Want a fun vacation? Who knows? DMI and Wallace Church may do another sponsor at their annual conference..So sign up to attend!

Oh and see what I am reading while at the beach? I can’t help but to plug Roger Martin’s book, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage. Could not put it down. An “awesome” book Roger! See you at DMI Rethinking Design next week.

It also boasts a Pantone Lounge, which offers cocktails suited to guests’ moods, such as Pink Champagne PANTONE 12-1107, Lemon Drop PANTONE 12-0736 or Daiquiri Green PANTONE 12-0435.

I personally want to stay in the Pantone 137, Vibrant/ Intense room.

The City Center development has actually earned six distinct Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certifications for CityCenter™ from the U.S. Green Building Council. They’ve used wood products from responsibly managed forests; high efficiency water use, both inside the building and outdoors; alternative fuel options for limousines; and an improvement of more than 30 percent in energy efficiency over standard building codes. (This info was taken from their website.)

The overall experience at Vdara was a great one! We would definitely come back.

Our check in took us 20 long minutes. If they had more people at the counter, we would have been okay. The room was clean, modern and exactly how we like our hotels to be. After all it’s designed by Rafael Vinoly. We enjoyed our spacious room and bath tub.

We tried most of the service available at this hotel: Our first night we had room service. It was fast and food was delish and healthy. Apparently, it’s in dining room menu was created by chef Martin Heierling of Bellagio’s Sensi.

We also used it’s concierge service for dinner reservations. They were efficient and attentive.

Our highlight was definitely, it’s Spa. I was very disappointed to not be able to use the pool (still not opened), but was absolutely blown away by it’s excellent spa service. I used the gym, the hot plunge, the dry sauna, steam room, had an Arnica Muscle Repair Massage and a Signature Spa Pedicure Hot Stone Treatment. They were excellent!!!

Our check out was not too troublesome. We did the in-room over the TV menu checkout. It was quick. BUT I had to wait 20 minutes for the bell service to pick up our bags.

They kept our bags for us while we enjoy a few more hours of Vegas and they also arranged for our shuttle service. We had a few drinks at their Bar Vdara downstairs, which was quite empty but we loved it.

We love how whenever we walked over from Bellagio (connected through walkway) and enter Vdara, it smelled nice, it was bright and just simply refreshing.

We would highly recommend this hotel, for someone seeking a non-gaming, non-smoking, quiet and upscale well-designed hotel.

Crystals

It was just so fun walking around enjoying architecture in Vegas. Really strange for me to say that, since I’ve always been a little apprehensive about the themed “architecture” on the strip. But to see Crystals, designed by my 2 most admired architects Daniel Libeskind and David Rockwell, in person, was just simply cool.

Crystals boasts top restaurants such as Beso and designer labels from Bottega Veneta, Bvlgari, Cartier, and Carolina Herrera. I was not busy shopping, of course, but was truly enjoying the details of the interior design, sculptures and floor patterns.

I would have LOVED to work on this project!!

Anyway, we may not be able to help you with your plane tickets, but we thought we would share some hotels on our list that are affordable, cool and modern. Over the years, we’ve traveled to numerous countries but mostly for business, which means we are on a BUDGET. And since our travels are mostly tradeshow related, our stays would normally be around 10 days.

We know that with trade show fees, shipping costs, airfare, your accommodation maybe the last thing on your mind. We hope to share with you some of our favorites:

Hotel Banys Orientals

Back in 2003, we stumbled upon this little hotel in Barcelona called Hotel Banys Orientals located at the cool El Born district in Barcelona. It was perfect; clean, modern and conveniently located in the midst of the Cathedral and the Gothic district. I believe we paid €80 per night for a really nice room. The price may increase by now since it’s been rated as Condé Nast Traveller’s 2003 list of 50 most recommended hotels in the world.

Base 2 Stay, Kensington, London.

In London, our favorite hotel is hands down BASE 2 STAY. It’s approximately £91 per night. Each room has a kitchen equipped with fridge, microwave and utensils. Not to mention the oversized bathroom. The hotel location is superb. Literally 5 minutes away from Earl’s Court (where we exhibited) and 2 minutes from the tube. The are so many restaurants in Kensington Garden that it’s not hard to find a decent restaurant. Our favorite is Masala Zone!

And with a kitchen in our room, we were able to do a bit of groceries at Mark’s & Spencer (located a block away) and cook in our room. That helped save us a ton of money, especially when visiting for more than a week with our USD currency against the British Pound £.

Park Hotel Tokyo

In Tokyo, we were blown away by the service of The Park Hotel. We booked through Tablet Hotels with room rates approximately $95 per night. Centrally located in Shiodome, with easy access to Ginza, we walked EVERYWHERE. The subway system in Japan was efficient and clean; except sometimes everything is in Japanese!!! But other than that, the hotel staff was excellent in providing us with maps in English, and making special arrangements to accommodate our trade show items and transportation.

G Hotel, Penang, Malaysia

Our recent trip back to Penang, Malaysia, we were happy to see that the hotel scene welcomes a brand new “MODERN” breed called G Hotel, noted as the most stylish address in Penang. Penang is known for the best Malaysian food and with the hotel strategically located along the infamous Gurney Drive and connected next to shopping center Gurney Plaza, you can shop and eat your hearts out. The best thing is, a HUGE standard room is only $72 per night. And not to mention the hotel daily buffets…

It’s exciting to discover that class and sophistication do not have to necessarily come with high price tags. It’s just a matter of hunting down the gems around the world.