Ritz Carlton Kyoto

July 24, 2016

Prior to this trip, my brother-in-law called to tell me that he was being flown on an international trip via business class. All I could say was that they treat you right and once you have flown business, you never want to fly coach again. Would my experience at the Ritz Carlton be the same? The short answer is, YES! During the early part of my career, I installed system into hotels and I stayed in some very nice hotels. When I finally started making enough money to travel on my own, I resumed travelling and make it a point to go on an international trip at least once a year. This trip through Authentiscapes and Admiral Travel had been one of the best and well worth what I paid.

The hotel in Tokyo was upscale with great views of the city. The rooms were nice and housekeeping attended to them twice a day. The staff was super nice and if they were on the elevator and got off the elevator before you, they would exit the elevator, turn around and face you and then bow, and bow, and kept bowing until the elevator closed. In Kyoto, we were greased by staff members who asked about the day and walked us to the elevators. At one point, there were three members of the staff waiting outside the elevator bowing while we waited for the doors to close. It was one of those awkward moments, do we keep waving and saying goodbye? Do we bow? Susanne Curtsied which made it more awkward. Finally the elevator doors closed slowly and the entire time, the three staff member were bowing and saying something. Yep – awkward!

The Kyoto hotel had a lot more character. It seemed to be more of a spa hotel than a corporate hotel. Of course everything in the room was automated – as you walked around lights turned on and off, curtains automatically opened. Everything was so nice including the breakfasts at both hotel. In both hotels, they offered a buffet as well as eggs cooked to order. I order the eggs Benedict and was amazed that each day, they came out perfect and exactly the same. I was also amazed that the yolks were a deep orange. I have seen this in foreign countries where the chickens where the free range chickens who feed on a lot of bugs have a much deeper colored and richer yolk. They always poached the egg perfectly.