Luxury Hotel

There’s something about having a car delivered to your front door that makes you feel as though you’ve made it. It’s a quiet luxury - no showroom handover, no queue at a rental desk, no faff. Just a tap on the doorbell, a signature, and the keys to a brand-new Range Rover Sport. We were heading from central London to the Yorkshire Dales for a long weekend at Grantley Hall, and using THE OUT, Jaguar Land Rover’s premium on-demand car rental service, turned the journey into part of the escape.

As a lifelong night owl, one of my all-time hotel pet peeves is the often relatively early time that breakfast finishes, which can have you dragging yourself out of bed after a late night out and hot-stepping it to the last slot unkempt and bleary-eyed, sometimes missing out by a matter of minutes or even seconds if the staff member at the lectern is particularly officious. 

The View Hotel in Agadir is a newly launched 5-star luxury hotel that opened in March 2024. Situated just south of Essaouira, it overlooks a pristine, expansive beach on the Atlantic coast. Guests are greeted with freshly squeezed lemon juice, Moroccan teas, desserts, and macarons as part of the traditional welcome. Located only 35 minutes from Agadir airport, the journey is convenient and quick. Check-in is seamlessly handled while guests enjoy their refreshments, taking in views of the vast, oasis-shaped pool winding around beautiful palm trees and adjacent to the beach.

The 5-star Headland Hotel transcends ordinary notions of grandeur, captivating visitors with its immense and awe-inspiring presence. During my Lexus 500h F Sport tour, I was immediately struck by its sheer size and magnificence upon arrival.

Some hotels might say they’re fit for a king, but in the case of The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa it is undeniably true, as King George V once stayed here, as well as nearly every US president since Roosevelt, and not to mention rock royalty in the form of The Beatles and Rolling Stones.

Sat in the heart of downtown Denver, it remains one of the most luxurious and iconic hotels in the Colorado capital since opening its revolving doors in 1892. 

The delightful spa town of Malvern is located 3 hours from London by car in Worcestershire and accessible directly by train from Paddington.

Spring is the perfect time to enjoy a stay at one of the Historic House Hotels of the National Trust. Guests may enjoy extensive spring gardens in bloom, and beautiful historic interiors at all of the Houses. The company has taken the best advice to ensure everything is in place for a visit that will be as safe as it will be comfortable and enjoyable, with safety measures introduced and praised after the first lockdown of last year that applies to staff as well as guests.

Rockliffe Hall’s team is busy making plans and developing innovative new offerings to ensure that if the Government gives the go-ahead for hotels to reopen on July 4th, not only will Rockliffe’s guests be safe, but they’ll still be able to enjoy the five star experience for which the resort is renowned.

With a matador-like swipe of the towel, our ‘GusMester’ (Mist Master) Matthias, directs a blast of hot, scented air towards our perspiring limbs within the confines of the sauna cabin. This form of aromatherapy is followed by a dip in the cold waters of the Oresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden, sending the endorphins into overdrive, giving an almost instantaneous feeling of elation and renewed vitality. This is ‘SaunaGus’, just one of the signature activities available at Denmark’s leading Spa hotel and part of a holistic approach towards health, well-being and luxury.

Vintage sepia photographs, part of a permanent display dedicated to the history of ‘pearl diving’ at the Bahrain National Museum, was an ideal starting point to understand this cultural heritage. Displays give an insight into the design of the timber Dhows, the basic dive equipment used and of course the men who crewed the boats for months at a time. The few grainy images available, show every muscular sinew visible across the diver’s torso, created from a life below the waves, and based on a diet of fish, dates and rice.