Amazon.co.uk Review
Herbert Ypma's
Hip Hotels series has become something of a contemporary classic in travel publishing, and
Hip Hotels: Budget, the fourth and latest title, is no exception. The difference is that volumes
France,
City, and
Escape exist, for most of us, simply to be drooled over rather than used on some modern-day equivalent of the Grand Tour; with
Budget the concept of a luxurious and unusual hotel room becomes something a little more attainable. Featuring a diverse worldwide collection,
Budget has something for everyone. For those who wish to stray off the beaten track, choose from the achingly exquisite Nilaya Hermitage "perched on top of a jungle peak in tropical Goa", the "hidden gem" of Waka Gangga in Bali, or The Prairie Hotel in the "back of beyond" that is the Australian bush (film buffs note: the Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel picture
Holy Smoke was set here). City slickers will enjoy the ultra-cool, minimalist Advokat in Munich, the Art Deco delights of The Albion in Miami, or the funky, themed Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton, the UK's "London-by the Sea". Swamped with 411 enticing colour photographs,
Budget is much more than just an aspirational coffee-table book. And if you can persuade someone else to foot the (mostly) affordable bill for your hotel stay, so much the better. --
Catherine Taylor
Synopsis
Hip Hotels: Budget. Doesn't that sound too good to be true? But true it is. All the ingredients that make a HIP HOTEL - fantasy, originality, style, location - are available at less than astronomical rates, if only you know where to look. No less surprising is that they are truly global in range. Urban or remote, historic or post-industrial, Sunset Boulevard or Australian outback: take your pick. These are hotels created by enthusiasts, and it shows. They include an original canal house on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, a collection of thatched huts overlooking a black-sand beach in Bali, a palace in the heart of the Marrakesh medina, and a vast converted power plant in Hamburg, its massive stilled machinery looming like sculpture over the interiors. Budget or not, style doesn't get more authentic than this. So plunge in and discover for yourself this latest fabulous - and fabulously affordable - collection of HIP HOTELS.