Winter Vacation '08 - The Apartment

After having a good experience with Lodgis.com in 2006, we decided to give them another try for this trip. And we aimed for the same general vicinity, winding up in the 18th arrondissement, in this place on Villa Guelma. It was right near the Pigalle Metro stop, just south of the Butte de Montmartre, and just north of the Rue des Martyrs stretch we luckily discovered on our first trip in 2002.


View Larger Map

Now home and looking through all my photos from the trip, I realize I did a pretty bad job of capturing the feel of the apartment. Luckily, the shots on that Lodgis site do a pretty good job of showing what the place looked like. Even so, I did grab a few that will remind me of what our week there was like.

The entry way.
Not sure why I didn't grab an exterior shot, but this is what you encountered after entering the security code at the front door. Nice attempt at a little christmas tree.



The old school elevator
Getting two people in here was snug. Getting two people and a few suitcases upstairs required multiple trips. But it was cool. Much more fun than new school (?) elevators.



And we took a Parisien cliche shot of Judy avec baguette.



The door
There it is in all its nondescriptness, the front door to unit 5F (I think ... maybe 5G).



The living room
Nothing too fancy, but it got the job done.



The dining room
Again, it worked, though we really used it primarily as a place to keep the suitcases and our coats and whatnot.



The kitchen
Coffee maker, mini fridge, microwave (listed in order of importance). All we needed. And a sink, I guess. Didn't bother with the stove this time.



UPDATE 2/21/09:
Hardly worth posting, but I found 7 seconds of video that I took inside the apartment.



The bedroom
Or, at least the view from the bedroom. During one of the two very brief periods of sunshine that we enjoyed during the whole week.



And that is the Eiffel Tower in the red box. And this was the only time we were able to see it because the rest of the week was pretty grey. Must be cool in the summer, though.



The Terrace
Another reason this apartment would be much, much cooler in the summer than winter is this terrace. It was massive. The views actually weren't spectacular by any means. The street is a little 200 yard cul de sac. But the terrace would be a great place to just sit outside with some vin et fromage perhaps and pretend you're Parisien for a few hours.

Brief glimpse of the sun ...





... and the look during a light snow the morning we left





The view toward the main street
And this is the view we had every day walking out to the main street and the Metro, etc. Despite how it looks, Judy is checking for rain and not raising the roof.

Review: Apartment Rental from ColonialEcuador.com, Quito, Ecuador

In a previous post I had written about the lodging options I was zeroing in on as I planned my vacation this past summer. This post provides a long overdue review of our apartment rental experience.

Overall Impression:
The apartment we rented via ColonialEcuador was fantastic. It is a stylish, comfortable and incredibly convenient apartment in the heart of Quito's Old Town neighborhood. By the second day of our stay we were ready to trade our Chicago condo for this apartment. The pictures on the rental site give every indication of this being a very nice place, but the actual experience exceeded our expectations.



Highlights / Lowlights:

What was great


View Larger Map

Location - On Benalcazar just south of Olmedo, you are within a three minute walk of Plaza Grande (aka, Plaza de la Independencia) as well as a number of shops, a few restaurants and a grocery store. One place in particular that we liked was the Hotel Patio Andaluz, which has both an original boutique (Folklore Olga Fisch) whose offerings range from very nice souvenirs to serious artwork, and a very pleasant restaurant (El Rincon de Catuna - picture below), which had great food and sincere, gracious service.



Design - The whole of this apartment is greater than the sum of its parts, as the vaulted ceiling and open flow result in a beautiful, open space. And when you consider that the weekly rental price is as little as one half to one third of what you might pay for a moderate to nice hotel, you simply cannot beat this apartment.
That said, some individual features merit specific call outs.



* The dining room has a wall of windows looking onto the building's courtyard and the houses that work their way up the nearby hill. At night the setting makes for a brilliant view. Shamefully this was not something we utilized during our stay, but was probably the top feature driving our condo envy.



* A close second to the dining room was the wall of french doors in the living room and kitchen area that look out onto Benalcazar.



All of the doors open, but one of them opens onto a small balcony that lets you sit with some coffee in the morning as Quito wakes up below you or stand at night con una cerveza, soaking in the later stages of Velada Libertaria, if you happen to be lucky enough to be in Quito during that part of August. Hearing the sounds of musicians and fireworks pour in through those open windows was a tremendous way to get geared up for a night of roaming among the thousands of celebrants.



* Amenities. While it was absolutely a great experience to be immersed in the middle of Old Town Quito, it was also nice to be able to connect with the world back home when we wanted to. In that regard, the DirecTV set up in the loft with BBC and CNN International (the real channel, not the awful loop you get in European hotel rooms) was excellent. On the other side of the loft was a modest desk where the high speed internet cable is accessible.

What wasn't so great:

* The one modest gripe we had with the apartment was about the "queen" size bed, which was actually two full size beds pushed together. This is not an uncommon arrangement in apartment rentals and economy hotels outside the U.S., but in my experience when the room is arranged that way it also includes a brace of some kind to secure the frames or the box springs together. This wasn't such an inconvenience that we bothered to visit the management about it, but it is worth noting as something you may wish to address with them before your stay begins.

Scorecard:

Two Critical Questions:

Would I stay here again?
Absolutely. I don't think I would even bother investigating any new alternatives.

Was it good value?
Again, absolutely. The convenience, space and comfort for the dollar was great value.

Essentials

Bed - Okay - would have been better with a brace.



Bathroom - Very good. Spacious, modern and ...

... with a neat view out of a porthole window in the shower (below).



Kitchen - Excellent. Full range of up-to-date appliances.

Amenities

TV - Very good. DirecTV package is great, the TV itself is a bit small, but plenty good enough for the occasional use it gets on a vacation.

The Internets - Very good. High speed, reliable and set up on a nice desk in the loft, making for a nice place to have some coffee and catch up on news from home.

Dining Room - Beautiful - just wish we actually used it.

Balcony - Great perch for watching a slice of Quito pass you by.

Evaluating Hotel & Apartment Options in Quito, Ecuador

Image Source: ColonialEcuador.com

Update: For the review of our stay at this apartment, check out this post.

When trying to decide where in Quito we should stay during our upcoming vacation, the first choice we had to make was between New Town, or Northern Quito, which is more modern and commercial, or Old Town, a section of the city that retains the Colonial Spanish architecture and vibe.

New Town by far seems to have the most options. Based upon guide book reviews [the Moon Handbooks guide seems pretty good, as does this one from Insight Guides, but note that Amazon right now doesn't seem to have the 2006 edition that I was able to get in person at Borders] as well as reviews on sites like Trip Advisor, I narrowed down the consideration set to these:

* Hotel Cafe Cultura - In particular, rooms 9, 10 and 17 looked pretty good. These folks were quick in bouncing back to my inquiry about availability and if other plans didn't come together, I think we would have been happy to stay here.

* Antinea Apart Hotel - This place looked like a real candidate, but unfortunately they never answered my emails asking about availability. Looks like they have both hotel rooms and apartments for rent. Their site has a lot of information, but it isn't organized as well as it could be to clearly match pictures with rooms/apartment options, etc. Maybe you will have better luck than I did and they will answer your emails to better explain their options.

* Hostal de la Rabida - Seemed like a nice place, but some reviews noted that the rooms might be a little small, and without many pictures to actually see the rooms, I couldn't commit to this place.

The Old Town options appear to mainly be hostels or other really low key places at the $10 per person per night kind of rate, like Secret Garden, which, according to the Moon guide, has a policy of "3 in a bed - that's fine with us" ... alrighty then. Perhaps an option for a different vacation during a long-gone phase of life for me, but not this time around.

But I didn't want to give up on Old Town, as one of my big regrets from our trip to Barcelona was that we didn't stay in the Barrio Gotico. We stayed in a perfectly decent hotel that was conveniently located, but that still haunts me as a missed opportunity.

A little bit of searching for apartment rentals in Quito led me to the ColonialEcuador.com site, which is where I found this place [also pictured above], which is in Old Town. It looks phenomenal, and at ~$40/night, it's tough to beat. The hotels above have rooms anywhere from $75 - $125/night. And few if any of those include your own kitchen, patio, DirecTV, etc. We'll see once we're on the ground if it's everything it appears to be, but for now we're pretty fired up about it.

The living room

P1010217, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

And this is the living room, from which we can see those two restaurants in the previous entries. Exciting.

Originally posted 12/26/06

View, other direction

P1010229, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

This is the view from the living room in the other direction. Restaurant in view is Sourire de Saigon, which I think might be something like Saigon's Smile. Looks good, we'll probably try it before we split.

Originally posted 12/26/06

View from our apartment

P1010226, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

Just a shot off to the right out our living room window. Restaurant is Le Coin Des Amis [roughly, Friends' Corner', I believe]. Haven't tried it yet.

Originally posted 12/26/06

Beware ParisAttitude.com

Anyone looking for a short-term apartment rental in Paris should beware of the 'customer service' provided by ParisAttitude.com. Below is the full email exchange I had with one of their representatives, so you can judge for yourself how useful they might be for you. But net for me was I took my business to another agency [Lodgis] where my questions and needs were handled much more professionally.

Email 1, received upon submitting an inquiry through the Paris Attitude website

From: Charles de La Ferrière

Dear art SINDLINGER
Thank you for your request and your interest in Paris Attitude. You have selected apartment reference numbers : 1288, 1681, 1448, 701. I am glad to inform you all of these apartments are available for your dates from 24-dec-2006 to 01-jan-2007.

Here is the information about apartment reference number : 1288
The total price for 8 nights is 891 Euros including the agency fee. There is also a refundable security deposit of 685 Euros that you get back at the end of your stay. You will find a detailed description with the pictures of the apartment, either in the attachment or on this link

Related to apartment ; 1681
The total price for 8 nights is 891 Euros including the agency fee. There is also a refundable security deposit of 685 Euros that you get back at the end of your stay. You will find a detailed description with the pictures of the apartment, either in the attachment or on this link

The information regarding apartment ; 1448
The total price for 8 nights is 891 Euros including the agency fee. There is also a refundable security deposit of 685 Euros that you get back at the end of your stay. You will find a detailed description with the pictures of the apartment, either in the attachment or on this link

And the apartment ; 701
The total price for 8 nights is 862 Euros including the agency fee. There is also a refundable security deposit of 663 Euros that you get back at the end of your stay. You will find a detailed description with the pictures of the apartment, either in the attachment or on this link

Please, let me know as soon as possible, if you want to reserve one of these apartments. I will then e-mail you the necessary documents to book it in your name.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,

Charles De la FERRIERE.
Paris Attitude
6 rue du Sentier
75002 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 42 96 80 45
Fax : +33 (0) 1 42 96 27 86

My same day reply:

Thank you very much for your quick reply. I am glad to hear that these are available. I will review the options with my wife and I intend to confirm one of them with you asap.
Best Regards,
Art

My same day follow up [to which I never received a response]:

Hello again -
I believe we are narrowing down our selection to either 1681 or 701. Can you please confirm if 701 has a TV? I do not see it on the description or in the photos, but would like to double check that before I make my final selection.
Thank you very much for your help.
Best,-
Art

My subsequent request to move ahead with a specific property:

Mr. de La Ferriere:
I have spoken with my wife and we would like to take the next steps toward reserving 1681. Please advise what else you need from us to place this reservation.
Thank you again,
-Art

Mr de La Ferriere's next day response:

Dear Mr Sindlinger,
I just had the owner on the phone and the apartement is available. However there is a majoration of 30% because of christmas period. Therefore the price including the agency fee for 8 days is 1183€. Are you still interested.?
Regards,
Charles de La Ferriere.

My response to the news of this 'majoration' [to which I never received a reply]:

Mr. de La Ferriere,

Thank you for the update. That is a pretty substantial increase. I think I would rather explore some other options. I will continue checking your site for alternatives, but please let me know if the owner of 1681 changes his or her mind regarding the majoration, because we would still be interested at the original rate that was quoted [891 Euros].

Best,-Art

My next day request for more information on other properties listed on their website [to which I did not receive a reply]:

Mr. de La Ferriere -

May I inquire about a few other apartment options? I have reviewed more of your listings and found some alternatives. Could you please advise if they are available and, if they are, what the rental price would be for our desired dates [arrive 24-Dec, depart 1-Jan].
The listing numbers are:
894
1586
1682
1514
1479
1683
We are still very interested in securing an apartment through your service and greatly appreciate your assistance in helping us find a place for our holiday. My wife and I were engaged in Paris and will be celebrating an anniversary with this trip.

Thank you again.
Best,
Art

Originally posted 11/26/06