2024 Hotel Bucket List

Islands

Holmen Lofoten

This hotel has been on my list and in my dreams for more years than days in January. It is straight from the script of “The Famous Five go to Norway, Adult Edition”.

The opportunity to swim in the Arctic Circle from an archipelago en route to a feast of locally foraged and caught delicacies.

A Kitchen on the Edge of the World concept where gluttony is encouraged

& best of all… bunk rooms

  • Fly via Oslo to Leknes, an hours drive from the hotel.

    Or, make a roadtrip of it and fly to Bødo. Ferries run twice a day to Moskenes, a five minute drive from the hotel.

  • The great outdoors - hike, forage and wild picnic. Or, boat, fish and swim in the sea.

    Best of all - feast on the edge of the world.

  • From £260 a night for two people on a Bed & Breakfast basis

Pardini’s Hermitage

Italy is not undiscovered. People who don’t speak Italian have slithered down the Via Francigena (quite literally) for over 1,000 years. In Sicily there is enough Greek architecture to fool even someone with 100 braincells that they are in Athens.

But Giglio, Giglio remains Italian. Restaurants remain without English menus and locals remain shocked to see you there. Reaching Giglio takes time, like all the best places do. Even when you reach Giglio you are still far from Pardini’s Hermitage - why? Well it’s only reachable by foot or boat. My kind of island paradise.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

Gundari, Folegandros

*NEW OPENING 2024*

I thought I could be happy anywhere in Greece, so long as I was in Greece, my tummy lined with baklava and tzatziki. But then! A wise woman taught me that all the best places in Greece don’t have airports. All the best places in Greece have only ferry ports.

Folegandros is one of those places and the soon to be opened Gundari can take my money, take my time, take whatever it wants really in exchange for a week residing there.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

Little Green Bay, Hvar

I always had this completely irrational distaste for Croatia until I went to Hvar. Hula Hula Bar was always going to be my favourite place with hula hoops being my favourite crisps and Little Green Bay will always be my favourite Croatian hotel because they have a dolphin spotted counter on their homepage.

  • Fly to Split then hop on a ferry to Hvar where you will be picked up and whisked to paradise

  • From €490 a night Bed & Breakfast

  • is incredibly delicious

Countryside

Lundies House

Chic, cosy and a complete pain in the arse to get puts this puppy on the list. Facing the a sea loch in a village called Tongue surrounded by peaks called Ben Hope and Ben Loyal give it all the hallmarks of a woolly Scottish weekend.

  • 2 hours 30 minutes from Inverness

    Or, on the N500 it would make for a perfect treat yourself pistop

  • From £450 a night Bed & Breakfast inc. a packed lunch to

  • Join a guided walks, visit the world-class beaches, wild swim, scale mountains, take out an e-bikes, treat yourself to a massage, go fishing (loch and river) and mock stalks

Solo Palacio

You may have not heard of Asturias in northern Spain but you probably have the famous pilgrim path that crosses through it - Camino di Santiago.

  • Solo Palacio is a not-for-profit operation: after staff pay, running costs and taxes, the remaining 11 cents for every €1 spent go back into Solo Palacio’s community and conservation partner projects.

  • Seek brown bear, deer and capercaillie (no I don’t know what they are either)

  • From £150 a night Bed & Breakfast

Forestis

I am tired of being repeatedly told about how incredible this place is. I want to be the bore that wangs on about this place and experience it for myself! Hike through the Geislergruppe Massif and cos-play Heidi wild swimming and foraging for berries, nuts and mushrooms. The SPA even hosts a tree-circle ceremony which sounds too weird to miss!

  • Don’t miss the hotel’s daily kaffee and kuchen, when you’ll find Sachertorte, red-velvet cake, strudel, cheesecake and more under the glass cloches in the lounge.

  • Two distinct seasons to enjoy and a perfect excuse to travel twice a year to paradise

  • From £600 a night Bed & Breakfast

City

Le Grand Mazarin

If Paris doesn’t lend itself to being spoilt silly in a quirky hotel then I don’t know where does. Currently this stunner is top of my list whilst I continue to save for a night in a Palace (entry level €2,000 a night - dry wretch)

  • From €450 a night Bed & Breakfast

  • Plz do yourself a favoiur and always reserve in Pais

    Hip - Vivant

    Spling - Septime

  • Crispy corners, a joy to behold,

    Each bite a story, a tale retold.

    Messy faces, crumbs galore,

    Pain au chocolat, I adore!

The Dolli at the Acropolis

I love Athens - souvlaki at O Thanasis, rooftop bars and pussy cats everywhere. It also means you are a hop skip and a jump away from literally hundreds of islands. Waking up and throwing open your windows to the Acropolis in front of you would be quite the morning. I am manifesting.

  • Psaras Tavern ticks just about every box when it comes to buckets of feta and frittered version of vegetables

  • Head down a jumble of narrow streets on a Sunday morning to barter for bargains in the Giousouroum Flea Market.

  • The Riviera is not far, 40 mins if your lucky with the traffic and the beaches are full of locals and lined with tavernas selling the good stuff - tatsziki and Mythos

Overseas & Far Away

Mustang Shanti Wild

There is a reason the Himalayas are written about time and time again. This hotel provides luxury access to a once Forbidden Kingdom that I desperately want to explore.

Imagine ending here after a hike through Upper & Lower Mustang. A massage will never feel so good!

  • A 20-minute flight above jade-green mountains and deep ravines from Pokhara, the nearest airport, drops you down in the town of Jomsom - staff will meet you here

  • Visit in spring when the mountain is carpeted with rhododendrons, irises, poppies, pansies, and petunias.

    Higher passes are best tackled in April and May; check if your dates clash with the three-day Tiji Festival (whose dates change with lunar rhythms), where monks don lavish costumes for dances and rituals.

    Come summer pack binoculars to spy Pallas cats or Tibetan wolves, or see races and death-defying riding skills at the Yarthung festival. A

    utumn brings clear views and winter caps the mountains in snow.

  • From £1,400 a night BUT!

    Rates include all meals and drinks, roundtrip airport transfers from Jomsom, a welcome fruit juice and snacks, personal guide, and excursions and activities in the Lower Mustang area. A minimum five-night stay applies.