The Inbal Hotel is located in Jerusalem in possibly the absolute best location in the city. It’s walking distance from the German Colony, the Old City and the market (ok, granted the market would be a bit of a schlep, but on a nice day – totally doable).  Required self disclosure – my husband and I were invited by the Inbal for the weekend. I also tweeted about it the whole weekend, but that was my choice. The hotel impressed me and the people were unbelievably nice and helpful. What a fantastic combination.

This Jerusalem hotel is 5-star. It looks like a 5-star hotel, has the amenities of a 5-star hotel and has the location of a 5-star hotel. So I’m not going to focus on that, because that’s boring. If you’ve been to a 5-star hotel, this is like the others. What makes the Inbal stand out is the service. We went to the spa (which was amazing and idiot me didn’t take photos.) I looked at the gym (but lazy me didn’t go work out and yes, didn’t photos of that either – but it was a great gym. Totally my bad for not going.)

They remembered that it was our seventh anniversary. Granted, I didn’t make it hard for them to miss it – I asked to move the date so that we could be there for our anniversary (I’m as subtle as a heart attack) but they didn’t have to leave a really tasty cake with “Happy Anniversary” on it or the champagne in the room.  (See the video of the first room view below – this is totally unedited and it’s my first impression of the space – I didn’t even realize the cake was there till after.)

For this design review I’m focusing on the things I liked – such as these bizarre lights with tentacles.

They looked kind of “hotel-chic-meets-science-fiction” to me. I tried using the tentacle light without the main one and I have to say – it didn’t really work. But that could be because it was day time…

I also liked the fruit and flower.

The one thing the room lacked (sorry, have to mention it) was separate sheers under the heavy curtains. If we could draw the sheers in the day time we could still enjoy the natural light and walk around as we feel like without wondering if any of the neighbors across the street had binoculars.

But my absolute favorite thing about the design of the hotel was the pattern of the elevator doors. I have to say, this was a nightmare to capture via camera. We went up and down 20 times or so because the elevator is dark and, well, moving.

And this pattern went on the side of the door as well…

Patterns were everywhere here. Under the balcony…

The hallway carpet had pattern…

The executive lounge is lovely – and the view is better than any Cafe nearby.

I also took pictures of the German Colony and some of the market. If you are heading out to Jerusalem and you need a place to stay in an incredible location with great food (even on shabbos) – you need to go to the Inbal Hotel. It’s also child friendly.

I got back from China this morning at 3am. There will be many posts on the amazing things I saw in China when I finally get over jetlag and such, but in the meantime this was in my inbox and it was too good to not pass on.

I was perusing youtube and found a great dining room decorating video from Country Living. While the dining rooms in Israel are no where near as grand as this one (typically) it still gives some good advice on storing things and putting together collections. I especially liked the mismatched chairs and how she brought them together through color and fabric. The colors are a tad conservative for me, but no one can argue that the room is lovely and very livable.