Hotel By The City & The Sea What: W Hotels aims to make its upcoming Spanish W opening its flagship property for Western Europe.

The Dirt: Starwood Hotels is forging ahead with growth, recession or not, with big plans for one of Europe’s most cultural cities on the Mediterranean. Anyone that doubts Barcelona likely hasn’t been. Barcelona has an amazing soccer team, FC Barcelona, art from legends Gaudi, Picasso and Joan Miro, great dining, fabulous clubs, a beach on [...]

Revive Thyself TravelerWhat: Contributing Editor Bir Ganguly takes a look at one of California and America’s first certified green hotels, a San Francisco operation with a sister hotel (Orchard Hotel) and a great holiday getaway deal.

The Dirt:On a recent trip to the west coast, I decided to check out San Francisco’s newest and ‘greenest’ hotel – the Orchard Garden Hotel. It is one of California’s first hotels built to the specifications of the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. I consider myself fairly environmentally conscious. [...]