We could all make our own list. But here’s an interesting take from the on-line hotel comparison site www.trivago.co.uk. According to Trivago, they all offer a ’special atmosphere and have very good reviews from travellers:’
The elegant Santini Residence offers nine spacious suites, where couples can enjoy hours of leisure time together. Some rooms have a special highlight: Ornate ceiling paintings that attract the attention of all visitors. Located in the middle of the historical centre of Prague, the luxurious hotel is an ideal base for exploring the capital of the Czech Republic. The Prague Castle and Charles Bridge are easily accessible. In the evening, guests can relax with a glass of red wine in soft lighting and with musical accompaniment on the cosy sofas in the hotel lounge. From £104 per double room per night including breakfast via www.lastminute.com.
Guests at Hotel 41 are located in the neighbourhood of the Queen: The luxurious city hotel can be found behind Buckingham Palace. In a quiet and exclusive location, the hotel welcomes its guests with the flair of a traditional London club. In the tastefully decorated lounge with chandeliers and antique furniture, couples can enjoy their afternoon tea in an elegant atmosphere. After a stroll over the Tower Bridge and through the streets of the bustling capital, comfortable and stylish rooms await the guests of the hotel. From £244 per double room per night via www.booking.com
The Gródek hotel is tucked away in a small side street in the historical centre of Krakow. The 23 guest rooms are individually furnished with a great attention to detail. From here, guests can embark on a journey into the past. The popular “Kings Way” takes travelers past the memorial of the Battle of Tannenberg, a large gothic tower and the medieval marketplace. Only two minutes separate this area from the charming city hotel. In the intimate atmosphere of the hotel restaurant, guests can enjoy the evening with a romantic candle-lit dinner. From £86 per double room per night including breakfast via www.lastminute.com.
The Villa Contessa is located in Bad Saarow on Lake Scharmutzelsee in Brandenburg and is only around one hour’s drive from Berlin. Located in picturesque natural surroundings, this small hotel is home to eight mundane and lovingly decorated rooms. Highlight for lovers: The Rose Spa Suite with a private bio-infrared sauna and a four-poster bed. Guests who book the luxury suite can enjoy the hotels award-winning cuisine in private on the lakeside terrace. Couples can spend time on a romantic carriage ride, in popular thermal baths or on a boat trip on the lake. From £173 per double room per night including breakfast via www.villa-contessa.de
5. Moulin d’Abbaye, Brantome (France)
Moulin d’Abbaye is located in the charming market town Brantome in a restored mill house on the tranquil River Dronne. The rooms are all named after the Bordeaux grands crus and decorated with a meticulous attention to detail. In the small town in Dordogne there is a lot to see: a well-preserved medieval city, ruin and Gothic facades on the Rue Joussen. After a leisurely stroll through the city, travelers can enjoy a romantic dinner in the hotel’s restaurant and become enchanted by the magic of this hotel. From £130 per double room per night via www.HRS.com.
6. Amfitriti Paradosiakos Xenonas, Nafplio (Greece)
The Amfitriti Paradosiakos Xenonas is a small and elegant hotel in the beautiful port town Nafplio. Each of its five rooms is individually decorated in a particular colour. Handmade carpets and antique furniture give the rooms a romantic historical feeling, without losing the modern day comforts. With a view of the sea from the breakfast terrace, guests can begin their day on the Peleponnes. Lovers of Greek mythology also have a lot to explore, with the archaeological sites of Epidauros and Mykene nearby. From £68 pounds per double room per night via www.booking.com.
The first-class hotel The Pand is located in the centre of Bruges. Decorated with numerous works of art, antiques and rich fabrics, guests are surrounded by luxury. A boat trip on the “Reien”, the canals of Bruges, is a must on a visit to the city in Flanders. Under picturesque bridges there is a lot to discover along the banks: Hidden gardens, artistic facades and medieval houses. Travelers can also spend the day by the open fireplace in the library of The Pand. From £149 pounds per double room per night via www.booking.com.
8. Il Cantico della Natura, Magione (Italy)
Il Cantico della Natura is built out of massive stones from the 16th Century and is home to twelve rooms and suites. Surrounded by olive trees guests have a breathtaking view of Lake Trasimeno. The rooms are cosy and are individually decorated with fine furniture. In the Jacuzzi or the sauna, lovers can take advantage of the “dolce vita”. For adventure seekers, the hotel regularly organises various activities such as sailing, mountain biking or cooking classes, in which fresh ingredients from the Umbrian region are used. From £139 per double room per night via www.fastbooking.com.
9. Villa Carona, Carona (Switzerland)
In Ticino, in the south of Switzerland, Villa Carona can be found in the artistic village of Carona. In the two hundred year old Patrician House, the hotel has 18 individually designed rooms. At this family run inn, rest and recreation are in the foreground. In particular, the gardens of the house are a little paradise: Here guests can have a breakfast with a view of Monte Generoso before they go on the popular hike from Carona to the picturesque village of Morcote. From £88 pounds per double room per night via www.hotel.info.
10. Ca‘n Simó, Alcudia (Majorca)
The small family-run hotel Ca‘n Simó with only seven rooms is situated between the bay of Alcudia and Pollensa. In traditional Majorcan architecture, guests can enjoy the amenities of modern luxury away from the tourist hustle and bustle of Majorca. The area around the lively town of Alcudia is also a place for peace-seekers: Whether a romantic walk on the beach, a tour of the nearby golf course or an excursion to the dragon caves of Porto Cristo. After an exciting day on the Balearic Island, guests can relax in the hotel whirlpool or sauna. From £85 pounds per double room per night including breakfast via booking.com
Trivago compares the rates of 53 booking sites for 400,000 hotels worldwide. Additionally trivago has integrated over 15 million hotel reviews and shows the overall rating for each hotel. trivago does not just compare the prices of online hotel booking sites, but also the rates. Users can see whether breakfast is included and if cancellation and payment by credit card is possible. Trivago has the first “Freestyle” meta search: travelers are able to search by holiday region, city or hotel name. Trivago has its headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany and currently operates 21 international country platforms.
Recruit a worldwide team of 200 peripatetic celebrities, critics, food writers, hoteliers, restaurateurs and assorted entrepreneurs and ask them to report on what they consider to be the best in travel: This is the formula for the fifth edition of Courvoisier’s “The Book of the Best,” published this month in London (Vermilion/Random House, £12.99). It is edited by the food critic Loyd Grossman, who is taking over from Lord Lichfield, founder-editor, who started the publication 10 years ago.
The result is a travel guide packed with tips and opinions, verdicts and often idiosyncratic insights. The new edition covers 58 countries with 2,500 entries on the best hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés, clubs, museums, galleries, markets, fashion designers, festivals, spas, sports, theater, music, shopping and sightseeing.
Scattered throughout the book are essays on such eclectic topics as Wolfgang Puck (”chef to the stars” in Los Angeles); Literary New York (readings, bookshops and tours); Best of the Bush (Australia); Melbourne Foodie Musts; Big Breakfasts in Sydney; Indian Choice; Top Tailors, and Pub Grub (London); Nile Tours (Egypt); Bistros, Choice Cheeses, Chocoholics Choice (Paris); Exotic Adventures (Himalayas); Private Palace Hotels (India); Pub Culture (Ireland); Piazza Campo dei Fiori (Rome); Best Parks in Tokyo; Café Life (Amsterdam); A Great River Journey (Papua New Guinea), and the Blue Train in South Africa.
Don’t look for consistency or objectivity (it takes a serious celebrity to be as fatuous as: “Taillevent is easily the best in France,” Judith Krantz). But there’s too much good stuff here to quibble about that.
Entries are arbitrary and inconsistent. The United States gets 41 pages; Britain 34; Hong Kong, seven; Japan and Thailand six each; Singapore three; South Africa two; places like Fiji, Sri Lanka, Bermuda and Jamaica have half a dozen entries among them; Cuba gets a page; while Finland, Malta, Israel, most of the Gulf states and the Philippines are left out altogether.
“The book is highly subjective; we make no claim to objectivity. Most guidebooks either rely on one person’s opinion, or like Michelin on a highly trained team of professionals. Whereas ours is based purely on the subjective thoughts of 200 people who are demanding, cosmopolitan, and sophisticated,” says Grossman. “The best is going to be their collective view. But there’s no question that the best has more to do now with best value and local character than it did, say, two or three years ago. There has been a pretty healthy turn away from the sort of preposterous ostentation of international luxury.
“Of course, you’re going to have predictable things; I mean when you talk about Paris hotels, the Crillon is going to be there. But what we’ve tried to do this year is to get off the beaten track and stress the interest of things that are local and particular to the various places, to counteract the wave of homogenization one finds everywhere. This is not my personal restaurant guide. But I have attempted to stress value, more about attractions for kids and culture, which I find play an increasingly important role in determining travelers’ itineraries. That may explain why travel to cities has become increasingly popular. Many people visit the Far East on business and return for pleasure. This is my first year as editor. But Patrick [Lichfield], who started it, is a benign influence; he travels incessantly and knows a lot of people.
“The length of contributions, and indeed which countries get listed at all depends on our contributors; that’s why we have these little essays on places like Vietnam that our gang are increasingly traveling to. If one of our contributors said, ‘By the way, I’ve just spent three months in Timbuktu, it’s a fabulous place,’ we’d write about it. This year we’ve identified places, like Lyon, that tend to get missed out. It’s very amusing to see the opinions of people both on sacred cows and new discoveries. It’s an exceptionally good worldwide telephone directory.”
I recognized only a handful of the celebrities listed at the front of the guide - authentic luminaries like Peter Ustinov, Richard Branson, David Frost, Andre Previn, Ralph Steadman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jeffrey Archer, Michael Caine, Joan Collins, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Dame Barbara Cartland.
Lichfield and Grossman recruited 12 of the top celebrities as a jury for 16 somewhat gimmicky “Best Value” awards (”Not the best of the best but amongst the most interesting and stimulating of the best,” Grossman says). Singapore Airlines (Best Airline), Four Seasons-Regent Hotels (Best Hotel Group), Dubai (Best Airport Shopping) and Hong Kong (Best Destination) are arguable, though what you might expect; but Melbourne Moomba (Best Festival); Roscoff Belfast (Best British Restaurant); St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow (Best British Museum), and Opera North in Leeds (Achievement in the Arts in Britain) started me turning the pages. And I wouldn’t quarrel with Best British Breakfast (Simpson’s-on-the- Strand) and Best Pub (The Dove) both in London, or Lyon as Best European Weekend Destination.
“The Book of the Best” carries the usual disclaimer about not accepting advertising or payment for entries. But it may be a tad incestuous when celebrities just happen to praise one another. Alain Ducasse (a contributor) at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo is hyped as the World’s Greatest Chef - which he may well be - but did he pay for his meal at Joël Robuchon’s “temple of gastronomy” in Paris? And is it cynical to suppose that Ustinov got the presidential suite at the Westbury in Dublin because he is Sir Peter Ustinov? Perhaps you have to be a celebrity to get a free lunch.
“I would be extremely distressed to find out that anyone involved with the book had ever had a quid pro quo, or said, let me stay for free and I’ll give you a write- up,” Grossman says. “At least we didn’t ask Alain Ducasse to write his own blurb. And I happen to think that because he is a great chef, his views on a restaurant, colored as they may be by his philosophy, are bound to be interesting.”
Well, yes. Until we read that Mohamed al Fayed praises the Ritz in Paris as meeting the exacting standards of César Ritz 100 years ago, when al Fayed is both a contributor and owner of the Ritz.
A crucial test for a travel guide is what it says about places in your own backyard or familiar stamping ground.
“The Book of the Best” barely scrapes by on its listings for the Côte d’Azur - sound on art and museums; otherwise predictable and pedestrian.
But for London, the guide comes alive. Apart from a few dud entries, it’s an excellent London restaurant guide, with an inside track to the trendiest and best value places in town. So I’ll take it with me when I next go to Hong Kong.
1994 International Herald Tribune
The Oyster Box: The re-birth of a legend
It’s not every day that legends are made (let alone re-born) – even in the hotel business! So the other day this brief, almost laconic item rose above the usual clutter:
‘Legendary hotel to reopen
Umhlanga Rocks, Durban Kwa-Zulu, Natal, South Africa
‘The Oyster Box, part of the Red Carnation Hotel collection, South Africa’s legendary boutique hotel, reopens on 1 October 2009. The 90-room property on the beach with its own oyster beds [sic] has undergone major alterations and additions. It now incorporates eight villas with their own pools; a 4,500 square feet Presidential Suite with pool. It has four restaurants [the hotel not the Suite]; four bars; meeting and function rooms; cinema; a traditional eastern Hamam spa and gymnasium. The opening coincides with the inaugural Emirates flight from Dubai to Durban six days a week.’
The item was written, I understand, with obvious pride and affection, by Beatrice (‘Mrs. T’) Tollman, president and founder of Red Carnation Hotels, a family-owned collection of 4- and 5-star family-owned luxury boutique hotels, and a legendary ‘hands-on’ hotelier.
The Oyster Box, ‘sitting grandly on the dramatic shoreline of the Indian Ocean, overlooking the iconic lighthouse of Umhlanga,’ is Red Carnation’s third South African property. The Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa in Cape Town, winner of ‘Top City Hotel in Africa and The Middle East’ in Travel & Leisure magazine’s 2009 Awards; and Bushman’s Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Spa in the Cederberg Mountains, recently voted ‘Best Hotel in the World.’
In the interest of ‘truthful journalism,’ I should declare an interest. I’m writing this piece for pleasure, not for profit. But I have built up my own collection of interviews with Red Carnation staff, from hotel managers and concierges to chefs doormen, which are posted as ‘podcasts’ on RCH’s web site (www.redcarnation.com) and come to some critically affectionate understanding of this unusual company. I also voiced the video tours of the RCH properties and got brownie points when one of them won an award recently..
‘Journalists should not have friends,’ I can hear the editor over my shoulder saying. (The editor, Russell J. Boner, my boss and sometimes reluctant mentor at McGraw-Hill’s International Management magazine, was a veteran of the Wall Street Journal’s puritanical newsroom.)
Well, okay. But I have to say that several of the Red Carnation hotels that I have experienced are among the very best of any hotels I have known; often achieving that elusive amalgam of comfort, friendliness and efficiency that I call hospitality.
‘Hello, Oyster Box? I’d like to book a beach-view double with a king-size oyster bed, please!’
I am a huge fan of high-speed trains; often the fastest way to travel between city centers in Europe, beating airlines on journeys of up to 550 kilometers (three to four hours) by train. Eurostar, linking London (St. Pancras International Station) and Paris (Gare du Nord) in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and Brussels in 1 hour, 51 minutes, has captured more than 70 percent of the market from airlines.
But when it comes to booking tickets, the train can be a pain. Things we now take for granted at airline sites – such as being offered options for flights either side of the date, or time, we wish to travel; multi-sector connections, often with several carriers; electronic tickets and the ability to print out your own boarding card are light years ahead of rail. Yes, you can book rail tickets online, but don’t expect to be offered seat selection, and tickets are sent to you by snail mail!
Booking cross-border rail travel is especially frustrating because the national rail operators’ timetables do not match up, so you might have to wait for an hour or more to catch the next train. And standards of seating and service vary from operator to operator.
I was brought down to earth the other day when Madame was grounded with deep vein thrombosis, which meant that we had to cancel our EasyJet flight to Switzerland, and go by train: Eurostar from St. Pancras to Paris, a transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyon then the TGV to Lausanne, a journey time of less than 8 hours, with time for lunch in Paris.
Madame, a nimble navigator in cyberspace, reported that Eurostar (www.eurostar.com) could only book us tickets as far as Paris; and, after futile attempts to book the onward TGV, at Swiss Federal Railways (www.sbb,ch), ‘lost confidence when confirming and paying,’ and finally called a local travel agent.
Eurostar provides through bookings to about 68 cities in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany; and from several British regional cities to the Continent. One can book online or at the Eurostar call center, 44-8705 186 186.
Railteam (www.railteam.eu) is an alliance of Europe’s seven high-speed rail operators, Eurostar (UK, France & Belgium), Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SNCF (France), NS Hispeed (Netherlands), OBB (Austria),SBB (Switzerland), and SNCB (Belgium), and Thalys (a partnership between French, German and Dutch railways), and TGV Lyria (connecting France and Switzerland). It aims to offer seamless high-speed train travel across international borders, with improved synchronization of timetables, better connection times, and more consistent pricing. Should you miss a connection because of a late-running train, Railteam will ensure a seat on the next train, irrespective of the type of ticket you hold. Travelers should be able to book tickets online across all seven high-speed networks by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, travelers can book high-speed trains and other rail journeys at national rail sites or at Rail Europe (a subsidiary of French Railways (www.sncf-voyages.com).
‘We can book 99 percent of rail travel, including Eurostar and overnight trains, like Elipsos between Barcelona, Paris, and Milan and Madrid; and Artesia from Paris to Milan and Turin,’ says Jo Wilcox, marketing manager, Rail Europe. ‘Enter your departure city and destination on our site, and we will give you prices for each segment of the journey, allowing you to mix and match classes and fares with different carriers.’
Rail Europe operates more than 20 booking sites, serving most countries, including www.raileurope.com (United States); www.raileurope.ca (Canada); www.raileurope.co.uk (Britain); and www.tgv-europe.com (Continental Europe). Rail Europe has call centers in the United States, (1-800) 462 2577; Canada, (1-800) 361 7245; UK, 0844 848 5848.
‘The Man in Seat 61: A guide to taking the train through Europe’ (Bantam Press, £12.99) from railway enthusiast Mark Smith is an invaluable guide to planning train journeys from
London to 39 countries – from Albania to Ukraine. Although the book is aimed at the British traveler, it is packed with practical tips on inter-city travel within Europe, advice on routes, timetables and connections; best ways to buy tickets online, or by phone, for a particular journey; finding the best deals; rail passes; and crucially, how to change trains in cities like Brussels and Paris! Chapters are packed with useful Web site addresses and phone numbers for travel advice and booking.
For instance, German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) at http://bahn.hafas.de offers ‘the simplest, fastest and most comprehensive online European timetable for travel between any two European railway stations you care to name.’
There are sections on traveling overnight in sleeping cars or couchettes (‘A second class sleeper is far better than a first class couchette; and a second class couchette is streets ahead of a first class seat’) for journeys of up to 800 miles; and scenic routes, such as the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz in Switzerland; the classic Rhine Valley route through Koblenz; or from Athens to Larissa and Thessaloniki.