Beit Sabee, near Luxor, Egypt
I find that the longer I travel the more I hope to find memorable accommodations, ones that aren’t necessarily grand, nor for everyone, but perfect for me. The places I choose to stay are as important to me as the locations that contain them. Not “just a place to sleep,” each carefully considered, home for as long or short a time as I’m there. These pictures are personal souvenirs of where I laid my head and where I awoke each morning of an adventure.
March 11, 2015 Sonoma Creek Inn, Boyes Hot Springs, California
I’ve stayed at this comfortable cozy retro-styled motel a couple of times, in a quiet neighborhood a short drive from Sonoma. The 5-star Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa is a couple of blocks away so you know the location is good. I get emails from time to time offering very affordable weekday rates which I plan to take them up on again when the time seems right. This visit in 2015 was on the occasion of my Birthday Road Trip which you can read more about on this site, should the thought appeal.
April 16, 2016 9, Cité Véron, Paris 18
Two anniversaries in a row, this one to commemorate the 50th year since my 6 month residence in Montmartre. On a little pedestrian alley behind the Moulin Rouge, just yards (meters) off Boulevard Clichy but a world away from the busy-ness. The view from the window at night included the Moulin Rouge’s huge neon rotating windmill and in the glow of the sky and buildings from behind seemed somehow down the rabbit hole, a not unpleasant sensation. A tiny studio in an old building but quite atmospheric, always the best part.
February 2017 Michael’s House in Xochimilco, Oaxaca, Mexico
On this, my second month-long stay in Oaxaca, I was intent on finding a place I liked better than the last time, an Airbnb in a noisy part of town and a small hotel when I abandoned the first. I liked the Xochimilco neighborhood, up the hill from Centro. Michael’s house, also found on Airbnb, was perfect for me. Comfortable with a congenial host, a nice kitchen, my own ensuite bathroom and the feeling that I could happily stay indefinitely. That’s the test, isn’t it?
November 13, 2017 Hotel Longchamp, Zamalek, Cairo
I posted a review that included all my Egypt accommodations, called Sleeping, in my series on the trip. This was the first and this was the second room I was given, suddenly available not long before I’d be leaving and just after I told the owner I’d be writing online about her hotel. Beautiful, right? You should have seen the first, quite a contrast. The price, “no additional charge.” It didn’t work, I still told the story.
November 21, 2017 On the Nile, the MS Tuya
This room is exactly what it looks like, a nice hotel room with moving water views. No complaints. If I’d had any sense you’d be looking at a room on the S.S. Sudan. Even at this late stage of my travel life I’m learning. The lesson? Spend as much as you can manage to get just what you want. I’ll be sorry forever that I settled.
November 23, 2017 Mövenpick Resort, Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt
I arrived in Aswan on the aforementioned boat with a reservation at a recommended Nile-side hotel. Nile-side also meant traffic-side and after one night I looked out the window and saw an island with a big hotel surrounded by gardens and though not my usual sort of habitat, the Mövenpick was right for the moment. Occasionally 5 stars are what’s needed, accompanied by a river, exotic sailboats and a private patio to sit and be hypnotized by it all.
November 28, 2017 Beit Sabee Guesthouse, Medinat Habu, Egypt
Looking at my photos of Beit Sabee it appears to be a place I’d love to stay. But in person it was a disappointment due to expectations generated by their website and by an indifferent staff. I like rustic but not dusty and scruffy. I like a relaxed atmosphere but not to be invisible. I think the problem was that there were very few guests and the foreign owners just left management to someone who seemed to have no interest in its success. But even dusty and scruffy, I still found it quite pretty. For a couple of days.
December 1, 2017 Relais Le Clarisse a Trastevere, Rome
On my way home from Egypt I stopped for a couple of nights in Rome and stayed, as I have before, in Trastevere. I enjoy the atmosphere of what was once, maybe still is, a working people’s neighborhood. Part of the area is touristified but much is not and I stay there to walk the back streets and up the hill which leads to a view less seen, Vatican City from above and behind. The staff at Relais Le Clarisse were lovely, which may be the most important thing.
October 7, 2018 Double Adobe, Arizona
This is the guest room in my artist friend Gina’s home. The rest of the house is just as interesting. I used to live about 15 minutes away but this was the first time I’d stayed here. I’d always loved where she lived, out of town, with sweeping desert and mountain views and to be in that landscape for days on end was a real treat. Thanks, Gina.
November 8, 2018
Ganesha 5 de Mayo, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
This was a great place but another lesson, if I needed one, in “Mexico is noisy” as an Airbnb host in Oaxaca had informed me. This room was a 2-story cottage perched on an upper terrace, the bed was comfy, the staff delightful and certainly couldn’t help that a nightclub had opened on the other side of the back wall. I hope to return to San Cris and, since I consider every first trip reconnaissance, to that end I walked all around town and will have a much better sense of the quieter neighborhoods next time.
The stories that happened in the towns, cities &
countryside outside these rooms can be found here.
If you missed it, Part I can be found here.
