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BrownTravels
BrownTravels

Eleanor Brown

Editor-in-Chief

Eleanor leads the Browntravels editorial team and sets the standards behind every ranking and review published in the Journal. Her focus is on separating genuine excellence from marketing gloss across the world's most celebrated hotels.

Stories by Eleanor Brown

A luxurious outdoor lounge area with purple cushions, a central fire pit, and a scenic waterfront view at sunset.

Hotel Reviews

The Nai Harn, Phuket: We Found the Best Night's Sleep in Thailand — Review

Our editors checked into Phuket's original grande dame above the island's most beautiful bay — and checked out rating it 9.1. Inside: the bed we're still dreaming about, a Michelin Key 2025 with cooking to match, and the sunset that ends every argument about where to stay in Phuket.

3 min read

The grand facade of a historic hotel glowing warmly in the evening

Inspiration

The Festive-Season Grand Hotel: A Case for Christmas Among Strangers

Trees in the lobby, carols on the staircase and dinner without a single saucepan to wash — why December belongs to the grand hotels, and how to choose yours.

6 min read

White buildings above the Santorini caldera under clear low-season light

Travel News

The Shoulder Season Ascendancy: Luxury Travel's Calendar Is Being Redrawn

May in the Mediterranean, September in the Aegean: the industry's most experienced travellers are abandoning peak season — and hotels are redesigning the year around them.

6 min read

An elegant restaurant table set for dinner in low, warm light

Food & Dining

Hotel Restaurants Worth Planning a Trip Around

The hotel dining room has shed its captive-audience reputation. These are the restaurants that justify routing an entire journey through their cities — and what changed.

7 min read

A pool of seawater merging with the ocean horizon under a soft sky

Wellness

The Seawater Cure: Thalassotherapy's Quiet Return to Fashion

France codified the seawater cure a century ago, then watched it drift out of fashion. Now thalassotherapy is returning to the luxury spa — with science in its corner.

6 min read

A small private island ringed by white sand and turquoise sea

Inspiration

Private Island Resorts Worth Travelling For

The private island is luxury travel's ultimate promise: a world reduced to one shoreline. These are the islands consistently judged worth the long journey.

7 min read

The grand facade and entrance of a classic luxury hotel

Inspiration

The Return of the Grand Lobby: Why Hotels Are Thinking Big Again

After decades of shrinking check-in desks and 'residential' foyers, the great public room is back at the centre of hotel design. Inside the revival of hospitality's most democratic space.

6 min read

Snow-covered peaks above a cold northern landscape in winter light

Wellness

Into the Cold: Nordic Bathing and the Luxury of Discomfort

Sauna, plunge, repeat: the Nordic ritual of extreme heat and cold water has moved from folk tradition to the centre of the retreat world. What the culture actually teaches.

6 min read

The grand facade of a historic European luxury hotel

Rankings

Europe's Most Iconic Grand Hotels

The palaces of Paris, the legends of London, the salons of Venice: a tour through the grand hotels that wrote the rules of European luxury and still enforce them.

8 min read

A dense city skyline glowing at dusk seen from above

Rankings

The New-Generation City Hotel: Where Urban Luxury Is Heading

A cohort of city hotels has quietly rewritten the rulebook — vertical resorts, residential calm and neighbourhood conviction. These are the properties defining the new urban standard.

7 min read

Aerial view of a luxury resort with pools and palm trees beside a turquoise coastline

Inspiration

Inside the New Generation of Ultra-Luxury Resorts

A new wave of resorts is redefining what ultra-luxury means — trading gilded excess for privacy, place and barefoot polish. Here is what the shift looks like on the ground.

7 min read

Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong skyline at dusk

Hotel Openings

The Return of Regent Hong Kong: A Harbour Legend Reclaims Its Name

Four decades after it first defined Kowloon glamour, the Regent name has returned to its original home on Victoria Harbour — and the relaunch honours the legend.

7 min read

Tokyo Tower glowing against the city skyline at dusk

Hotel Openings

Janu Tokyo: Aman's Sociable Sister Brand Makes Its Debut

The first hotel from Janu, Aman's new sister brand, opened in Tokyo's Azabudai Hills district — trading Aman's monastic hush for energy, community and one of the city's largest hotel wellness spaces.

6 min read

Rippled desert dunes glowing amber in low evening light

Travel News

The Kingdom Opens: Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea Bid for Luxury Travel

A coastline of pristine reefs, a desert of Nabataean tombs and investment on a scale hospitality has rarely seen — inside tourism's most ambitious national project.

7 min read

The Manhattan skyline seen across the water in late light

Suite Reviews

The Mark Penthouse: The Apartment That Crowned New York's Hotel Wars

Five bedrooms, a rooftop terrace over Madison Avenue and a footprint larger than most townhouses — we profile the Upper East Side penthouse that redefined the American flagship suite.

6 min read

Singapore's Marina Bay with modern towers and gardens seen across the water in daylight

Family Travel

The Civilised City Break with Children: Where Luxury Hotels Genuinely Deliver

City breaks with children have a reputation for compromise. In the right hotels — from Tokyo to Singapore — the opposite is true. Here is how to choose a city hotel that works for the whole family.

7 min read

A city skyline glowing at dusk seen from a high vantage point

Family Travel

The Teen-Approved City Break: Winning Over Travel's Toughest Critics

Teenagers are the most demanding audience in family travel — allergic to worthiness, immune to charm offensives. The cities and strategies that actually win them over.

7 min read

The elegant facade of a historic grand hotel in warm evening light

Rankings

The Grand Dames of Asia: Historic Hotels That Still Set the Standard

Asia's storied hotels have watched empires rise and fall from their lobbies. These are the historic properties that remain benchmarks — not museums — of hospitality.

8 min read

A long road stretching towards distant mountains under a wide open sky

Travel News

The Rail Renaissance: Why Luxury Travel Is Slowing Down

Sleeper services are returning to European timetables and heritage trains are selling out seasons ahead. Inside the industry-wide shift towards slower, richer journeys.

6 min read

A classically furnished hotel suite prepared for a returning guest

Travel News

Points of Order: Luxury Hotels Rethink the Loyalty Programme

Points and tiers built the modern loyalty industry, but the top of the market is quietly moving beyond them — towards recognition, access and relationships that money alone cannot book.

6 min read

Lake Como seen from above with mountains descending to the water and villages along the shore

Inspiration

The Case for Staying Put: Slow Travel and the One-Hotel Holiday

Against the tyranny of the packed itinerary, a quiet counter-movement argues for choosing one great hotel and staying a week. The rewards are larger than they first appear.

6 min read

A grand curved London facade in warm afternoon light

Food & Dining

The Third Meal: Afternoon Tea's Unlikely Modern Revival

A Victorian ritual has become one of hospitality's most vital afternoon economies. How the great hotels rebuilt afternoon tea for a generation that was supposed to have no time for it.

7 min read

The Dubai skyline at dusk with illuminated towers along the coast

Suite Reviews

The Royal Suite at Burj Al Arab: Inside Dubai's Gilded Statement

A duplex of gold leaf, a private cinema and a rotating four-poster bed on the twenty-fifth floor of the sail — we profile the suite that made maximalism a national style.

6 min read

Elegant London architecture glowing in the evening light

Hotel Openings

The Peninsula London: A Grande Dame Built from Scratch

Decades in the planning, The Peninsula's London debut at Hyde Park Corner proves a brand-new building can carry old-world gravitas — and a rooftop restaurant with real ambition.

6 min read

A city skyline glittering at dusk, seen from a residential tower

Travel News

Living Above the Lobby: The Unstoppable Rise of Branded Residences

Hotel-branded homes have moved from a curiosity to the fastest-growing corner of luxury property. What the trend says about how the wealthy now want to live — and travel.

6 min read

A resort pool fringed by palms and loungers under bright morning light

Family Travel

The Kids' Club, Reconsidered: What Parents Actually Rate

Beyond the painting table and the mascot: how to tell a genuinely excellent children's programme from a glorified crèche — and the questions to ask before you book.

6 min read

A grand historic hotel facade in warm stone under a clear sky

Hotel Openings

Rosewood Munich: A Bavarian State Bank Becomes the City's New Benchmark

Rosewood's German debut has transformed the former Bavarian State Bank and the Palais Neuhaus-Preysing into Munich's most consequential hotel opening in a generation.

6 min read