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INTRODUCTION: Take a look through our 64 ‘My Favourite Hotel’ reviews

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During the pandemic, as a way of providing inspiration for readers who were stuck at home, we ran a 64-part series called ‘My Favourite Hotel’.

We decided to break our usual rule about not accepting reader reviews to allow people to submit stories about somewhere which had really made an impact of them.

We had a great response. Whilst we had our fair share of luxury hotel reviews, we also had a huge number of boutique and niche properties submitted. ‘Favourite’ is NOT about cost – it is about somewhere that made an impact on the guest.

Most were outside the branded chains we usually cover on HfP. One is only accessible by mule. One led to a formal complaint because photography is banned on the premises! One was written by Emyr Thomas, our luxury hotel booking partner, who has been to more upmarket hotels than most – what did he choose? One entry is a train, not a hotel.

It’s an eclectic selection. We restricted the number of reviews from any particular hotel brand or any particular city. In general, we set a higher bar on ‘unique’ if a property was more remote, and prioritised Europe because of the ease of travel from the UK.

For the benefit of new readers who never saw the original series, as well as long time readers who may have forgotten they existed, here is a full list of the ‘My Favourite Hotel’ reviews indexed by geographical area.

Click through to read the full articles. Some of the niche ones are genuinely fascinating.

Remember that these reviews were written in 2020 and relate to stays pre-March 2020, so please check key details before booking. You will probably find that some have sharp unwelcome price increases since then ….

UK:

Eastbourne – The Grand Hotel

Edinburgh – The Glasshouse

Lochaber – Mingary Castle (image above)

London – Shangri-La The Shard

London – The Savoy

Europe:

Austria – Stanglwirt, Tyrol

Austria – Hotel Aurelio, Lech

Croatia – Hilton Imperial, Dubrovnik

Estonia – Swissotel Tallinn

Finland – Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, Saariselka (image above)

Finland – Hotel Katajanokka, Helsinki

France – Hôtel Grand Amour, Paris

Germany – Grand Elysee, Hamburg

Greece – Domes of Elounda, Crete

Hungary – Hilton Budapest

Italy – Hotel Du Lac, Lake Como

Italy – Hotel Heureka, Venice

Italy – Villa Cora, Florence

Malta – Hotel 1926, Sliema

Spain – Finca Cortesin, Malaga

Switzerland – The View, Lugano

Portugal – Conrad Algarve

Turkey – Villa Side Residence, Antalya

Turkey – Pera Palace, Istanbul

Ukraine – The Grand Hotel Lviv

Windamere Hotel Darjeeling India

Middle East / Israel / India / Pakistan:

India – Elsewhere, Goa

India – Our Land Island Backwater Resort, Alleppey

India – Windamere Hotel, Darjeeling (image above)

Israel – Carmel Forest Spa Resort, Haifa

Pakistan – The Sind Club, Karachi

hotel monteleone

North America:

Canada – Sundance Lodge, Alberta

Canada – Fairmont Banff Springs, Alberta

Canada – Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello, Quebec

USA – The Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, Mississippi

USA – Four Seasons Orlando

USA – InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown

USA – Sea Blue Hotel, Santa Monica

USA – The Peabody, Memphis

USA – Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans (image above)

USA – Four Seasons San Francisco

USA – The Canyon Suites at The Phoenician, Arizona

USA – citizenM New York Times Square

South / Central / Latin America

Costa Rica – Yatama Ecolodge

Ecuador – Finch Bay Galapagos (image above)

Mexico – Rosewood Mayakoba, Riviera Maya

Peru – the Belmond Andean Explorer train

Asia inc Maldives:

China – The Peninsula, Shanghai

Japan – Benesse House Museum, Naoshima

Japan – The Peninsula, Tokyo

Malaysia – Tanjong Jara Resort

Maldives – Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma

Singapore – PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering

Sri Lanka – Madulkelle Tea and Eco Lodge, Kandy (image above)

Sri Lanka – Weligama Bay Marriott Resort and Spa

Thailand – Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, Bangkok

Mena House Cairo

Africa:

Egypt – Marriott Mena House, Giza (image above)

Lesotho / South Africa border – Sani Mountain Lodge

Mauritius – LUX* Grand Gaube

Seychelles – Le Domaine de L’Orangeraie Resort & Spa

South Africa – The Vineyard, Cape Town

South Africa – Fugitive’s Drift Lodge, KwaZulu-Natal

Uganda – Protea Hotel Entebbe

Zanzibar – Park Hyatt Zanzibar

Australasia:

Australia – Longitude 131°, Uluru

Category

General

Comments (11)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • TimM says:
    10 Feb10 February 08:01

    What an excellent review of the Villa Side Residence, Turkey 🙂

    I will be there again in four weeks’ time.

  • Paula says:
    10 Feb10 February 08:45

    I do find myself wondering which review lead to the formal complaint.

    • Rob says:
      10 Feb10 February 08:50

      🙂

      Yes, the one and only time we’ve been asked to delete a review because the property didn’t want anyone to see what its interiors looked like.

      • daveinitalia says:
        10 Feb10 February 16:28

        Did you delete it, or is it still there but you’re not letting on which one it is?

      • TimM says:
        10 Feb10 February 19:33

        I have had a couple of reviews removed by Tripadvisor because I was less than flattering of the hotels, presumably at the hotels’ requests. Thankfully TA have a process whereby the reviews are reinstated if I can supply evidence that I was there when I said I was – accommodation vouchers, flight tickets, room no., photos with EXIF data etc.. It does make me wonder how many negative reviews are removed without the author putting up a fight and jumping through all the hoops.

  • EC says:
    10 Feb10 February 10:39

    Going through all these reviews again – the saddest/most apparent thing of note is just how far hotels have increased in price since the pandemic. Hotel’s like Villa Cora (on the same dates) are up 60%.

    • TimM says:
      10 Feb10 February 19:43

      Indeed, The hotel I reviewed in Turkey is just over double, like for like. Still, it is about the same price as a good meal and a couple of drinks at a local pub for a night in an excellent five-star, all-inclusive with a large room to myself.

  • chris says:
    10 Feb10 February 11:19

    funny you say that, because I just happened to look at booking one of these hotels yesterday (I had completely forgotten about this review series)

    anyway in the review the hotel was $200, when I looked yesterday it was between £500-600 in the rough dates I was looking at for April

  • Chris W says:
    10 Feb10 February 12:49

    Surprised you left that Pakistan one in the list.

    Comments on that one were wild …

  • BBbetter says:
    10 Feb10 February 15:50

    Surprised JDB didn’t offer any opinion on the peninsula!

  • Simon D says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:42

    This really was a great series and source of cheer during those dark days. I actually discovered a hotel I have stayed in 3 times now via this series!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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