Travel Wise And Cool

Best Hotels In Shanghai Featured in WSJ

Wall Street Journal discussed some amazing hotels in Shanghai. For example, Grand Hyatt Shanghai, famously located in the highest building building in Shanghai, offers breathtaking views of the Bund. Because all these hotels were only opened in the last several years, you can really expect posh interior design and impeccable experience during your stay.

Grand Hyatt

Jin Mao Tower, home of the Grand Hyatt, is the fourth-tallest tower in the world and a remarkable structure: 421 meters high with pagodalike accretions every dozen or so stories, making it look as though it has been extended telescopically, and a faintly Art Deco crown.

The Pudong Shangri-La

The newly expanded Pudong Shangri-La aspires to be the premier luxury hotel in Shanghai. Its new Horizon Club, between the 27th and 31st floors of the 36-story second tower, opened in September. The five Horizon Premier King Suites are some of the city's most luxurious and spacious (94 square meters). Each is a long rectangular room, decorated in deep wood tones, with floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall. Half is devoted to sleeping: A comfortable king-size bed with polished wooden headboard faces the window, surrounded by nightstands and switches to control the lighting and curtains. The other half is laid out for working or relaxing: a comfortable sofa, two armchairs, a coffee table (on which a fruit bowl is replenished twice daily) and a desk large enough to work at comfortably with leather-upholstered swivel chair.

JW Marriott

Of all the architects working in Shanghai at present, the one with the greatest influence is surely John Portman & Associates. Based in Atlanta, it has had a hand in many of the hotels here, not least the 60-story JW Marriott tower at Tomorrow Square. Here, the first 36 floors are filled with Marriott executive apartments; the rest of the space comprises a 342-room hotel.

Four Seasons

Even though the Shanghai outpost topped the 2005 Zagat survey of hotels in the city, it seems like a poor relation of its siblings elsewhere -- possibly because it was built with an exclusively business clientele in mind, and there's no hint of anything resorty or recreational (except a bar and a gym/pool).

Portman Ritz-Carlton

The Ritz-Carlton is close to the Four Seasons, on Nanjing Xi Road, the city's main shopping drag, handy for the luxury malls and opposite the Shanghai Exhibition Center. It is part of the Shanghai Center, a postmodern three-tower complex.

The 598-room hotel occupies the central tower, a 45-story monolith rising out of a podium containing one of architect John Portman's signature atria, complete with trees and water features, as well as a 1,000-seat theater, offices and retail space. Consequently the hotel feels like a bit of a behemoth.

St. Regis

This is the hotel that aspires to put everyone else in the shade, selling itself as the only six-star, the only one with 24-hour butler service, the only one with a ladies-only floor, providing "female-friendly accommodations" with "Bulgari beauty products, Evian skin-care atomizers, silk hangers and magazines especially relevant to female travelers." Oh, and female butlers "to ensure that every lady feels safe." It's also got agreeably large rooms: an average 48 square meters. However, the tower it's housed in is a mere 40 stories and suffers from a very inferior location.