The World's 7 Hottest Hostels

Lisbon / Go Sleep
en by Louise /  Louise Sandager, 15. Nov 2008


The Travellers Hostel

Forget all about five star luxury hotels. Given the current economic situation they are bad taste right now. Instead you should rather find a charming hostel full of personality.
Hostels are no longer reserved the youth and backpackers as lots of them have smartened up with funky design and individual bathrooms. They have become a serious alternative to the more expensive hotels, and while the rest of the hotel business is complaining about missing guests, the worlds’ hostels have just had their best year ever, according to the membership organisation Hostelling International.

But where are those charming spots with clean rooms, a friendly owner and a central location? Lissabon seems to be the place to go. According to hostelworld.com, who just have rated the hottest hostels in the world by asking its 800,000 users, three out of the seven best hostels are located in the Portuguese capital. At Momondo we've had a look at the list:

Published by
Louise

Unadulterated Luxury In Chamonix

Go Sleep
en by Louise /  Louise Sandager, 1. Nov 2008

There are skiing hotels of the normal kind. In fake wood, with felt on the floor. And a persistent, unmistakable scent of wet dog. Most often, they come combined with a bus ride of unimpressive quality, and you may call me a snob, but I just can’t have it.


Photo: Philippe Schaff

And then there are real winter hotels. Chalets built in massive timber, with a flaming log in the fireplace and a big bowl of nuts and apples waiting when you come in from the cold. This is what it is like at Hameau Albert 1er in Chamonix. This is where Pierre Carrier and his wife Martine reside as the fourth generation of hoteliers, and he has clearly maintained his great grandfather, Francois-Joseph’s standards. Because not only does his restaurant command two stars in the Guide Michelin, he has also rebuilt the hotel in a particularly remarkable way.



Pierre Carrier has simply bought three old alpine farms, torn them down and reconstructed them piece by piece in the hotel’s garden right in the centre of Chamonix town, so today you can either live in the hotel proper or in “La Ferme” – the farmhouse.


Photo: Philippe Schaff

We booked the latter option for a long weekend and got three days of unadulterated luxury with a private terrace and a direct view of the Mont Blanc. A “chambre spacieuse” entirely in wood with groovy orange-colored designer chairs, a Bang and Olufsen TV and personal velour slippers. A romantic lair and the perfect point of departure for a proper skiing holiday. Or for a pure chill out  holiday, for that matter. Cause even if you don’t fancy skiing, you will surely enjoy staying in the old chalets, where any kids you may have brought along can sleep in authentic alcoves, and where a resident cosmetologist in the cellars beauty salon offers facials, massages and lymph drainage every afternoon after ski.



“This is just totally, perversely decadent” as my husband joyfully noted as we lay in the steaming pool after a full day’s driving from Paris and took in the Mont Blanc. While the other guests were lying in chaiselongues under the palms inside, we were swimming in the garden where people walked around in caps and big sweaters. Neither of us wanted to spoil the experience by thinking about the heating bill, or indeed our own bill. Because the deal was that we would rather spend three days in real luxury than a week in a prefabricated winter hotel. And we never regretted it.

Many hotels and tourist destinations currently try to attach a story to their product. Because smart marketing guys have told them that story-telling is a profitable strategy. Unfortunately, this often results in boring anecdotes about the places’ mediocre origin.


Photo: Philippe Schaff

But in the case of Hameau Albert 1er, the story is so authentic that even the most trendy branding people couldn’t ask for more.

Pierre Carrier can thus trace his ancestry in Chamonix back to the 17th century. Generations of peasants were ploughing the meagre mountain land until alpinism kicked in and the first tourists emerged. Then they changed tracks and threw themselves into this new business.      

When the railroad arrived in 1902, Pierre Carrier’s great-grandfather opened a boarding house, and it is this modest “railroad boarding house” which since has been refined and renamed Albert 1er after the Belgian king, who was an accomplished mountaineer and a frequent visitor in Chamonix.
Since Pierre Carrier’s return to the hotel in 1979, it has been showered with honors and awards to the extent that the owner today has two stars in the fastidious Guide Michelin.  



They are well deserved, because the restaurant at Albert 1er is exactly as gastronomically elegant as you can expect at this level. Try for instance a “century menu”, which offers duck foie gras en confit with pickled peaches and cranberry caramel, filet of lavaret from Lake Geneva with cepe, langoustine with pine nuts and a black raddish remoulade, and of course a selection of French cheeses and fine chocolate biscuits with honey-roasted figs.

All of it served in the cozy restaurant with wooden walls and waiters who know the 20,000 wines in the cellar as if they were old friends.



Today, the fifth generation of the Carrier family has already been enrolled to take over, and generation number six is on its way. The owner’s daughter, Perrine, has married the cook – and number two man in the kitchen – Pierre Maillet, and a new member of the family is just around the corner. With a good eye for business opportunities, the family has opened a less pretentious restaurant – La Maison Carrier – in connection with La Ferme, where you can sit in low-ceilinged, traditional rooms with heavy wooden tables, stone floors and a huge fireplace for rotating suckling pigs and watch the chef juggle the cheese fondue. Order it! It is totally traditional with rich, melted cheese in the copper casserole and big chunks of bread for dipping. To me, on a cold winter day, this beats any sophisticated Michelin-menu. And you can always save some room for an Irish coffee down at the Irish pub in the town later in the evening.



Because even though Hameau Albert 1er is a beautiful pocket of luxury, we should not isolate ourselves from the world outside. And Chamonix may not be, architecturally speaking, the most beautiful alpine station, but it still has all the charm that you get when you have plenty of pure air, smooching, after ski and happy Italians weekending in a valley surrounded by tall mountains and perfect weather.



This place simply has the perfect mix of class and good creperies, French families with many children and black Porsches on Swiss plates. And of course plenty of tanned skiing daredevils. But still without too much felt carpeting and wet dog scent!

HAMEAU ALBERT 1ER, 38 route du Bouchet, 74402 Chamonix

Go further: In the other end of the scale - read about Homeboy Ski's life as ski-bum in Chamonix here.

Published by
Louise