Best Hotels

What a buzz to attend the London premiere of the new psychological thriller ‘The Unseen’ last week, let alone style two of the films stars and the director!

Flaine is the Vivian Westwood of ski resorts; so it was away with the expected Alpine style which has become so hackneyed across the Alps that it can be suffocating.  Flaine’s style is certainly challenging; conceived in the 1960s, in the era of ‘Brutalist’ architecture which has been so derided by the general public, but loved by minimalist architects and Guardian readers.  Many Brutalist buildings have now been demolished but there is now an undercurrent of recognition for the best of the era.  Flaine, the original part is called Flaine Forum has embraced the movement and has preservation

Kitzbuhel is one of the great classic resorts; interesting and beautiful mountains, varied standards of skiing all well covered and complemented by a resort centre that sets the standard for the travel industry.  However, its reputation faded as they failed to invest in new skiing infrastructure resulting in slow and inadequate lift capacity for ‘eco’ reasons.  

Never have I skied in the shadow of such dramatic mountains; every run in the Dolomites was dominated by craggy vistas that diverted your attention; pure magic. OK, the Matterhorn is stunning but is not the focus on all points of the compass.  There was drama on another front as well; there had been no snow for weeks and this was mid-January; the plan was to tackle our ‘Ski Safari & Gourmet in The Dolomites’ so we were expecting to cover a large number of different runs.

Midleton Whiskey unveiled their latest Very Rare Vintage 2017 last week at the Midleton Distillery in Cork with an exclusive tasting of each vintage from the Midleton Very Rare Collection from 1984 to 2017. As the whisky, and whiskey, expert for International Excellence Luxury Magazine, I flew over to beautiful Cork to sup, sample and partake of these superb tipples.

Villa Monticello, Ghana’s premier luxury boutique hotel was crowned Ghana’s Leading Hotel at the World Travel Awards (WTA) red carpet African Gala ceremony in Kigali, Rwanda on 10th October, 2017. Villa Monticello was also recognized at the ceremony as Ghana’s Leading Boutique Hotel and Ghana’s Leading Hotel Suite for its Kwame Nkrumah Presidential Suite. Since its inception in 2011, the Accra based hotel has won a total of six coveted World Travel Awards. The World Travel Awards acknowledges, rewards and celebrates excellence across all sectors of the global tourism industry.

The magnet of the prospect of exciting food in a delightful hotel will draw us out of our crowded corner of the South East; a 200 miles’ round trip was well worth the agonies of the Dartford Crossing and the M25.  
 

One of the great benefits of Lavenham  is that it is not really on the way to anywhere for most people.   This village has grown to be a small town but the centre still has the feeling of a village community.  This is possibly because so many of the houses in the centre are of the same Tudor period as there are over 350 Listed buildings from the very grand Guildhall to former bothies.  They must share the same endless problems of living in delightful but high maintenance houses.  If Lavenham had been in the Home Counties, property developers would be salivating at the numerous sites that th

So International Excellence Magazine was in Greenwich for an event with Hunton Yachts, introducing this awesome British brand to ultra high net worth at the Delamar Hotel in Connecticut
The Delamar is of course set overlooking Greenwich Harbor so ideal for a yacht party, especially as Hunton were taking the VIPs out around Rocky Neck Point so they could really experience the comfort, speed and unbelievable stability of the boat. The New York yachting fraternity was extremely impressed and the evening was a great success.

Norfolk was quite a surprise, whilst certain aspects took our minds back even as far as the 1950’s, there was a pleasant buzz about so many refreshing facets of life outside the Home Counties.   People have time to be polite, the roads were generally uncongested; we found some real treasures.  Some were unspoilt villages, wide open spaces of countryside seemingly largely unpressured by too much development.  There are several very grand houses including two very different National Trust properties; Blickling Hall for its exterior – even better than the photographs - and the modern planting