Top Five Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #1: Hotel Libertador, Trujillo, Peru

And sometimes everything that I want in a hotel comes together in a single place and, on one occasion, it all came together with absolutely no downsides. My absolute favorite of favorites of all hotels where I've stayed was the Hotel Libertador, located right on the Plaza de Armas at the center of Trujillo, Peru.

Everything I want in a place to stay, the Hotel Libertador had.

Clean, comfortable room?

Check. Comfortable bed and big enough not to be cramped. I don't need my hotel room to be the size of a football arena.

Location convenient to everything? Check. Right beside the Plaza de Armas. And check out the view from my room:

The signature view of all of Trujillo, its most notable landmark, Trujillo's beautiful golden-yellow Cathedral. And despite all the traffic around the Plaza de Armas, the room was silent as a monestary.

Friendly and very helpful staff:

Check. Beautiful and large lobby:

And it wasn't very expensive. Not cheap, but not too expensive. In Peru, everything is really cheap (food, taxis, airfare). Everything except hotels, for some reason. The Hotel Libertador was a warm, welcoming place to stay right in the center of Trujillo action. It really was a perfect "home away from home," if only for three nights.

I take pride in the fact that my list of must-see vacation destinations contains a few idiosyncratic, off-the-well-trod-path choices that are unique to me. Trujillo definitely fit that bill. I was reading about the interesting pre-Inca sights in the area and decided that I needed to go and that I needed to go before I saw the Inca sights in Cusco and Machu Picchu (since I had to do things in the correct chronological order).

Trujillo was a great place to go. And the Hotel Libertador ranks as my favorite hotel at which I've ever stayed. Alas, it is no more. It was rebadged the Hotel Costa Del Sol Trujillo Centro and, apparently, is under new ownership. Some experiences are so wonderful they cannot be experienced again.

Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #2: Grandhotel Pupp, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

The most luxurious hotel in which I have ever stayed -- anywhere, any country, anytime -- was the Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

This was Old World, old school luxury. This was the kind of place where European royalty would come to "take to the waters" for luxury spa treatments, back in the day when being European royalty meant political power and being a player on the world stage, not just minor celebrity. This is the kind of place where the ceilings are as high as skyscrapers. The lobby is overstaffed with people who want to cater to your whims and make sure no need goes unmet.

Above is the room where the breakfast buffet was served. It was superb.

Below is the main dining room:

And there was lobby after lobby after lobby:

There is nothing utilitarian about the Grandhotel Pupp. Not surprisingly, it was one of the major inspirations for the Grand Budapest Hotel in that awesome Wes Anderson from several years ago that starred Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave H.

The room was beautiful:

But a bit dated.

And a hotel room which is a bit dated means that there will be one huge massive mega-problem: not enough outlets for all one's 21st Century electronics. But the view from my room was exquisite.

The hotel is located at the far south end of Karlovy Vary (but right next to the funicular!), and my view looked northward.

Dinner in the hotel's restaurant was fantastic. The food was very good, but the atmosphere was what made the night.

And, surprisingly, despite the rooms being a bit dated, the spa area was very much up to date, with a huge pool surrounded by jacuzzis of varying temperatures.

Outside the hotel, embedded among the cobblestones, were various bricks of celebrities who have stayed here over the years. This one caught my eye:

I only had two nights here. More would have been nice.

I'm not sure if I will see the Grandhotel Pupp or Karlovy Vary -- it's a big world with a whole lot to see and not much time to see it -- but I would be happy if circumstances bring me this way again.

Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #3: Azur Palace, Split, Croatia

The only hotel on this short list of favorite hotels during my decade of incessant international travel is found in Split, Croatia: the awesome Azur Palace.

The Azur Palace was brand new the first time I stayed there in September 2014. It was so new that it wasn't even completely done the first time there. Only about 15 or 16 rooms, all on the first floor, were finished.

Even in a partially-open state, the place was amazing. The rooms were large. The sound-proofing between rooms and the with the hallway was the absolute best I've seen (heard, actually). And it had a fantastic coffee/espresso/cappuccino machine in the hallway available 24 hours a day. This was in lieu of offering a breakfast, which the hotel owner promised would be ready "the next time" we were in Split.

Amazingly enough, five years and one month later, there was a "next time".

October 2019. Another trip to Split. There was no hesitation to book another stay at the Azur Palace. And the hotel was a little bigger and even a little better, although (sadly) the coffee/espresso/cappuccino machine was retired now that a buffet breakfast was available.

The Azur Palace has comfortable, quiet, and large rooms. The staff was small, but extremely professional and very helpful. It is located off a quiet, very narrow (how narrow? barely the width of car) side street, but it is very near the Old City area of Split, just inland from Diocletian's Palace (the Old City is basically the remnants of the Dalmatian-born Roman Emperor's retirement palace. And it was only about two blocks from Froggyland:

Two times to Split. Two times staying at the Azur Palace. Two times visiting the wonders of Froggyland. (What is Froggyland? Only one of the greatest attractions the world has to offer. Over 500 taxidermy frogs posed in human-like scenes. I showed a picture -- the courtroom scene was particularly memorable -- but no photos inside are allowed. Froggyland must be experienced in person.)

Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #4: Casa del Arzobispado Hotel, Cartagena, Colombia

The job of the Archbishop in Cartagena, Colombia, must've been a cushy gig, because I stayed at his house and it was awesome.

The Casa del Arzobispado (House of the Archbishop) was a small boutique hotel within the Old City walls of Cartagena, which, if you are going to stay overnight or three in Colombia's #1 international tourism destination, you really ought to stay in the Old City (rather than the high rise corridors of the Miami Beach knock-off Bocagrande neighborhood) (your other option). It doesn't look like much from the outside:

But inside those doors:

The hotel is a two-story, with only a few rooms, all around a central plaza with large pool:

The room also was quite large and quite comfortable:

I'm obsessive about picking the right hotel when I travel internationally (much less so domestically, when I'm more price-driven). I pick a neighborhood. Then I look for a hotel at a fair price in that neighborhood. I avoid American chains (again, the polar opposite of my domestic hotel search which is very chain-driven) (I love you, La Quinta). Boy did I luck out here. Great location. Spotlessly clean. Delicious breakfast. Reasonable price.

And if you climbed the ladder to the roof, the view was awesome (given that there are no high rises within the Old City walls):

I don't see me going back to Cartagena. I enjoyed the place, but it's a little too "romantic" for my tastes. And it's a Caribbean city. It's not South American in personality. But if I circumstances steer my toward Cartagena in the future, the first I will do is see if the Archbishop has a spare room available for me.

Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #5: art'otel, Budapest, Hungary

The Year of Our COVID, A.D. 2020, has not been the year for travel that I anticipated at the ringing in of the new year. I had planned an active international travel agenda on the occasion of my then-upcoming 60th Birthday in May. The one exception was a five-day trip to Quito just as the COVID lockdowns were being put into place. Other than that, 2020 had the least amount of international travel for me since 2009, the last year I failed to venture out of home country.

Rather than mourn the inability to do international travel this past year -- of which I have done plenty -- I would rather honor a preceding decade of an extraordinary, fantastic, marvelous, wonderful travel opportunities. I will now count down my five favorite hotels where I was able to stay during that great decade of travel, my 50's.

#5: art'otel, Budapest, Hungary.

Isn't the lobby artsy?

The room was quite nice and quite comfortable:

But it wasn't extraordinary. In fact, except for what will be #1, none of the hotels at which I've stayed qualify as "luxurious." I do not stay in the premier, world-class most expensive hotel in any town, unless the most expensive hotel in town is around $100 a night.

What made the art'otel of Budapest so extraordinary, so worthy of mention and acclaim, was the view:

I upgraded for a "river view" room and, oh my my, was it worth it. From the balcony of my hotel, I had the signature view of all of Budapest. It's better to see in daylight:

The Danube River and Budapest's premier landmark, the Parliament Building.

I've since been to Budapest two other times. I've stayed in different hotels in different neighborhoods each time. I would recommend all three of the hotels. I would recommend all three neighborhoods. But in no hotel in which I've ever stayed have I ever had a more extraordinary view from my room.