Hong Kong



The Experience

As its 80th birthday draws near, guests would perhaps understand if the Peninsula became a little doddery. But that's not the case -- at all. Perhaps the most famous of all Hong Kong's famous hotels has positively sprinted into the future, whether it is Internet access in all rooms, television screens above the tub or curtains that close with a mere button touch. Regulars will know that the Pen is not as formal as its grandly-pillared, playing-fountain exterior suggests. The hotel has maintained its position at the top of the Hong Kong pile by being willing to mix the cutting edge with the traditional, Eastern service with Western technology.

The Rooms

Think elegant English country mansion house, chintz curtains, cushions and quilts, with, perhaps, a Chinese table, wall print and decorative side lamp. And at 460-500 square feet, there's more room than the Hong Kong norm. Neither minimalism nor bling made it into the Pen design creed -- it's all about being comfortable: fancy and pretty, but not fanciful or overposh. The prime rooms overlook the harbor -- corner suites allow guests to soak in the tub while enjoying a panoramic vista; others face the less-attractive high-rise clutter of jam-packed Kowloon.

The Service

It's the five-star benchmark for Hong Kong and elsewhere. The idea of employees seeing their fellow workers and guests as family is, in so many cases, mere marketing. At the Pen, where 10 years of service is no novelty, the attentiveness and professional pride of waiters, bellboys and room assistants are clearly unforced. And they still tell the story of how barman Johnny Chung was shown how to make a screwdriver by Clark Gable, after initially picking up the phone to summon a handyman.

The Highlights

The marble lobby still draws a crowd every afternoon, when guests (and tourists, who form a long line) sip English tea and munch cucumber sandwiches to the accompaniment of a string quartet. But the Pen has never stopped innovating; über-trendy Felix restaurant, designed by Philippe Starck, sits 28 floors above, and while there's a fleet of 14 Rolls-Royces, there's also a helipad. There's the most formal of all Hong Kong Western hotel restaurants -- the silver-service Gaddi's -- as well as one of the finest Chinese restaurants in town, the Spring Moon. And the Pen burnished its credentials further with a new $6 million spa that follows its well-established East (discreetly)-meets-West theme.

-- Mark Graham

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