Nota Bene (NB Review) Destination Reviews

By Hilary Rowland

      When only the absolute finest will do, Nota Bene is for you. These très exclusive guides are available by subscription (and in very few select high-end shops in London) and cost $420 US ($395 + packing) per year to subscribe; that gets you ten 60-page guide books/issues. Each issue has about 30 to 40 savagely honest pages (including about 10 to 15 full page photos) on the issue's main destination, and about 20 pages that update past issues about other cities.

If you are an extremely discerning and style-conscious traveller, with no particular budget, these are the guides for you. Written by journalists who often come off as wealthy New York socialites (and who, especially in the urban city issues, compare everything to its -better- New York equivalent), the style of dialogue can get a bit aloof and snobbish.

"Perhaps the low point came when we ordered room service late one evening, and someone thought (without reference) to replace the raspberries we'd asked for with strawberries, and worse still substitute basil for the mint in our tea. On another occassion the do-not-disturb sign on our door was ignored. No one actually entered, but they telephoned all the same. This is not what one expects from such an establishment."
- Nota Bene, St. Moritz issue, p 49 discussing the Hotel Park Hyatt in Paris.

The guides are unique in that, instead of the usual quick and almost always 100% positive rundown of absolutely every hotel in the city, the Nota Bene guides only talk about the very best of the best--and even then, half of their comments are negative (hotels take note). Also unlike any other guide we've seen, they can have pages on one hotel alone (especially if it's the chic luxury hotel in that city).

A fun idea: the new Nota Bene guide of the month usually features the coolest destination of-the-moment (like St. Moritz, Courchevel, Capri, Maldives, Costa Smeralda and Marrakech) so, in theory, you could safely let Nota Bene choose where you'll be vacationing for that month.

These are the perfect guides to have when you are choosing where to stay or where to dine. It is truly like having a well-travelled companion give you a personal and detailed review of all the chicest places to be seen.

Is there anything missing? Well, given that the guides are obviously aimed at wealthy travellers who are very concerned with what is luxurious, hip and cool, I would have liked to see a section in the guides rating the top spas in the area. Also, since many of the guides are vacation destinations, listing spas would be especially useful.

A minor complaint; I brought a Nota Bene guide with me on a recent trip to London and visited some of the places they mentioned. Most turned out to be somewhat close to what they described, but one hot spot I attempted to visit (by taking a $30 cab ride to) was, as many clubs in London are, members-only. The doorman wouldn't even let me in when I (shame on me) showed him my press card. Needless to say, it would have been useful to know this ahead of time. That said, I did also take a Nota Bene with me to St. Moritz, and found no obvious discrepancies in that issue; Although St. Moritz is really all about being chic--and it's all anyone talks about--so it's not very hard to find out what's hip there.

The best thing about these guides is the first four pages, where they describe, like a true insider, the dynamics of the city. I found these descriptions to be quite accurate--it's obvious they talked to many locals to come up with this information.

All in all, true insider guides. You'll still need the typical Eyewitness or Frommers guide for complete information and maps, but these guides should be all you need in terms of finding a perfectly hip place to sleep and eat.

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