In the beginning of June, the new Hedonistit site was launched after many months of very intensive work, which included an infinite number of phone calls, emails and exhausting errands all over.

I know what you’re probably thinking to yourselves – “boo hoo, poor baby… always traveling & eating at amazing restaurants” {and getting my ass kicked during workouts to pay for it  }, but behind the scenes, my life is much more hectic than what you see and I felt the need to go on vacation ASAP.

A vacation overseas was planned for the near future, but I felt I needed to refresh my energy and go on a romantic getaway with my new husband, who since the wedding managed to see only my bangs above the laptop screen and received quick and stressed answers to every question he asked me.

With amazing synchronisation, I received an invitation* to a new private suites hotel called “Gordonia Private Hotel”, which I tried contacting before they even accepted reservations in order to review it just for you guys {and it’s good I did, because  I already managed to receive a few private messages asking me exactly about this hotel 😉 }.

So before I go into details about this brand new hotel, and tell you what I loved and what I didn’t in detail, I want to present the hotel to those of you who haven’t heard about it yet.

The “Gordonia Private Hotel” is a private luxury hotel located in the mountains of Jerusalem, close to the hotel “Ye’arim” in the kibbutz Ma’ale Hachamisha.

The hotel has 16 very spacious suites, each one has a balcony with a deck and a private heated pool; A lobby that’s defined by the employees as the “living room” {I’ll explain later}, and a beautifully landscaped outdoors area.

The Gordonia hotel is a boutique hotel and is all about privacy, tranquility and serenity – and that’s why the fact that the hotel is for adults only makes sense and is even necessary.

Let's Cut To The Chase – here are all the things you should know about this hotel

THE LOCATION

Know the feeling you get when you travel overseas and get excited about the foreign and unknown views and landscapes, and then you think to yourself that the locals are probably used to this amazing view and don’t get nearly as excited as you when they see it?

So that’s what makes the “Gordonia Private Hotel” so magical in my opinion!

Let me explain…

As someone who was born and raised in Jerusalem, I never found the view of the mountains there amazing.

This view turned into a background in my life and I never managed to really get excited about it. In contrast, the view in the North of Israel and the views in Europe always managed to make me yearn for something distant and magical.

And then I got to the “Gordonia Private Hotel”.

Something about this hotel and its design made me feel excited about this local view, which on the one hand is my childhood view, and on the other hand made me feel a bit as if I was in Tuscany or at least Greece.

The natural woodlands, olive trees, vineyards and fig trees along with the Jerusalem stone that’s associated with the city was charming and absolutely lovely.

In my opinion, that’s what makes this hotel so charming and magical – the fact that on the one hand, it’s right here in Israel {half an hour from Tel Aviv and 15 minutes from Jerusalem}, and on the other hand it makes you feel as if you’re on a vacation overseas.

I especially liked the fact that the hotel is a bit out of sight, and even as a local, it was a bit difficult for me to find it. Very appropriate for a hotel that considers privacy as a superior value.

THE DESIGN

The highlight of the “Gordonia Private Hotel” is undoubtedly the meticulous and exclusive design that you sense in every corner of the hotel.

The design they chose gives a lot of respect to the landscape and the natural environment seen through the huge lobby {“the living room”} windows and from the suites.

For example, the color palette that was chosen for the lobby’s design was influenced from the colors reflected through the windows – shades of deep green along with shades of brown and bronze and a lot of use of wood as a raw material {the parquet, tables and some of the serving pieces}, along with classic black and white elements.

I really liked to the combination of the old with the new, which felt natural and not forced.  Vintage style with modern elements, and the use of various fabrics, textures, artwork and lighting that all create a relaxed, natural and exclusive feeling.

Bottom line – you get the sense that the designers paid attention to all of the little details, so wherever you look you’ll see details that indicate the hotel’s character, without the design feeling overdone or oppressive.

SERVICE & ATMOSPHERE

From the second we walked past the heavy and exclusive {yes, that word again… it’s just the perfect word to describe this hotel!} front gate of the “Gordonia Private Hotel”, we felt like we’re about to walk into a very special and rare hotel among all of the hotels in our small country, Israel.

We parked our car in a small parking lot in front of the hotel and we started striding on a stone path surrounded by flowers towards the entrance, accompanied by pleasant music. Then we got to the hotel lobby, also known as “the living room”.

So what’s this “living room” I promised to tell you about in the beginning of this post?

From the moment we entered the hotel, one of the workers explained that the hotel doesn’t have the classic lobby, but a “living room” designed as a wide open-space that’s open 24 hours a day for the hotel’s guests, and is divided into three areas:

1. Small seating areas, decorated beautifully, including comfortable armchairs, coffee tables, books and magazines; most of them are facing a huge window  overlooking the view. Near the seating areas are 2 big tables on which they serve breakfast and dinner, and a variety of cakes, cookies and fruit throughout the day and night {you can munch on as much as you like! }.

2. “Dining room” – this isn’t your closed, classic dining room, but an area which is part of the “living room” space, with a few tables for couples and one extra-large table most of the guests sit around for breakfast and dinner. This area creates a very homey feeling since both sides have libraries with a variety of books and décor items.

3. The kitchenette is equipped with a brand new Nespresso machine, a variety of teas, soft drinks, wines and even a platter with nuts and dried fruits to munch on.

In case you were wondering, the “living room”, just like in any ordinary lobby, is where you check-in and check-out

I really liked the homey feeling in the “living room” and the pleasant jazz music that played in the background, but I didn’t like the big table we all had to eat around for breakfast and dinner {since the tables for two were always occupied}.

After all, the hotel’s concept revolved around the word “privacy” {hey, it’s even part of the hotel’s name!}, and if I decided to go on a romantic and intimate vacation with my partner – the last thing I want to do is sit with strangers during meals.

The service was also a bit disappointing in my opinion, and not because the staff members weren’t nice.

The problem was that the “living room” usually had only one staff member, who couldn’t control everything during the meals due to lack of personnel. So during dinner, for example, it took a lot of time until they took our order for our main course – simply because the staff member working that shift had to take our dinner orders while also taking care of the guests checking-in in the evening and accompanying them to their rooms. Unfortunately, the same thing happened the morning after.

THE ROOM

The hotel has 16 suites on five price levels: from a junior suite with access to the pool {a suite with a pool that’s shared with the suite next door} up to a premium suite with a private pool.

Besides the premium suite, all the rooms are about the same size, and the main difference is the view {you can find all of the differences between them here.}

The room we got was at the lowest price level – the junior suite with the shared pool, but the suite next to us was empty so we were able to enjoy our privacy and an extra large pool all to ourselves

Our suite is amazing in my opinion for a family vacation, a double-date vacation or a bachelorette party.

I can’t even begin to explain to you the spark we had in our eyes when we entered the suite.

We’ve been to plenty hotels in our lives, but the design of this suite left us speechless.

Just – wow!!!

The suite was huge, 35 square meters, with a high, slanted ceiling with a beautiful wooden design, including :

* Coffee corner equipped with a brand new Nespresso machine and a variety of teas, all types of coffee, chilled wine and a fully equipped mini-bar {priced accordingly}. The only thing really missing in my opinion in this great corner was milk…

* A work table, equipped with speakers and a tablet including all of the information about the hotel and the activities in the area, and a pillow menu with six different pillow types!

* A beautiful sitting area, where we found a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and amazing truffles.

* A huge bed, with an even bigger headboard {!!!} which was simply a dream come true for anyone who appreciates high quality bedding {I’m married to one of those, so I understand the importance…}. The bed was super comfortable {the kind that makes you not want to get out of bed ever } and linen that was just divine {that’s what happens when the linen is made out of 100% Egyptian cotton}. Of course, there was also a super huge television {60 inches} which allows pleasant viewing from the bed.

* A lovely bathroom including a waterfall shower, a luxurious bath and a double vanity {which is my dream to have in my house} stocked with cosmetics from the well-known French cosmetics company L'Occitane.

And of course you can’t ignore the huge terrace {100 square feet} overlooking the breathtaking view of the mountains around Jerusalem, where we treated ourselves on the lounge charges and splashed around in the pool most of the day

The whole room simply gave a sense of luxury {but not the nouveau riche style at all} and attention to the smallest details – from the night lamps, to the décor items and the indulgent bath robes.

HOTEL FACILITIES

Since it’s a hotel that values privacy, you won’t find many public facilities around the hotel.

The only public areas are the “living room” and the open space outside.  Think long paths decorated with flowers, plants and even “boulders” from which relaxing music plays, that lead to the main public area the hotel, which is kind of like an outdoor living room including sitting areas, a table, bonfire and bar {which wasn’t active when we were there}.

This open area was a wonderful place to sit across the view, relax with a good book and breathe in the fresh mountain air

The hotel doesn’t have a spa, but if you want to treat yourself to a massage, you can order one of the hotel’s private spa treatments straight to your suite, or even on the lawn in the open air, if you please.

If you would rather leave the hotel for a bit, you can consult with the hotel’s staff members in the “living room” about the activities available in the area {cultural tours, culinary, wine, music and more}.

THE FOOD

As part of the resort package, breakfast and dinner are served to the guests {even though sites like Booking and Hotels only stated that the reservation includes breakfast without saying anything regarding dinner}.

After spending half a day on the hotel grounds, from check-in and until dinner, we had high expectations regarding the hotel’s culinary options. After all, you can say that the hotel is perfect in terms of the design and comfort and we expected no less in terms of the meals.

When we got to dinner everything seemed amazing at first glance – a variety of entrees set up harmoniously on huge tables, breads, cheese platters and various desserts. The options for the main course, which are supposed to change daily, were all based on the dairy and fish kosher kitchen, and all sounded very interesting.

The tasting test presented us a picture which was less rosy than we expected…

Although the food looked delicious, and was served in miniature portions which gave it the “high end” look, it was very disappointing taste-wise.

Don’t get me wrong, god forbid, I’m not saying that the food was bad – it just wasn’t excellent. You know what, it wasn’t even very good.

I’m talking mainly about the cold entrees, the small salads and the variety of fresh vegetables that were all lacking.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the soup which was tasty and well seasoned, the rich cheese platter and the main course Daniel ordered – fillet on cooked vegetables, which was just as good as a main course in a luxurious restaurant.

I chose the ravioli, which felt like it was made from a packaged meal and was just heated in the microwave… very disappointing 

Breakfast was also disappointing – the same story with the presentation in miniature dishes but without much content :

Very few fresh vegetables, Pillsbury bread {come on, the hotel is five minutes away from Abu Gosh – you couldn’t arrange fresh bread from the bakery there in the morning?}, and the biggest weakness – the dishes we ordered from the waiter, eggs Benedict and a sunny-side-up egg on a focaccia – simply weren’t great. We tasted a bite from each and decided it was better to just move the plates away from us…

One more thing that bothered me a bit was that for breakfast and dinner they didn’t bother printing out the dishes available from the kitchen, and we had to ask one of the staff members of the “living room” to describe them to us, while it felt like they were pressured enough regardless {because of the lack of personnel I mentioned earlier}.

This is a small boutique hotel, so I have no idea how they didn’t think of printing a menu for each guest daily – if the menu really does change as claimed on the hotel’s website {which didn’t happen either on the night we stayed at the hotel, since we sat next to a couple at the big table who stayed there the night before, too and told us that the dinner was the same as the previous night}.

From my description it may sound like the hotel’s food was horrible, and that really isn’t the case – but when a hotel feels so perfect, and the food is its weak spot, it’s very disappointing. Especially for foodies.

THE PRICE

The “Gordonia Private Hotel” isn’t a cheap hotel and there’s no reason for it to be.

There’s no doubt that the highlight of the hotel is its design, especially the big rooms which were tastefully designed with a private pool, which I haven’t seen anything like it in Israel.

The food wasn’t really to our taste, but I assume that since the hotel opened recently – there may be changes in the culinary field, influenced by guests’ opinions.

In terms of VFM {value for money}, this is a hotel that offers almost full value for the price – the cost of a night at the hotel is equivalent to the prices of other boutique hotels in the country {the price of this hotel is actually better than the hotel “Kramim”, which I personally didn’t love and don’t think you could even compare it to the “Gordonia”}, and it’s even more worth it than “luxurious” bungalows that offer suites with private pools, and are designed and styled in a way that doesn’t justify their price.

It’s known that the prices of boutique hotels in Israel are much higher than similar hotels in Greece, but if you want to celebrate a birthday, engagement or any other happy occasion and want a short vacation close to home, which will give you the feeling you’re overseas without the exhausting flight, then this is totally the place for you.