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.”
Browsing: The Explorer
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…
The Magdalen Chapter Exeter
Floating starfish-style in the steaming water on a chilly yet cloudless Easter Sunday, I knew I’d made the right decision… Estella trades her childhood bedroom comforts for a more luxurious hometown stay…
Greece’s Two Graces, II: Mykonos
Our next port of call, literally, was to be Mykonos. And here was a taste of the infamous island hopping so inclined by itinerants, backpackers and lunatics.
Greece’s Two Graces, I: Santorini
This trip feels like it’s been a long time coming. It was conceived nearly two years ago over dinner at Quo Vadis, when I was told about the Grace hotels on Mykonos and Santorini in the Greek Cyclades.
Pavillon de la Reine
“Don’t forget,” I called from the bathroom, mid-shave, “this is Paris. We can’t set foot outside the hotel without looking like we’re stepping onto the catwalk.”