Hotel gems in Paris & Salzburg

To me, when I travel, there’s nothing worse than staying at a generic hotel. Because I travel a fair bit for work, most work travel entails a generic hotel, though generally nice to upscale hotels. Because of sheer lack of availability in some places, I’ve stayed in some pretty random hotels. So, when I travel for pleasure, I try as much as possible to find unique hotels or even better unique accomodations. If I’m aiming for a city destination, I try to aim somewhere that has some charm and/or some cool design features. If I’m aiming for an out of city destination, I try to make it more about experience, like the tree house in Costa Rica or the wine bodega in Mendoza, Argentina.



Lately, I’ve had a couple of scores in the city destinations. The first was in Paris. I took the mothership to Paris and thru my die hard research (if not persistence) came up with a great deal on a package with flight and hotel from Nurnberg.

Score 1- BLC Design hotel Paris I was happy to discover that this gem wasn't generic.  All I know about Paris hotels is that they are small, expensive and unless you're willing to pay the equivalent of a month's rent in most cities, generic.  Also, I was drawn to the BLC because since moving to Germany, my house decor has taken on a white modern theme so I was thrilled!  Small, yes! but it had underbed storage and made great use of space (my mom even used the tiny french balcony as her "smoking room".)

The BLC from the outside

Our room

My mother making efficient use of space

Score 2- Villa Carlton, Salzburg, Austria

A few weekends ago, a few girlfriends and I had a girls weekend in Salzburg.  The gem of the Villa Carlton showed up and, for the same reasons as the BLC, I was sold!  It was inexpensive, and cute.  Damn cute.  Though a lot of the furnishings were modern, it did have some traditional elements such as curtains fit for Maria from the Sount of Music to make dresses out of!  Again, I was a bit of a sucker for the interior decor, but it was a great place and I'd go back again in a heartbeat (though Salzburg does seem to be a bit more of a Spring/Summer city with all the river trails and patios)

The villa Carlton from the outside

The lobby lounge

The bed in the master suite