COST: $$$$
From the T+L 500
Two sleek 26-story towers with contemporary interiors and an impressive art collection, just a 5-minute walk from the historic Bund waterfront.
| Score | 86.09 |
|---|---|
| Stats | 570 rooms; 3 restaurants; 1 bar. |
| Rooms to Book | 15th-floor rooms on the west side of the newer tower, for superior river views. |
| Insider Tip | The Stage serves a lavish champagne Sunday brunch, with dancers, musicians, and a 12-piece string orchestra. |
| Cost | Doubles from $515. |
| Amenities |
|
Icon Key |
|||||||
 |
New to the T+L 500 |  |
High-Speed Internet | |
Gym | |
Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Spa |  |
Tennis |  |
Golf |  |
Outdoor Activities |
 |
Water Activities |  |
Fishing | |
Kids' Program | ||
Perched between the Bund and People’s Square, this 570-room hotel attracts a mixed clientele of corporate high rollers, Asian celebs, and global leisure seekers. The bustling lobby, with its atrium bar, potted palms, and a cantilevered glass staircase, makes an immediate, swanky impression; the plush, stylish rooms—spread between two adjoining towers—follow suit with their black-and-blond-wood furnishings, jade ornaments, signature Heavenly beds, and marble bathrooms with separate rainforest showers and deep soaking tubs. Lodgings in the Grand Tower have extras like DVR’s and wall-mounted TV’s in the bathrooms. In the third-floor Banyan Tree Spa, staffers dole out treatments based on the five elements of earth, gold, water, wood, and fire (in-room services are available, too). Fitness fans can get their fix at the duplex on-site gym or the spacious indoor pool.
Tip: The Westin’s lavish Sunday brunch—during which Chinese acrobats, opera stars, and magicians all perform—is a Shanghai institution.
Room to Book: Executive suites (like No. 1262) have blond-wood paneling, potted plants, glass lanterns, and views of both the city and river skylines.
lastArticle = and lastAward = 01/2008
