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BrownTravels

Inès Laurent

Contributing Editor

Inès contributes long-form features on suites, spas and the evolving language of modern luxury. She brings a design-led eye to the Journal, with a particular focus on Europe and the Indian Ocean.

Stories by Inès Laurent

Snow-covered Alpine peaks rising above a high mountain valley in clear light

Inspiration

Arriving Properly: Great European Rail Journeys That End at Grand Hotels

The railway and the grand hotel grew up together, and the partnership still works. These are the European rail journeys where the travelling is as memorable as the destination.

7 min read

A refined hotel suite with panoramic windows framing a city view

Suite Reviews

The Suites Redefining Modern Luxury

The world's most ambitious hotel suites have become laboratories for the future of luxury — private spas, residential scale and views engineered like artworks.

6 min read

Smooth dark spa stones beside folded towels in warm light

Wellness

Built on Hot Water: The Grand Hotels of Europe's Thermal Springs

Some of Europe's greatest hotels stand where they do for one reason: the water beneath them. A guide to the thermal-spring grandes dames and their living rituals.

7 min read

Singapore's skyline and gardens at dusk, gateway city of the world's great layovers

Rankings

The Best Airport Hotels Worth the Layover

The airport hotel has quietly become a category worth choosing rather than enduring. These are the properties that turn a connection into a pleasure — ranked.

6 min read

A historic stone building facade with arched windows in soft light

Inspiration

Sacred Ground: The Monasteries and Convents Reborn as Hotels

Cloisters built for silence turn out to be perfectly engineered for rest. How centuries-old religious houses became some of the world's most affecting places to stay.

6 min read

A tranquil hotel courtyard with greenery and tables in soft light

Family Travel

The Grandparent-Led Holiday: Travel's Quietest Power Shift

Increasingly it is grandparents who book the trip, set the tone and pick up the bill. How the skip-generation and grandparent-hosted holiday works best — for all three generations.

7 min read

Paris rooftops in warm light with the city stretching to the horizon

Food & Dining

Sugar Architecture: The Quiet Supremacy of the Hotel Pastry Kitchen

From the Sachertorte to the modern Paris palace, pâtisserie has become the discipline where great hotels declare their standards. Inside the rise of the hotel pastry programme.

7 min read

Palm trees leaning over a calm white-sand beach ideal for families

Family Travel

The Best Luxury Hotels for Families

Luxury travel with children no longer means compromise. These resorts are renowned for keeping parents and kids equally — and separately — delighted.

7 min read

An elegantly plated dish on a white tablecloth in a refined dining room

Food & Dining

Room at the Table: How the Hotel Restaurant Became the Destination

Once an amenity for tired arrivals, the hotel dining room now anchors entire trips. Inside the quiet revolution that made hotels the new capitals of fine dining.

7 min read

A calm spa treatment room with folded towels and soft natural light

Wellness

The Longevity Prescription: Inside Europe's Medi-Spa Ascendancy

Diagnostics before dinner, consultants alongside concierges — how Europe's clinical retreats and longevity hotels turned medical rigour into the new face of luxury wellness.

7 min read

A tranquil spa treatment room bathed in soft natural light

Travel News

The Longevity Turn: Luxury Travel's New Obsession with Living Well, Longer

Diagnostics suites beside the spa, doctors on the resort payroll and retreats measured in biomarkers — how longevity became the organising idea of high-end wellness travel.

6 min read

High alpine peaks above the clouds in crisp morning light

Wellness

Thin Air, Deep Rest: Why the Alps Became Europe's Wellness Capital

Long before wellness became an industry, the Alps were where Europe went to recover. A look at how altitude, water and tradition shaped the mountain spa — and where it excels today.

7 min read

An infinity pool merging with the ocean horizon under a clear sky

Rankings

The World's Most Beautiful Hotel Pools

From rooftop infinity edges to lakeside terraces, these are the hotel pools consistently celebrated as the world's most beautiful — and the properties behind them.

6 min read

The rooftops of Paris with the Eiffel Tower rising in the distance under an evening sky

Suite Reviews

Suite Impériale at the Ritz Paris: The Most Parisian Rooms in Existence

Overlooking Place Vendôme, the Ritz Paris's Suite Impériale distils two centuries of French decorative art into a single apartment. We examine what makes it the city's definitive grand suite.

7 min read

Dark smooth stones stacked in balance beside soft spa linens

Wellness

The Business of Rest: How Sleep Became Luxury Travel's New Obsession

Blackout engineering, circadian lighting and retreats built entirely around rest — why the world's finest hotels are competing on the quality of your night.

6 min read

The Seine and Paris rooftops with the Eiffel Tower rising beyond

Suite Reviews

The Shangri-La Suite, Paris: Bonaparte's Palace, the Eiffel Tower's Best Seat

In the former mansion of Napoleon's grand-nephew, the flagship suite holds what many consider the finest private view in Paris. We profile the rooms where imperial history meets the Iron Lady head-on.

6 min read

The Tokyo skyline at dusk with the city stretching to the horizon

Food & Dining

Trust the Counter: Omakase and the Hotel Sushi Renaissance

The most intimate format in world gastronomy has found a natural home inside the grand hotel. How the omakase counter migrated from Tokyo's basements to the world's finest houses.

7 min read

A classically furnished hotel suite with soft light falling across the bed

Family Travel

Small Guest, Grand Hotel: Travelling with Toddlers in Luxury Properties

The toddler years need not mean a travel hiatus. How the best hotels accommodate their smallest guests — and how parents can stack the odds in everyone's favour.

6 min read

A tranquil spa treatment room with soft towels and warm natural light

Wellness

Taking the Waters: Europe's Historic Spa Towns Are Back

Baden-Baden, Karlovy Vary and Évian built Europe's original wellness culture. A new generation of travellers is rediscovering the thermal towns — on their own terms.

7 min read

Snow-covered peaks rising above an alpine valley at first light

Destination Guides

The Dolomites: Italy's Most Dramatic Mountains, in Winter and Summer

Pale towers of rock, Alpine-Italian food culture and valleys that reward both skiers and hikers — a guide to planning a Dolomites escape in either season.

8 min read

A serene hotel courtyard with greenery and unbranded, understated furnishings

Travel News

The New Discretion: How Quiet Luxury Conquered the Hotel World

Logos are shrinking, lobbies are hushing and the most expensive rooms increasingly refuse to look expensive. Inside hospitality's decisive shift towards understatement.

6 min read

A serene spa space with folded towels and soft natural light

Wellness

The Sound of Nothing: Inside the Rise of Silent and Digital-Detox Retreats

Luxury's newest scarcity is neither space nor service but silence. Why the world's most connected travellers are paying handsomely to surrender their phones — and their voices.

6 min read

A shaded stone courtyard with greenery and café tables in southern France

Destination Guides

Provence Beyond the Lavender: A Considered Guide to the South of France's Quiet Interior

Between the Riviera's glamour and the lavender-field clichés lies the real Provence — market towns, vineyard valleys and some of France's most rewarding slow travel.

7 min read

A precisely plated tasting course on white linen in a refined dining room

Food & Dining

Inside the Pass: The Rise of the Hotel Chef's Table

The most coveted seat in the modern grand hotel is no longer in the dining room but inside the kitchen itself. How the chef's table became luxury dining's most intimate ritual.

6 min read

An ornate Moroccan riad courtyard with carved plasterwork and tiled floors

Suite Reviews

The Grand Riad at Royal Mansour Marrakech: A Palace Within a Palace

Royal Mansour is a hotel built as a medina of private riads — and at its heart stands the Grand Riad, a three-storey residence with its own pool, spa and garden. We profile Morocco's most extraordinary suite.

7 min read

A classically decorated hotel suite with panelled walls, soft lamplight and a view towards the river

Suite Reviews

A Night in the Royal Suite at The Savoy

The Savoy's Royal Suite occupies the hotel's most coveted stretch of Thames frontage. We spent a night there to see whether London's most storied address still earns its reputation at the very top.

7 min read

A hotel terrace laid for breakfast in soft morning light

Food & Dining

The First Meal of the Day Is Now the Measure of the House

Once a buffet to be endured, hotel breakfast has become the sternest test of a property's kitchen, sourcing and soul. Why the morning table now decides where discerning travellers stay.

6 min read