Into the Red: Amsterdam
“The No5 tram pulled round the corner, sending a few loitering pigeons into the grey sky. I was somewhere close to Rembrandtpark to the west of central Amsterdam, looking for the towering Ramada Apollo hotel.”
Browsing: The Explorer
Voyages Extraordinaires: Paris
“The time is around 10.30am, but rather than coffee, I brought a bottle of champagne: Möet – Vintage 1966 – which we’ve dispatched, so we’re in rather high spirits.”
Lime Wood Hotel
“The first thing I did with The Beloved when arriving at Lime Wood was to lose her. This is easier than it sounds…” Alex scampers to Hampshire…
A Cornwall Artscapade
“I don’t need to check your tickets, do I?” the inspector beams, before guffawing, as he enters the swanky Pullman Dining Carriage…
Return to Baku: Azerbaijan
“It doesn’t look like much beneath the wing of the plane. A sand coloured, shrubless land and a low, pale sky, not exactly tourist board porn; if anything it looks like a biblical landscape, Old Testament.”
Royal Mansour Marrakech
Before I visited The Royal Mansour Hotel, I thought I was only really interested in old hotels; venerable properties with a real sense of history and perhaps a little faded grandeur.,,
Conrad Hotel Algarve
“I don’t golf. Or is it I don’t play golf? I don’t even know how to describe the fact that I don’t play golf. I don’t putt, I don’t chip, I don’t drive. I don’t even drive cars.”
Ventnor or Bust!
Harry ventures to Ventnor, wife and toddler in tow, taking in the annual Fringe and Film Festival, late summer swims and traditional tea rooms as he goes…
Guerlain Spa: Edinburgh
I arrive at the Guerlain Spa located in Edinburgh’s Waldorf Astoria Caledonian Hotel on a grey, grizzly weekday afternoon. Even the nearby castle looks sad…
Once Upon a Salop Time
I met a traveller from an antique land who said, somewhat to my surprise, ‘Have you been to Shrewsbury?’ To be honest, I’d never really thought about it…
The Ampersand Hotel London
Being a lover of punctuation, The Ampersand Hotel had me at the name. The squiggly ‘and’ sign makes for an aesthetic logo, printed sporadically throughout..
The Grove Hotel
The Grove hotel in Hertfordshire is so vast that I actually discovered faults in my footwear while negotiating its cavernous interior…