Sleeping
The Garth Hotel, Grantown, Scotland
It’s unusual for me to be in Scotland as a tourist, so the past few days have been an absolute delight. In the Highlands almost every bend in the road reveals another breathtaking vista, and we had the perfect weather for touring – strong winds that produced roiling clouds, localized showers and startling sunshine. We [...]
Satri House – Worth paying for the best room.
Review: There are now many choices of where to stay when visiting Luang Prabang, that little Cotswold-style gem of a town in central Laos. On our last trip we decided to stay on the edge of town in Satri House as Mr H had his heart set on staying in one particular room he had [...]
Three Hotels in Kota Kinabalu
Reviews: Kota Kinabalu is one of those destinations that is very family friendly and easily reachable from HK and Singapore in particular. Then there are the Koreans who come for the golf, and finally those people like me who use it as a transit point to the far more interesting destinations either deep in the [...]
Koh Yao Noi – The Paradise Resort
Now usually I wouldn’t divulge my most favourite places until I’d swooped in and secured the real estate at a decent price, but I feel compelled to share this one right now. I love holidaying in Thailand, and I’ve recently discovered another little gem that joins the River Kwai and Khao Sok in my list [...]
The Eugenia, Bangkok. Still a little gem.
Review: I’ve tried out a number of hotels in Bangkok over the past few years since I first stayed in the Eugenia back in 2006 (review here). Getting around Bangkok is still a bit of a nightmare, so you have to mitigate this by planning where you stay very sensibly in relation to what you [...]
Hotel Lancaster, Paris – sublime.
Review: This post is part of the same Parisian story that saw my partner and I leaving Hotel Costes rather earlier than expected after a run in with some particulary obnoxious staff. Having either been bumped from our room, or just downright lied to by that hotel, our lifestyle manager, who was distraught that we’d been [...]
Hotel Costes, Paris – Supercilious sons of bitches.
Review: THIS IS NOT CHILD FRIENDLY READING… As I’ve mentioned before on these pages, I have been lucky enough to stay in some fantastic hotels. Unfortunately, the massively hyped Hotel Costes in Paris, does not fall into this category. I’d first stumbled across Hotel Costes back in the summer of 2006 walking home from a [...]
Villa Amistà, Verona – Byblos owner has created a ludicrously good hotel.
Review: I’m going to resist the temptation to post lots of photos of this hotel, and would recommend that you don’t look at the website too deeply (or at all) before you book, leave it as a surprise… To have somewhere like the Villa Amistà sprung on you after a particularly long and harrowing journey, [...]
Ca Maria Adele – perfect, bijou hotel in Venice.
Review: With all this recent brouhaha from debating the banning of day-trippers from Venice, I thought it time to put together some posts on that rather wonderful city. I have to admit that I am a lucky so-and-so to have stayed in such amazing places over the years, and for me, one of the most [...]
Sukhumvit/Ploenchit – Where to sleep, shop, spa and sup in Bangkok
I never tire of Thailand. I don’t think it’s possible to have a bad holiday there, unless you are a muppet and go around smoking drugs and letting coconuts fall on your head. I never tire of Bangkok either, even though I’ve been there countless times. It’s just a great city, but – and this [...]