Philadelphia Hotel Monaco – Kimpton With Love

I was planning my first  “flight” out of ZFV (i.e., Philadelphia 30th Street Amtrak Station) and  I decided to make a night in Philadelphia into a mini-vacation before the vacation.

We love, love love Kimpton hotels, and decided a night in Phillie at the Hotel Monaco – a Kimpton Hotel – would be perfect.  It wasn’t only perfect, it was outrageous. It was amazing.  It was beautiful. It was love.

The Monaco is located in the historic district of Philadelphia, next to the Liberty Bell and countless other buildings of Revolutionary importance.    We walked in the door and were welcomed by the lush yet quirky opulence of the hotel and warmly greeted by the staff.  I have been a member of Kimpton’s loyalty program “In Touch” for years, but through a reciprocity match, I was now a member of Kimpton’s  Inner Circle, which – if you can believe it – entitled me to a complementary stay  (You can read about Inner Circle and reciprocity matches here).  Oh my god,  I felt like Cinderella!

Kimptons are dog-friendly

The salon is so comfortable-chic. It is also where the famous Kimpton wine hour is held daily.

Sometimes I feel a little like Alice in Wonderland at Kimpton Hotels

We were given the keys to our room, and…..  when we opened the door we were flabbergasted.  Wow, what a suite!!  I cannot begin to describe the beauty and the attention to every detail – so I will share some photos.

The living room:

The bedroom:

The bathroom:

I must admit, I can never decide if I really like or dislike Etro toiletries.

The closet with the famous Kimpton Robe, and a Philadelphia surprise – a Rocky robe!

The view:

They even had the famous Kimpton yoga mat:

Of course, we had to go have a Philadelphia Cheese steak.   The concierge recommended Campo’s.  Great suggestion.

We got back to the hotel in time to drop off our stuff in our room, and, to our surprise, found this waiting for us –

We went downstairs for the wine hour – we enjoyed the ambiance as well as the wine and the sangria.  We particularly enjoyed the friendly staff who were pouring!

After the wine hour, Won’t Run had to take a nap.  I decided to wander around the hotel a bit. I went up to the Stratus Rooftop Lounge and took some photos.   It was a really cool venue, but unfortunately closes early on Sunday nights.

I also visited the Fitness Center – I will share those photos in a separate post.

We then went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Red Owl Tavern.  I highly recommend the mussels!  I kept tweeting about this wonderful place.  And I kept receiving return tweets from @Kimpton such as this:

We retired to the room, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye.

We were so sad to leave. But we know we’ll be back!!

I will be back in Philadelphia in November for the Philadelphia Marathon.  I hope I’ll be lucky enough to stay at one of the Philadelphia Kimpton Hotels.