“I’m in a hotel – and I’m going to treat myself!”

Montreal-born TV personality, actor, model, and author Antoni Porowski remembers the exact moment he discovered the glorious potential of hotels. ‘As a kid, I went on a ski trip with my family to Mont-Tremblant, and we stayed at the Hôtel Quintessence’, he says. ‘My parents went for a fancy dinner downstairs, so my cousins came to my room and we had room service for the first time ever’, he recalls. ‘I had spaghetti with meatballs and they brought extra parm. And then I asked for even more parm. And I felt so powerful because you can just pick up a phone and ask for more things – it was very exciting’.

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Porowski is always seeking out experiences he can’t easily find at home, so many of his best hotel memories revolve around food – not surprising, as he’s the food and wine expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, and has published two cookbooks, including 2021’s Antoni: Let’s Do Dinner. The breakfast at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, in particular, has left a lasting impression: ‘They have these incredible local dishes’, he says. ‘Did I ever think that I would have a shellfish broth with these beautiful open Manila clams and squid and octopus for breakfast? No, but I did – and it was delicious’.

And for Porowski, the giddy novelty of room service hasn’t tempered at all since childhood. Thinking of what his perfect hotel stay might look like, the actor mentions ordering his favourite dessert at the Cadogan by Belmond in London’s Belgravia. ‘I would order a sticky toffee pudding, and it’s all about the vibe, so I’d turn on the TV’, he says. ‘I’ll eat my warm, sticky pudding in bed because I don’t do that at home, but I’m in a hotel and I’m going to treat myself’.

Sometimes the novelty he’s seeking is as simple as a beautiful natural setting, an escape from the bustle of his Manhattan home. ‘At the Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, Maine, you feel like you’re at this adult summer camp and they have these beautiful, unique treehouses that are designed by local interior designers’, he says. ‘There are firepits everywhere, you can get a s’mores kit, they have bicycle rentals, and it’s dog friendly, which is extremely important’, he notes. ‘It makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the woods but as soon as you leave the property, you realise you’re in a beach town, so you get the best of both worlds’. 

Among the other things Porowski doesn’t typically get to enjoy at home: a night spent inside a site-specific art installation. ‘When I’m scrolling through hotel options, I look for something that’s kind of unique and different, and kind of off the beaten path’, he says. ‘In Louisville, at the 21c Museum Hotel, which has a lot of art, there is a room called Asleep in the Cyclone‘, he says of the hotel’s immersive installation by New York-based artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe.

‘It’s in the basement. There are no windows. There is an entire stained-glass situation that’s going on in the background, floor to ceiling, it’s got a sunken living room that’s very ’70s’, he recalls. ‘It’s just this bizarre, weird experience that you wouldn’t get under any other circumstance’. In other words, an experience only a great hotel can deliver.

Martina Sheehan

Writer

Martina Sheehan is a Chicago-based travel writer-editor who has written for the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Budget Travel, Forbes Travel Guides, and Time Out guidebooks, among others. She has traveled to 38 countries and 46 states, and never leaves home without a good map app, a themed playlist, and her daughter.