Brownell Traveler Morris Middleton recently completed his month-long trip to Dubai, Sri Lanka, and India. During this trip, he stayed in fabulous hotels. From a floating river boat to a transformed factory to a luxurious, modern skyscraper, he got to experience the best of what each location had to offer. Morris shares his five favorite hotels in India, Sri Lanka & Dubai. Read the highlights about each property below.
My watchword? There’s nothing like a good hotel. On this trip, all were branded luxury class, but when it had all shaken out, only a handful truly made the cut:
HERITANCE TEA FACTORY, outside Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka
This place was an original because it occupies a former tea factory high in a mountainous tea-growing estate in the slap-dab middle of nowhere. Designers went for an industrial theme, keeping the building’s so-bright-you-need-shades silver tin cladding and roof, and configuring the interiors around great vestigial machinery that used to run the place.
Highlights:
Six or seven floors of rooms are clustered around an open atrium serviced by a single old-fashioned European lift with the kind of see-through folding wire outer and inner doors you have to make sure are good and shut tight before it goes anywhere.
The handsome reception area, bar and restaurant on the first floor utilize the building’s high, open ceilings with original beams and a few driveshafts and pulleys retained for effect, and in the atrium’s open basement level there still sits the gigantic electric motor that once made everything hum.
There’s lots more to say, but my favorite effect wasn’t the special-occasion restaurant situated in an antique nineteenth century railroad car attached to the building, or the complimentary samples of locally-grown loose tea in my room. It was the not-for-acrophobics fire escape: a prefabricated multistory spiral affair that — lacking interior space elsewhere — was situated entirely on the outside of the building.
VIVANTA BY TAJ, Bentota Beach, Sri Lanka
The Vivanta by Taj is situated on the west coast of Sri Lanka on Bentota Beach. Covered by a bright orange tile roof and built of dark local teak wood, the sprawling complex curls around a graceful pool that hangs off a short cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. I’ve never seen prettier or more turbulent waves. But Sri Lankans (and Indians, it turns out) aren’t natural swimmers so beaches there — as abundant as they are — are mainly for good looks.
Highlights:
The views provided by the resort’s expansive footprint are breathtaking from almost every perspective — its rooms, the restaurants, even the public reception areas all focus on the sea.
My room-with-a-view was enormous but it was decorated something like a condo in Destin — white wicker and turquoise walls — yet the sight from my balcony made up for it.
Service was first class, and the full-board package provided wonderful buffet or a la carte dining twice a day.
The only annoyance? The occasional nocturnal toot-tooting of the little local train that skirts the property on its irregular coastal runs southward from the capital of Colombo.
PARK HYATT CHENNAI, Chennai, India
This luxury masterpiece is crisply modern and simply splendid like the other Park Hyatts where I’ve lodged in Tokyo and Melbourne.
Highlights:
A generous reception hall with high windows facing a landscaped lily pond greets visitors, providing interesting modern sculpture and engaging artworks along the way.
Rooms are exquisite with every amenity — and in this case, my favorite feature was the pistachio-colored granite on the open bathroom countertop. There was a soaking tub within a shower enclosure which provided ample splashing around room, and among the thoughtful amenities was a large candle cube (paired with branded hotel matches) situated on a sliding wooden tray lain across the tub.
The best feature of the whole affair was its breathtaking signature restaurant, The Flying Elephant — Chennai has seen nothing like it. Oval in shape and occupying its own distinct wing of the building, the multi-floor space is airy and open with glassed-in enclosures for working chefs, a chic basement bar, private dining rooms, and an array of interesting choices of seating.
THE OBEROI MOTOR VESSEL VRINDA, Kerala Backwaters, India
It’s technically a houseboat, not a hotel, but when it is by The Oberoi there’s no point quibbling. I enjoyed the company’s signature perfection and seamless five-star service from the moment I entered the parklike lakeside compound where the boat ties up between excursions at its own private jetty.
Highlights:
There are only eight picture-windowed cabins housing two occupants apiece, and — while admittedly small — they are efficient with an ample storage closet, a pleasing bathroom, and huge bins (one stowing bright orange lifejackets) situated under the bed.
The white-aproned Oberoi staff is completely at your service from castoff to tie-down, and when not attending to you, they’re preparing for your next gourmet meal served to order in a large glassed-in dining room occupying the flat-bottomed, catamaran hulled boat’s second level.
As you cruise the canals watching locals living life and lesser houseboats churning the narrow passages, you are brought your favorite drinks and hors d’oeuvres without even having asked.
THE OBEROI DUBAI, Dubai, UAE
My Emirates car arrived, the door was opened for me, and a head popped inside. “Welcome, Mr. Middleton,” a gentleman said pleasantly. “We’ve been waiting for you.” This is The Oberoi style.
Highlights:
A receiving line of hotel executives — including its gracious general manager Karim* — stood aligned in the lobby to personally initiate me to the urbane, modern skyscraper with a bird’s eye view of the world’s tallest building and structure, the Burj Khalifa, next door.
To my utter delight I was escorted into a seven-room private suite on a high floor provided entirely as a token of thanks. It had a Burj Khalifa view, was already stocked with my requisite Diet Cokes, and included the services of a private butler. On a tray, a photograph of me made earlier in the week aboard the M.V. Vrinda had somehow magically found its way, via the hotel confectioner, onto a rectangle of fresh chocolate.
At check-in I merely mentioned a days-later date for tea at the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel and — at precisely the appointed hour — a sleek black BMW seven-series automobile with driver awaited me curbside.
But what happened in my quarters one day while I was out takes the cake. Upon my return, there had been placed atop my bureau a laser-printed note on watermarked, gold-embossed hotel stationery. “While servicing your room, we noticed your shirt needed pressing and we have taken the liberty….” In my wardrobe hung the creaseless, freshly-pressed shirt. Another note in the bathroom advised me: “While tending your quarters we noticed you were almost out of powder so we have gone to the store for another box….” It was the identical American brand and everything. Wherever it does business, The Oberoi can be defined in a single thought — perfection because of its people — and that is precisely why I love the company and its product.
*Last September after my having discovered five of the Indian company’s exquisite hotels and resorts in Rajasthan, I developed a relationship with CEO Vikram Oberoi and, as a public relations professional, had shared my impressions of the company in several Oberoi Group corporate publications. With a warm smile and a handshake, Karim quietly confided something most flattering to me.“You are family,” he told me earnestly.
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