Best Hotels

Danesfield House and Spa evoked 50's movies as we cruised up the steep winding hill through the gardens in the Aston Martin Vantage, before stopping at a tree lined drive dominated by an imposing gothic clock tower. This vast sprawling and imposing Neo-Tudor mansion was completed in 1991 by architect W.H. Romaine-Walker for a soap magnate's son, Robert Hudson. Later during the war it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry as a reconnaissance and photography unit and was known as RAF Medmenham.

One word “friendly” sums up Banff’s Sunshine Village ski resort, but do not be fooled by thinking that all its slopes are flattering even to the lazy skier.  There is a good spread of runs to keep the interest of all skills within a mixed abilities party across three mountains, all within the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Banff National Park.  Cruise to your heart’s content through tree lined trails, take the lifts to the top of Lookout Mountain for some more demanding slopes,  or tackle the ‘Double Diamond Blacks’ on Goat’s Eye Mountain.  

Well, I was born there, so I figured I should spend my stag weekend there too. I called up my oldest chum and soon to be best man, whom I used to party with in New York many years ago, and told him we were getting the band back together and returning to the Big Apple for a last blast.

The flight over with British Airways was smooth and hilarious due to my companion Mr D Lynsdale, who charms everyone with his laid back, gentle nature and infectious good humour, abetted by some some moderate drinking of fine Champagne.

The mere mention of “the largest ski area in the world” gets a surprisingly mixed reception.  The span of reactions is wide whilst some skiers feel threatened and daunted by the sheer scale of so many elements, through those who feel they have to cover everything to be able to match their peers, to dedicated skiers who relish the prospects of skiing their hearts out.     

‘What beauties doth Lisboa first unfold,’ gasped Byron’s Childe Harold and certainly the city is highly reminiscent of Paris decades ago. Her special quality consists partly from the exhilarating light falling on her blue-tiled walls and white stone pavements: a clarity assisted by cloudless skies. Indeed the climate was fabulous as, over the New Year, the sun not only shone it penetrated with a refreshing breeze coming off the Atlantic off whose coast Lisbon is the only European capital.

My ‘to do’ list tick-tocked through my mind. Emails, meetings, deadlines; presents to buy, friends to visit, appointments to sort. So much to do and so little time. How could I possibly relax and give in to the magic of the festive season with so much on my mind?
This pendulum of pressure was no match for Surrey’s Nutfield Priory Hotel and Spa.
Here is a hotel that exudes warmth and welcome. Stepping inside was like that post-Sunday lunch, ‘let’s all cosy up by the fire’ feeling, and that’s exactly what we did first.

Arghhh, Heathrow at 6 am, not glamorous or clever. However I was off to visit The World of Leica at Leitz-Park in Wetzlar, an hour outside Frankfurt, which made it all worthwhile. Before we get into the wonders of the trip, let me reassure you that this latest architectural marvel is nowhere near as naff as it sounds, in fact, it is somewhat of a shrine for photographers both old and new, whether they shoot Leicas or not.

This page was blank for a long, long time.
Not because I couldn’t think of anything to say about The Silo Hotel. Quite the opposite. It was because there were so many ways to start the story of our stay, so many fabulous moments, that I really had no idea where to begin. We may have only spent one night here, but in that snippet of time the hotel and its staff created our own spectacular beginning, middle and end.
This is our Silo story.

Finding The One isn’t always fairy-tale straight-forward. It takes patience, searching (and soul-searching). It means experiencing the not-so-right, the you’ve-got-potential, the what-on-earth-was-I-thinking?! But they always say, ‘You know when it's The One’. And I knew.

The smiles struck me first.
Sunshine smiles, happy-to-see-you smiles, there’s-such-a-treat-awaiting-you smiles.
Greetings as heartwarming as the jasmine tea brought to us as we checked in, followed by the pop and bubble of champagne because, why not?
Before we’d even stepped into our superior suite at Cape Town’s The 12 Apostles Hotel and Spa, I knew I was going to find it very hard to leave.