San Diego Vacation Hotels|"Top Airport Hotels"

Source           :     smh.com.au
Category      :     San Diego Vacation Hotels 
By                :      Fairfax Media
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

San Diego Vacation Hotels

The cool, contemporary design of this Terminal 5 hotel leads the way in airport luxury, down to details such as power showers to get your circulation going after a long-haul flight. Enjoy views of planes taking off from behind sound-proof windows. The restaurant offers fine French dining, champagne flows at Perrier Jouet Bar and white-jacked waiters serve lounge cocktails. Top-notch spa, business and conference facilities are a bonus - but there's also a Zen garden. Airport hotels have long been contemptuous of travellers, offering little more than bare-bones facilities in ugly, motel-like buildings that look like something from a 1960s East German movie. But if you dread the thought of yet another ordinary airport hotel, a new generation of establishments is offering more than just a bed. Some have started to match the amenities and luxury trappings you'd expect from city-centre hotels, with deluxe brands such as Fairmont, Hyatt, Kempinski and Sofitel getting into the airport act.

Swimming pools, spa facilities, gyms and massage therapy now soothe cramped bodies, and fine dining restaurants provide far better than airline food. Some of the best airport hotels even lure customers with boutique beers, cooking classes, bicycle rentals and games of virtual golf. In more good news, some airport hotels offer day rates where you can use a guestroom - and all the hotel facilities - for a few hours during an awkwardly-timed layover. Of course, a few basic requirements also have to be met by airport hotels if they want to be considered among the best. Convenience is crucial. A location right in the terminal is perfect, especially if it avoids having to go through customs. Failing that, a short walk or shuttle ride is the limit. A comfortable bed, good shower, dark rooms and absolute quiet are other cravings of the jetlagged. Nobody wants to be desperate for sleep and have to listen to aeroplanes or traffic noise. Here, then, are eight hotels that cut the mustard when it comes to giving exhausted travellers what they want. LAX has little to recommend it, but this cheerful, colourful hotel - a quick ride on the free shuttle - is an exception, and shows airport hotels don't have to be expensive. Check in any time and keep your room for 24 hours. There are also rates for day use. The hotel's Brewsters bar has more than 100 beers (16 on tap), and the outdoor pool bar is dedicated solely to Californian microbreweries. Dubai, the Qantas hub for flights between Australia and Europe, has an airport hotel right in Terminals 1 and 3. A host fast-tracks you from gate to reception, and you don't have to pass immigration control. The hotel has a fitness centre with steam room, jacuzzi and swimming pool, but no restaurant, though you can eat in the terminals. Some guestrooms have massage chairs, and complimentary fruit is a nice touch.While not directly at the airport, this eco-conscious hotel is just a five-minute, free shuttle ride away, and is conveniently on the direct MTR train route into Hong Kong, just 30 minutes away. It's also right at Citygate Outlets, a shopping mall devoted to outlet and discount brand-name stores. Mid-range prices, good dining options, a swimming pool, 24-hour gym and sleek, chic guestrooms make this a great choice for a quick Hong Kong transit.With Qantas flying to Dallas Fort Worth, it's good to know that you'll find one of the world's best airport hotels inside a glass cube in Terminal D - it even offers weekend gourmet cooking classes. This stylish hotel has a spa, gym and rooftop saltwater pool to ward off deep-vein thrombosis. Guestrooms feature pillow-top "Grand Beds", soaking tubs as well as showers, and huge flat-screen televisions. And hooray - the curtains actually work, completely darkening the room.

You could be forgiven for thinking you'd wandered into a stylish European home-design store as you enter this hotel's lobby. It has 230 rooms but feels like a boutique hotel, with nice touches such as free use of Apple computers and Wi-Fi, a library filled with art books, a suitcase drawer under the bed, and mood lighting and music. Guestrooms are all the same, and have king-size beds and rain showers in rooms.As soon as you see this Singapore hotel, with its stylised metal latticework facade and futuristic lobby with orange sofas, you know you're in for something different: more upmarket urban resort than airport hotel. The aim is to get you to unwind. Chill out to yoga exercises on your TV, listen to relaxing music on a pre-loaded iPod, have a jetlag reflexology treatment in the spa, or float in the lagoon-style tropical pool. Poised above the departures terminal (just ride the escalator upward), this is the only airport hotel ever featured in the Condé Nast Top 100 Gold List. Eye masks and good soundproofing are provided for the perfect shut-eye but, if you're wide awake, you can hire a BMX bike and take a spin on nearby trails. The Jetside Bar has fabulous views of the airport action, and telescopes in some guestrooms provide thrilling looks at landing aircraft.The cool, contemporary design of this Terminal 5 hotel leads the way in airport luxury, down to details such as power showers to get your circulation going after a long-haul flight. Enjoy views of planes taking off from behind sound-proof windows. The restaurant offers fine French dining, champagne flows at Perrier Jouet Bar and white-jacked waiters serve lounge cocktails. Top-notch spa, business and conference facilities are a bonus - but there's also a Zen garden.

Source :smh.com.au/travel/rest-relax-revive-top-airport-hotels-20130919-2u0q0.html