La Stampa, Dublin
Where is it? Have you ever been out nightclubbing and wished you could simply crawl upstairs and fall into bed? La Stampa is located smack bang above the craic that is to be had at one of Dublin's top night spots, SamSara.
What is so different about it? It's a quirky luxury boutique hotel in a 19th-century Georgian townhouse.
What's the ambience like? The property, a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group, has 29 rooms and five individually designed suites. The main suite, appropriately named the Moroccan, is extravagantly decorated with a flavour of northwest Africa and comes with a chauffeur-driven Bentley that the hotel's proprietor, Louis Murray, acquired from the king of Morocco. Tell us more about the decor: the interior was fashioned by owner and interior designer Sarah Murray in collaboration with Parisian interior designer Miguel Cancio Martins. Martins' portfolio includes Johnny Depp's Man Ray bar-restaurant in Paris, the Olivia Valere nightclub in Marbella, Spain, and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Suites look like a feature from a luxury home-design magazine, incorporating Thai, Moroccan and European furnishings. There are velvet Parisian bed covers, crisp Egyptian cotton sheets, Persian carpets and French Renaissance-style furniture. Modern conveniences such as fully stocked mini bars, safes and television sets are all hidden away within chic cabinets. Bathrooms, which are stocked with Bulgari toiletry products, have antique clawfoot designer bathtubs surrounded by lavender walls adorned with gold motifs.
What's the vibe? Cool and trendy. The SamSara Cafe Bar is the place in which to down a cocktail while rubbing shoulders with Dublin's hipsters. Its exclusive mezzanine floor claims to have hosted celebrities such as Bono and Charlize Theron. Theme nights such as Salsa Sunday and Cha Cha Wednesday are all the rage.
What about the cuisine? International celebrity chef Jean Christophe Novelli offers modern European cuisine in the Brasserie, while Tiger Becs serves traditional Thai fare.
What is there to do? Dawson Street has lots of trendy cafes and boutiques while Grafton Street is lined with stores selling top designer brands. A few blocks away are the narrow cobblestoned streets of Temple Bar, Dublin's cultural quarter, where open-air performances and weekend markets draw large crowds.
One of the stops for the Dublin hop-on, hop-off bus is conveniently close to the hotel, in front of St Stephen's Green.
Anything else we should know? The hotel's Mandala Spa is an eastern escape modelled on fung shui principles. It takes guests through polished teak, bamboo and silks to a range of treatments from India, Thailand, Japan, China and Bali. The spa's piece de resistance is the holistic bath ritual, carried out in a magnificent carrera marble bath surrounded by candles and garnished with petals.
What's the bottom line? The rack rate for a room is Euro275 (HK$2,800) a night and suites cost Euro475.
