Introduction - A Random Jaunt to Europe
I spent the majority of 1H24 studying for an exam, so I wanted to treat myself to a little late spring European vacation after the exam concluded. My wants were simple (if you can believe it!): somewhere with natural beauty and without crowds. My partner is a big fan of the sceneries in southern Germany/Austria, and the idea of strolling by an alpine lake appealed to me as well. I started my planning with Vienna, with the intention of driving westward to Salzburg and maybe ending the trip in Munich. When I was looking at hotel options in Vienna, though, I was provided with numerous properties in Bratislava, given the close proximity. Being a random girlie that I am, this new discovery immediately piqued my interest. People are often surprised by the fact that I’ve been to Bucharest but not Amsterdam.
I knew not much about Slovakia, but looking at the map now as I’m writing this post, I’d previously been to every one of its neighbors except Ukraine, lol. As if that’s not fortuitous enough, just a couple of days before we were supposed to depart, news broke out that the Slovak PM Robert Fico had been shot in an assassination attempt.
Anyway, back to my travel planning… my usual approach when it comes to researching a new country is to look for the nicest hotels in that country… so in this case I found the Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras. Kempinski and I actually go way back. While I’ve never stayed at one, Kempinski was the first international hotel to open in the city where I lived as a child. In elementary school I took extracurricular courses on every Saturday. The Kempinski was on the way from the education center back to our house, so my parents would always make a pit stop at its western restaurant where I’d get a steak dinner as a reward. As a kid, the steaks at the Kempinski got me through hours of Olympiad math, writing, cello and dance lessons. Based on the pictures from the hotel website, it’s nestled by a beautiful lake in front of the snow-capped Tatras Mountains. Being in Slovakia, I had fairly high confidence that it wasn’t going to be full of Americans like in Italy or Greece. What did I say earlier about what I wanted out of this trip? Nature - tick. No crowd - also tick.
Now that I’ve centered and morphed my trip into something completely different from my original vision (hate when that happens), I gotta figure out the logistics. I decided to still fly into Vienna and overnight there, as Bratislava isn’t as accessible via air. From a pure distance standpoint, one could also fly into Kraków, which is closer to the Tatras than Vienna. I booked us a one-way cash economy fare on American Airlines from Miami to Heathrow, and then a separate ticket on British Airways from Heathrow to Vienna. When I made the booking a month out, business cabin on the transatlantic leg had 25 empty seats, so an upgrade seemed probable. Well, it turned out that I had completely underestimated the power of American consumers, because by the week leading up to departure business class was fully sold out. I tried to triage my situation and avoid flying across the pond sitting upright, but the best I could do was Virgin Atlantic in its premium economy. The cost were a minimal sum of 22,500 Virgin points plus a hefty ~$400 in taxes and fees per person. It had been years since I flew long-haul in a seat that does not lie flat, so that was gonna be interesting… Spoiler alert - I survived.
I planned a quick overnight in London. We had a Marriott free night certificate that was expiring, so I redeemed it for the JW Marriott Grosvenor House. The paid rates in London were actually quite reasonable for our dates, as the Edition was charging £600, and the Bvlgari and the Rosewood for not much more. We were only on the ground in London for roughly 24hrs, so I didn’t care as much. For our equally short stay in Vienna, I chose the Imperial Riding School, an Autograph Collection hotel that just opened. To get to the Tatras, we rented a brand new beamer convertible (the weather was gorgeous) from Sixt and would highly recommend Sixt for rental cars in Europe.
For our return, I managed to snag two business class redemptions on Austrian Airlines A321 from Vienna to Frankfurt, and Lufthansa B747-8 from Frankfurt to Miami. This was actually my first time on a B747 in my over 900k miles of flying. These redemptions were 63,000 Avianca Lifemiles apiece plus $156 each in taxes and fees. In short, our finalized itinerary looked like this:
Review - Virgin Atlantic Premium Class A330-300 Miami to London Heathrow
Review - JW Marriott Grosvenor House London
Review - Imperial Riding School, Autograph Collection, Vienna
Review - Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras
Review - Austrian Airlines Business Class A321 Vienna to Frankfurt
Review - Lufthansa Business Class B747-8 Frankfurt to Miami
I will be skipping the review for the short Heathrow to Vienna BA flight in economy, as there’s not much to discuss there. I’m excited to bring you this review series as it covers all new airlines to this blog and a more niche hotel. For once, there’s not a single Ritz-Carlton involved, which I could’ve easily done by staying at the Ritz in Vienna😉.