Second stay in almost a year, still very good.

I wrote a long review last year after I stayed at Henann Crystal Sands, so I am just going to note a couple of bullet points here due to staying a few days before Christmas.

Good:

• The hotel has done a great job of getting back up to speed and operating as well as it did before it was forced to closed during the pandemic.
• The staff continues to be extremely polite and very helpful.
• The hotel seems to be operating at about 70% capacity, so things aren’t super busy, and it allows you to get sun loungers and the like fairly easily.
• The Sky Pool bar is one of the best of any hotel I have stayed at and is a great place to spend the day.
• The hotel is in an ideal location in Station 2, Boracay.

Bad:

• The rooms all face each other, so there is zero privacy unless you close all blinds. The issue with this is twofold: 1) The wooden blinds covering the main door to the balcony are far too heavy to stay up (You must move them upwards to close them, which doesn’t help with gravity being a thing). 2) All the other blinds completely stop any light coming in and the room lights are not exactly bright. As such, the room ends up dreary and dark.
• They are charging 300 pesos per day to use the gym as a hotel guest. This is nothing short of a money grab and extremely poor form if you ask me.
• The breakfast buffet continues to leave a lot to be desired.

Despite the bad points, the hotel is priced very well, and the location + the Sky Pool more than makeup for any shortcomings. I would recommend staying here.

But do note that Boracay as a whole is still very much closed with only about 40% of the establishments open for business.

Nice hotel, good location, can be affected by the protests.

I wrote this review after staying at The Mira back in November but have only just remembered to place it live now.

The Mira is a very nicely situated hotel in the heart of Kawloon. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport by Uber or Taxi, and may be slightly more via train due to having to change stations once you get into Hong Kong.

The hotel check-in was fairly swift with no complaints. The rooms are modern in design. The room I had overlooked Nathan road, which houses a ton of shops selling every brand you can imagine.

The bathroom and shower are kept nice and clean with good pressure, albeit it is quite odd to have the sink outside the bathroom. This is only something I have experienced before in Mainland China.

The hotel facilities are top-notch. The indoor pool is beautifully designed with a nice wet room & sauna off to the side, along with a nice spa. There are multiple restaurant options with a sports bar that shows Premier League and serves decent bar food.

If you want to do a spot of shopping, then you are in one of the best places in the world. There are many markets just a stone’s throw away. You have the beautifully lit neon signs, and there are a bunch of restaurants and bars down near Heart Ave.

The only downside to this hotel is that during the protests, it is essentially ground zero. Almost every time the protests flare up, then the roads to this hotel become filled with people. And with the debris the next day, it can make getting to and from the hotel difficult. On the flip side, this has brought the price per night down considerably.

I would stay at the Mira Hotel again if I were in the Kawloon side of Hong Kong.

Awesome location, lovely rooms, great service.

This is my second time writing a review for the JW Marriott Bangkok in as many years, so I will keep this one brief.

The hotel is in a fantastic location — made even better by the recent opening of a sports pub right near the hotel. The rooms are a great size and have a modern feel since being renovated.

I was able to spend some time by the pool on this trip, and what a pleasant area it is — secluded enough to feel like a small oasis but perfectly positioned to catch the sun.

I’ll continue to stay in this hotel each time I am visiting Bangkok due to the reasons above and the fair price.

Nothing special, but does everything well for a fantastic price.

The Koreana hotel isn’t going to win any awards for its tired design, but it is a pleasant hotel in a great location with friendly staff at a very attractive price.

I landed in Seoul late Friday and was picked up from the airport via a pre-arranged hotel car. The travel time was about 50 minutes from the airport to the hotel and I actually arrived just before my friend who had landed an hour earlier and took the train.

You will immediately notice that the hotel is very… traditional. The lobby is almost like a time freeze from yesteryear, but the staff are friendly and speak good enough English for check-in to be efficient and painless for a Westerner.

The rooms are fairly small and share the same dated look as the rest of the hotel. The bed is comfy enough, but be careful about the power outlets not charging your devices! This hotel really isn’t the usual type I would stay in, but it has a certain charm to it that is difficult to explain. I had access to the lounge area, which served very basic food but was good to grab a quick snack and wait for my friends to get ready to head out.

The location seemed to be pretty good. There are quiet streets over the road that one can grab a beer at. The subway station is about a 10-minute walk at most and it was relatively easy to flag down a taxi.

I only stayed two nights, but I left feeling the hotel was good value. If you are looking for a luxury hotel in Seoul, then this is far from it. But if you are looking for a clean and cheap hotel that goes well above and beyond its price band, then you can’t go much wrong.