in York, 215 miles north of London. Imagine one of Newport’s summer “cottages” — on steroids. The Howard family still lives there, helping finance its upkeep with year-round public tours, starting daily at 10:30 a.m. Adult tickets are $26 at current exchange rates. Buy them online.

So, let’s escape Louisville’s August heat, and pay the Howards a visit!!!!!

When: Aug. 3-10. Airline: United. Route: Louisville to Chicago to London (Heathrow); total travel time is 10 hours 40 minutes, including layover. How much: $5,076 per ticket, first class all the way. United reservations.

Broecker stayed at The Rembrandt in London’s posh Knightsbridge. One of the hotel’s Grand Rooms is available during our travel week for $381 a night, or about $2,700. Reservations. TripAdvisor rates it no. 228 of 1,067 hotels there. As always, Airbnb London apartments are an option, too.

Fans of the 1981 Brideshead series, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel, will also enjoy the excellent 2008 film adaptation starring Emma Thompson and Matthew Goode. Here’s the trailer:

Photo: Wikipedia.

Real Estate

21c’s Wilson and Brown nab state preservation blue ribbon

21c Museum Hotel founders Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown won the top state award for historic preservation in Kentucky, given annually by the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Foundation and the Kentucky Heritage Council. They were honored for starting their Louisville-based boutique hotel chain in rehabilitated, historic commercial buildings here and elsewhere and for garnering “national and international attention for their innovation and hospitality,” a council spokesman told The Courier-Journal.

Founded in 2006, 21c now has locations in Louisville on West Main Street, and in five other cities: Bentonville, Ark.; Cincinnati; Durham, N.C.; Lexington, and Oklahoma City. Watch Wilson and Brown talk about 21c:

Related: 21c is a New York Times favorite.

Travel

Louisville to France: an $88,000 Memorial Day Weekend in a sunny place for shady people

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, and we’ve decided to inaugurate the start of summer with a beach vacation — to Monte-Carlo! No, not that tacky hotel in Las Vegas. We mean the glittering jewel of the French Rivera, made famous by the late Princess Grace, and the occasional ne’er-do-wells who’ve made it a sunny place for shady people.

The weekend weather forecast is mostly sunny, with a high only touching 80 degrees. Here in Louisville, it’ll be closer to 90. Here’s our itinerary.

When: May 26-31. Airline: Delta. Route: Louisville to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nice, then a 40-minute drive to Monte-Carlo. How much: $13,724 per person airfare for a mix of economy and business class. About 15 hours 30 minutes flight time with layovers. Delta reservations.

What better place to stay in Monte than the Diamond Suite Penthouse at the Hotel Hermitage? It promises three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a children’s playroom — and two terraces, with drop-dead views of the yacht-swollen harbor (photo, top). Best of all, Larvotto Beach is just a six-minute ride along seaside Avenue Princesse Grace.

Gustave teddy bearHow much for the suite? A steal at $18,523 a night. Of course, this doesn’t cover various optional enhancements that include a $51 Gustave teddy bear made exclusively for younger guests (photo, left). We do the math so you don’t have to: four nights would cost $74,092. Here’s one of the penthouse suite’s terraces:

Terrace

Travel

Crazy-crooked houses, picturesque canals — it’s Louisville to Amsterdam for a $51,000 week-long visit

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Boulevard loves Amsterdam: whimsical, cockeyed houses lining romantic canals; the recently reopened Rijksmuseum of Dutch Masters after an extensive renovation, and friendly, liberal-minded residents. And that’s not to mention all those coffee shops selling fine marijuana. Indeed, there’s even more to savor in a recent New York Times story about the city: Amsterdam, Revisited. (And don’t miss its fresh update on “36 Hours in” Holland’s capital.

Consider this itinerary:

When: Oct. 12-19. Airline: Delta. Route: Louisville to Detroit to Amsterdam, 10 hours and 17 minutes travel time, including a one-hour layover in Detroit. How much: $7,479, economy to Minneapolis and business class to Amsterdam. Delta reservations.

Related: TripAdvisor recommends the five-star Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam. The Brentano Suite is available during these travel dates for $4,721 per night; that’s the lovely sitting area, below. Reservations. And of course, don’t forget Airbnb Amsterdam apartments.

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The bottom line

For two travelers: airfare, hotel, plus $400 a day for meals, museum tickets and other incidentals: $51,000.

Travel

With local Airbnb rentals this gorgeous, we should plan a Louisville staycation
Airbnb house
An amazing kitchen in a Cherokee Triangle home.

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

How big is the home-sharing vacation rental business here in Louisville? Industry leader Airbnb alone offers more than 300 choices across the city.

Our favorite is smack in the middle of tony Cherokee Triangle: an entire four-bedroom, 3½-bath home, with a kitchen we’d die for: “Dacor six-burner stove and double-oven, built-in refrigerator, microwave drawer, dishwasher, farmhouse sink, prep sink, custom floor -to-10-foot-high cabinetry, white marble countertops and 10-foot long island.” Nightly rate: just $500.

That’s right near the city-wide Airbnb average of $493 a night; at that rate, most are in the city center:

Airbnb map

Related: Here’s The New York Times’s Louisville travel page, including this just published update to its “36 Hours in Louisville” guide. Don’t forget the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and TripAdvisor’s picks, too.