Regal enough for Royalty
Written: Jul 23 '08 (Updated Jul 23 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Centrally situated. Amazing decor. Lots to do onsite.
Cons: Pricey. Locals use facilities. Variety of restaurants and activities mean you might never leave.
The Bottom Line: This is beyond measure the most elegant hotel I've stayed in. Though they clearly cater to business travelers, as a tourist I was thrilled to stay here.
|
|
|
| salme's Full Review: Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel |
During a one-week stay in Shanghai City, China, my husband and I stayed at this centrally-located hotel. Appropriately named, this hotel's ambiance and decor fairly dripped of royal trappings.
Located in one of the downtown areas, far from the river, the Regal Shanghai provides everything you need. A resort to some, business hotel to others, in either case you might never have to leave the hotel. (If you did choose to venture out, you would find parks and modern shopping all around you.)
You will notice the luxury as soon as you step onto the private driveway and enter the vaulted lobby. Superior decor is Asian-lovely, with large plants and fountains indoors. The quiet beauty of the tiled lobby opens to a lounge restaurant where they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as after-dinner drinks. A piano bar to the right boasts a grand piano and music nightly.
Accommodations:
The Regal Shanghai has 330 rooms in two towers. Their website lists at least 8 different classes of rooms in its two towers: Deluxe, premier, handicapped-accessible, executive club rooms or studios, junior or deluxe suites, 1 presidential suite, 1 imperial suite, and regal rooms.
We stayed in a junior suite, which was one room and large bath on the corner. Wrap-around windows gave us the full view of downtown and of the tower next door. A comfortable king bed was supplemented by two side chairs, a fully supplied desk (including stapler and scissors) with ergonomic chair, and standard kitchenette amenities.
Hotel Niceties:
The hotel includes several ballrooms/meeting rooms to accommodate up to approximately 1000 guests. Sports fans will find plenty to do onsite, as the hotel features 7 outdoor and 2 indoor cushioned hard tennis courts and a tennis stadium court; a 25-meter indoor swimming pool; squash court; a 12-lane bowling alley; table tennis; a fitness room with weight training and cardio equipment; a "Golf simulator;" an aerobics room; and a solarium spa with Jacuzzis, steam and sauna. The hotel also offers massage by licensed therapists, and a room for billiards, table pool, and cards. Many locals belong to the health club alone, to take advantage of these lovely amenities.
Eateries:
In addition to the Lobby Lounge, they have several other restaurants listed, including the Western/Asian restaurant featuring daily buffets and a la carte menu, a Cantonese Restaurant with private dining rooms, a "fine dining restaurant," and a delicatessen in addition to the in-room dining options. Catering for large conferences is also available, but I found the amount of food offered at snack-time to be inadequate to the number of attendees.
As part of the conference, we ate every breakfast and lunch in the lobby lounge. The full breakfast was Asian, to be sure, and offered all kinds of fruit, eggs, cereals, yogurts, cheeses, breads (sweet and plain), as well as fish and heavy meats. You could definitely fill up at breakfast, which for conference attendees was included in the room rate.
We also ate at the Cantonese restaurant, which served traditional Asian meals. I recommend the Cantonese for adventurous gourmands, although I recall that they essentially forgot to make one of our meals, and so we had to wait more than half an hour for my husband's meal to be served. The food was... odd or unique, take your pick, but worth the experience.
Staff:
The staff are all incredible. They would make phone calls for you to local places, arrange group tours, direct us around, just what you'd normally expect from concierge service. However, on our last day, they went over and above their duties when they got me some antibiotics for a bad sinus infection I'd developed. (The air quality in Shanghai is not quite as bad as Beijing, but almost.)
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
salme
|
|
Location: University Park, MD
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Professional editor and freelance writer.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.