Review - Ishtar Hotel ⭐️ — The SL Hotel Inspector

Introduction

Edit - (August 2022). Unfortunately the Ishtar Hotel is closing. For alternatives see our list of recommendations.

The Feb issue of Attention SL included a preview of the Ishtar Hotel.

The Hotel is now open, and has changed quite a bit since my original article. As a result, I came back with Aria Christen for a weekend, and did a full review.

Many of the pictures here are Aria’s, please follow her excellent Flickr feed and check out her blog.

Summary

The Ishtar Hotel is easily one of the best hotels and resorts in Second Life.

The Middle Eastern / Indian themed decor and colour scheme is beautifully done, the hotel has extensive grounds with lots to explore, the pool is probably the nicest hotel pool I have seen in SL, and there’s now a restaurant from Fete on-site as well.

Go and visit, or even better, go and stay. Highly recommended

Ishtar Hotel SLURL

Overall look and feel

The Ishtar consists of a main hotel building with a bar, Fete Restaurant, and a patio leading out to two pools, one more adult than the other.

Surrounding the hotel you then have a vast woodland area, a beach, a lake (again with cuddle and seating spots) and cafes / hangout locations such as ‘Puck’s Lounge.’

Agnes has deliberately made the grounds free to explore (i.e. you don’t need to be a guest), and there is definitely a lot here.

The whole place is also very couple’s orientated, there are lots of little spots where you and your significant other can cuddle - and with the hotel being adult, more.

Overall - 5 / 5

The rooms

The Ishtar has three types of rooms, Whiskey Suites, Martini Suites and the Ishtar Suite, which is where Aria and I stayed.

Though I found the Whiskey Suites a little too dark for my taste when I originally saw one, the Martini Suites and Ishtar Suite are brighter and look stunning.

The Martini Suite has a bedroom, bathroom, large living room and study area. The Ishtar Suite meanwhile is huge, and reminded me a lot of Moroccan Riads I’ve stayed in in Marrakech and Essaouira.

There’s a central courtyard with a pool, and places to sit, a bedroom, bathroom, study and large sitting area. Meanwhile an elevator takes you up to a cuddle spot, which has a very Arabian Nights vibe about it.

The Ishtar Suite is expensive - 3500L a night, putting it in the top end of what you will pay for SL Resorts. I think it’s somewhere special to take a significant other, and you may even want to consider it for a honeymoon.

A stay in a Whiskey Suite will cost you 800 and the Martini Suite 1500L a night.

Overall - 4.5 / 5

The facilities

The hotel originally was meant to have a spa, but that has been removed to save on prims.

There is however a branch of Fete Restaurant in the hotel. I am a big fan of Fete, I think it’s the best restaurant experience in SL, and so it works well to have them on site.

Aria and myself had dinner in the restaurant, which like the rest of the hotel has a distinctly Middle Eastern theme and we rated it highly.

The Ishtar also organises regular club nights and live singers, the Saturday night we were there, there was a pool party with a DJ.

However, the overall approach is very much one of you discovering the place in your own time and at your own speed. Other than Fete you won’t find the range of RP activities on offer that you might at other places.

Overall - 4 / 5

The animations

This is very much an adult themed resort, the bed in our suite was a Sexperience Revolution Champagne Suite Bed, and there was a Bazar Maldives bath - probably the most common bath I now see in SL Hotels.

The sitting animations in Fete (restaurant) worked well, as did the cuddle anims around the pool during the pool party that we went to.

Overall - 4 / 5

Other considerations

Is the resort adult? Yes, this is not a family resort

Prices? 800+ a night

Lag? We encountered some, less so in our suite, which was in a skybox. Note the Ishtar runs a kind of yellow / dusk type windlight, I personally changed it to Bryn Oh’s Bluniverse, and much preferred it

Privacy? Was good for us, as the Ishtar Suite where we stayed was quite high up

Overall

*Photo Aria Christen,* *for the original on Flickr click here*

When coming to stay, this is very much a couple’s place, and so Aria and myself made a date weekend out of it. Do what we did, book dinner at Fete, go to one of the events happening in the grounds and stay overnight.

Even if you decide not to stay, you should definitely explore, hang out in the bar or by the pool, and come to a club night, you’ll see those advertised on the Ishtar Flickr page.

Ishtar Hotel SLURL

Review - Ishtar Hotel ⭐️