An Iconic Luxury Hotel Review: Raffles, Singapore

A raffia fan slowly spun as motes fell through the heavy sunshine. Seated in the gorgeous foyer, I was welcomed to the Raffles Hotel first by the immaculately liveried Sikh doorman and then checked in smoothly with a Singapore Sling in hand.

Disclaimer: As a guest of Raffles Hotel I paid a press rate for my suite,

but my swooning prose is very much original and unaffected.

After sitting for less than 5 minutes, she ushered me through the marble corridors to my very own suite, and welcomed by Li, my personal butler for the duration of my stay. She smiled from ear to ear,  welcoming me effusively to her home of Singapore.

A luxury stay at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore

When I had planned a few days in Singapore, I knew there were only two hotels that I wanted to stay in. They couldn't be more different in almost every way, and both of them fascinated me.

For my first night, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel called my name. The striking three tower edifice has 2,561 hotel rooms, a 120,000-square-metre (1,300,000 sq ft) convention-exhibition centre, the 74,000 m2 (800,000 sq ft) The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, a museum, two large theatres, "celebrity chef" restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, a skating rink, and the world's largest atrium. Crazy, no?

Our stay at the luxurious Bovey Castle Hotel - Codename: OperationDon'tTellAftab

Many moons ago, in the distant realm of Devon, a shire far far away from the steel and glass towers of Londinium (about 2.5 hours by iron horse) a gallant Fresh Prince was fearlessly escorted by 3 Princesses (take THAT mansplaining!) to a beautiful stone castle snug in the wild valleys of Dartmoor.

We think he may have liked it? But, let's rewind a month or three.

An afternoon at the polo and exploring the Cowdray Estate.

Boarding the train at Waterloo Station armed with morning cups of tea in hand, we chatted the whole way through our 50 minute journey to Haslemere, watching the skyline change from forests of steel to boughs of ancient leaves.

We were bound for an afternoon at the Polo, to watch the pinpoint trained ponies and riders duke it out for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup, a match played to honour one of the riders.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Cowdray Estate, 

but my swooning prose is very much original and unaffected.

After a quick 20 minute cab ride through the country lanes lined with stone built cottages, many with yellow framed windows* - we dismounted for a tour and lunch at Cowdray Manor House. What used to be the family home of Lord and Lady Cowdray, is now an exclusive residence that can be hired out for special occasions, wellness retreats or for private use.

A dreamy Shangri-La Hotel stay in Sydney, Australia

To sit in my hotel room window, and gaze over the Sydney Harbour - the waters enfolded by the Sydney Harbour Bridge on one side, and the iconic Sydney Opera House on the other  - is a memory I won't forget for a long time.

I mean, this was the view from my bed.

When planning my epic holiday, it just so happened that one of my favourite London buddies, Madam Globetrotter Postcards (a regular guest on this little corner of the internet), was going to be visiting family in in Sydney - we're so close now, we have a joint railway card, talk about commitment - so we teed-up 48 hours of fun meandering, culminating in sunset cocktails from our hotel bar in the Shangri-la. (The evening before I stayed in the neighbouring Four Seasons, but more on that another time.)

A delicious staycation: The Vicarage in Cheshire

The Vicarage, a hotel in the small Cheshire of village of Holmes Chapel intrigued us.

Identifying itself as 'a restaurant with rooms' we couldn't resist testing out their foodie credentials, so for the last night of our Chester staycation we hopped back into the train and shot out into the countryside.

The Scarlet Hotel, Cornwall: A sumptuous seaside spa stay

We arrived just as the sky turned ink blue over gentle waves. Stopping the car in the middle of the deserted road we rolled down the window and simply swooned at our cliff top view. Below us the beach stretched out, softly hugging the foam crests of the incoming tide. (And then we instagrammed because you can take the bloggers out of London...)

 Disclaimer: We were very relaxed guests of The Scarlet Hotel but all of our blissful enjoyment and thoughts were very much our own...

We navigated the curving road around, heading further and further away from the surfing epicentre of Newquay and with one last hairpin bend worthy of Top Gear slow motion panorama, we found our home for the evening. Snugged into the cliffs, the Scarlett Hotel is a peaceful retreat, hiding away from the clanging updates of the world.

Staying at the Old Vicarage, a luxury guesthouse in Cornwall

When an intriguing proposition to review the Old Vicarage near Truro landed in my email inbox, I knew that it was all the excuse I needed to book in a long weekend and breathe in the fresh air of Cornwall, somewhere I've been meaning to explore forever.

Disclaimer: We were excited guests of Jon and Marilyn at the Old Vicarage and eviivo

but all of our enthusiasms are very much our own...

From London we plotted a 4-day weekend beginning with two nights at the Old Vicarage, around 2 miles from the Cathedral City of Truro in the small but lovely hamlet of St Clements. The six bedroom luxury guesthouse dates back to the 1500s and is a literal stone’s throw from the banks of the beautiful Tresillian River.

A Luxury Staycation At The Elegant Langham Hotel

To say we were ready for our Langham Hotel staycation was an understatement. As you get older, everyone says that time simply gets faster and faster, and Christmas simply seemed like a blink of an eye ago. Luckily enough we had a magical 24 hours inked into the diary based in this bastion of timeless London elegance.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the beautiful Langham Hotel but my (very many) opines on feather bolsters and rolltop baths are only ever my own.

On a grey, Sunday day we began with the farmhouse brunch in the Roux at the Landau, as all good everythings do (I was going to say weekends, but who would I be kidding?) before we gave in to the temptation of whisking our bags up to the plush comfort of our junior suite.

The best US road trip EVER - Texas and Louisiana

Where do you even start with a road trip through Texas and Louisiana like ours? 

15 days, 2 US states, 3 cities, 800 miles of driving + 1 internal flight, a serious amount of Texan Bar-B-Que, a swamp tour on a Louisiana bayou with gators and raccoons, music pouring from doorways, a small red car christened Bonnie (just because we could), 7 hotels (definitely a record for us, we usually like to make a single central base), a goat called Max, lasso lessons, 80s TV shows and as much Iced Tea as we could get away with.

People keep asking why we chose Texas and Louisiana for a roadtrip, and it’s mostly down to fascination and the amazing live music scene in both Austin and New Orleans. There are big festivals in Austin, but not knowing the bands we decided that a trip outside the chaos of tourists flocking there would be the most fun - intentionally out of hurricane season - so we booked our direct return flights to Austin and began planning.

US Roadtrip Diary: Our Louisiana Plantation Stay

Leaving behind the zooming traffic of the motorway, we turned from the busy I-110 to a gently curving US Highway 61 shouldered by dark trees and the occasional Mom and Pop business. The late afternoon sun broke over the horizon and our SatNav announced that were almost at our destination, the Butler and Greenwood Plantation.

Having followed the Mississippi River upstate from New Orleans slightly past the historic town of St. Francisville, we steered Bonnie along the curving driveway arcaded with Spanish Moss draped Live Oak trees, parting to reveal the kind of house that only seems to appear on movies. A deep wraparound porch hugged the timber frame and the late afternoon sunshine dappled the lawn.

Disclaimer: We were excited guests of the Butler and Greenwood Plantation but all of my enthusiasms are very much my own...

We were greeted by two of the real owners (a tabby and a grey cat respectively) before the porch screen opened and our friendly host for the evening peeped out. Welcoming our grateful selves to sink into her verandah sofa, Anne Butler gave us a map of the St. Franvisville area alongside a few recommendations before telling us a short history of her beautiful family home passed through the generations, before arriving at the current iteration of B&B cabins in the grounds.

The Whitney Hotel, New Orleans - Luxury hotel review

New Orleans. Home of Jazz, revelry, voodoo, beignets and hickory coffee - quite simply the stuff of travel legend. Smooth on the surface, 'Nawlins' is a historic city reaching back into the turbulent past of the deep South and the more recent devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina (still on the lips of the locals) and further natural disasters, if you delve a little closer New Orleans wears her scars alongside the celebration of Mardi Gras beads.

When we were researching from the comfort of our London couch, we were hesitant about booking a hotel that we would be exploring from. Not so young anymore, we didn't fancy staying in the tipsy tourist-filled French Quarter but equally we couldn't bear to be too far away from the fun.

3 of the most unique places we have stayed... #travellinkup

Beige walls, a bed with a anonymously hues coverlet, random art on the walls and a TV in the corner. Every hotel in the world has all of the above with changes fractionally appearing as the research gets better and the budget gets increased.

But, there are 3 places to rest our weary travellers heads that made so much more of a memory mark. No, not the marble-lined luxury French wine chateau, the London city skyline we didn't want to close our eyes against, our floating hotel or even the Bee terrace at St Ermin's hotel.

Where to stay in Munich: Grand Westin Munich Hotel Review

When we visited Munich, we very much scheduled where to stay around what we were doing. Our first hotel (we wouldn't usually move hotels, preferring to spend the time in a cafe or pub) was selected specifically for how close it was to the main train station (It was a nice enough hotel despite the Faulty Towers-esque lift that only stopped mid-storey so luggage was lugged up or down half a flight of stairs).

Being close to the München Hauptbahnhof meant we could delay getting out of bed as late as possible before boarding trains armed with plum pastries and coffee from one of the local bakeries. What we didn't count on would be discovering a street FULL of Turkish kebab shops (apparently the German version of burger joints) that we would end up in for at least two nights, hungry from the alpine air.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the Westin Grand Munich but all of my very many thoughts and excitement over storage spaces are very much my own...

But, our favourite stay of the holiday our 4-star superior hotel we left for the end. We intentionally planned the last few days for shorter trips, pottering around Munich to places we discovered (like the incredibly cool BMW museum), coffee with the lovely Linda and simply relaxing.

8 reasons why I adore Brighton

Brighton is one of those cities where the pulse thrums with music, the taste of fun is in the air and streets are filled with more than a glimmer of mischief. We've visited a few times - firstly as a brand new visitor to England, later for hijinks with friends and often as a seaside day trip from London - but haven't revisited for years.

The culture is a little offbeat, the locals are friendly and the coffee is AMAZING. Neighbouring Hove is a little more reticent and refined, but Brighton is where the fun starts - and when the train companies behave it's only an hour or so away from London.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Ibis Brighton but all of my very, very many thoughts are only ever my own...

So when a tribe of bloggers along with our plus ones (the lovely Leigh, Lisa, Leanne and I were invited and corralled by my pink-haired beauty Erica) were invited to a night of open air cinema and to snooze a Friday evening away, how could we resist another taste of the city?

Ladies of luxury - our long weekend at Hotel Moments Budapest Review

Hotel Moments Budapest has to be one of my favourite hotels we have stayed in so far. Over the years we have slept in gilded Belgian luxury, wandered through iron balustraded Trompe-l'œil in Paris, watched from our window as ships sail along Arctic waters in Tromso, made friends with hairy Hampshire locals, revelled in a gloriously historic Bordeaux Chateau, watched the sunrise reflect over the Thames River, eaten picnics in sunny Southern French apartment gardens, ordered pizza from Edinburgh bunk beds, sipped wine in a Viennese spa as the sun set over the Danube and a few more besides.

In short, we have slept in a fair number of hotel rooms over the years.

Disclaimer: We were guests paying a media rate at the four-star Hotel Moments Budapest for our long weekend, but my (very many) thoughts are only ever my own, and I would never recommend anywhere that I wouldn't want to move-in, I mean, revisit for another break.

What they all do have in common is being selected to suit our break. An anonymous spa hotel in Lille away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a swanky modern Barcelona escape near the beach and a taste of luxury close to our favourite Dublin watering hole.

A 2 Michelin star lunch at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons

Last year we went to the Shangri-La restaurant and hotel in the Shard for an amazing 3 course lunch, and because I'm a bad blogger I simply enjoyed the meal. Phone away, camera encased and social media turned off. It was all due to an Australian friend of mine who I found stood quietly (very unsually for him) at the window, overlooking the London skyline and his quietly insightful "well, it's a moment to cherish as I may never find myself here again. I'm off again travelling, and who knows where it could take me." (If you want to revel in another Shard fail though, try this Shard-centric post from 2013...)

Funnily enough a year later - almost to the day - we both found ourselves soaking in the sunshine between rain showers and learning how to play croquet on the perfectly manicured lawns of Raymond Blanc's 2 Michelin starred Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.

Life has a funny way of taking us down paths we don't quite expect, sometimes quite literally.

Yotel Gatwick Hotel Review

Buttons, buttons, buttons.

It seems like the classic tale of travel gone bad - landing in storm winds pushing our plane to roll a little, rolling off the flight, dashing through the rain and collecting our slightly oversize suitcases, only to have to sleep in the airport.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Yotel for the evening, but my (very many) opinions are only ever my own, and I would never recommend anywhere that I wouldn't happily revisit - in fact we're planning another trip around this handy little hotel, yo.

Luckily, for us it wasn't on rows of uncomfortable airport lounge chairs and even luckier it was a pre-booked stay because Storm Katie had decided to descend on South-East England making getting home from our late flight home from Vienna a proper hassle.

36 hours in Abu Dhabi

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are man-made constructions of steel towering over sand and manufactured coastline, but there is definitely beauty to be found in the desert cities. Whilst on our protracted stopover, there were 4 things we had wanted to do whilst in the UAE; sleep in the desert, meet up with my cousin, cuddle my friend’s new baby and explore the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Anything more was a bonus.

Whilst you could easily pop over from Dubai to Abu Dhabi as a day trip (the cities are only an hour or so drive from each other), we overnighted in Abu Dhabi in where we crashed a house party (I say crashed, we brought NZ chocolate as my cousin’s guests of honor, apparently invited to help drink the cupboard dry of NZ vodka which we did with nationalistic fervour), ate cake with expat friends and just kinda hung out admiring the city.

A night in Dubai desert luxury

Nestled on a cuccoon of cushions, one hand tucked under my head, the other idly running cool sand through my fingers, the camp settled down. Lights blinked off one by one, leaving only the soft crackle of the fire.

Our hosts for the night quietly left the bedouin camp, one or two slipping into in a nearby tent for company, leaving us to the silence of the desert. The quiet deepened* as our camp mates drifted off to sleep and the stars began to shimmer.

Snuggling further into my scarf my eyes began to adjust to the glorious canopy overhead. Billions of stars, some shining with fervour, others more shy and quietly glimmering. The few constellations I know began to appear (and the itch to retrieve my slowly flattening phone and download a stargazing app strengthened despite a lack of electrical sockets and wifi connectivity) and the silence grew further.