Hotel Irvine – An Ideal Venue in Orange County’s Urban Hub

By J.C. Thomas Irvine is commonly characterized by the hundreds of corporate headquarters whose high-rise office buildings tower over the city’s neat and sunshiny master-planned landscape. This makes it easy to overlook Irvine as a vacation destination, but look beyond its businesslike veneer and you’ll uncover the vibrant urban epicenter of Orange County. Unlike the […]

Stay at the Dream Inn For Sand, Sunsets and the Santa Cruz Surf Scene

The beachfront pool hot tub and bar at the Dream Inn, Santa Cruz, California (Photo by California News Press)

By Joanne Thomas In a town like Santa Cruz, where tourism revolves around the beach, the surf and the Boardwalk, it’s remarkable that there’s only a single hotel – the Dream Inn – claiming a beachfront setting. Since it first opened in the 1970s, the only beachfront hotel in Santa Cruz has promised its guests […]

A Night at the Royal Lancaster London Hotel

By J. C. Thomas When you’re spending a night in one of Europe’s grand old cities – and London is arguably the grandest of them all – select a hotel that matches the splendor of the whole experience. The Royal Lancaster London, a 411-room icon of midcentury architecture a stone’s throw from Hyde Park, is […]