Inspiration
The Amber Weeks: Why Autumn Is the City Break's Finest Hour
Galleries reopen, kitchens change their menus and the light turns to gold — the case for September to November as the supreme season for the European city break.
6 min read
The Journal
Inspiration
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
Inspiration
Keepers' Quarters: The Rise of Lighthouse and Remote-Station Stays
Decommissioned lighthouses, fjord-head hotels and high-mountain stations are becoming the connoisseur's alternative to the resort. On the strange luxury of staying where the world runs out.
6 min read
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
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
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
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
Inspiration
In Praise of the Shoulder Season: Europe at Its Most Generous
The weeks either side of high summer are when Europe's most celebrated destinations return to themselves — and when their grandest hotels are at their most rewarding to inhabit.
6 min read
Inspiration
Stone Ancestors: The Palazzo Hotels and the Architects Behind Them
From Venetian Gothic facades on the Grand Canal to Palermo's art nouveau seafront, Italy's palazzo hotels preserve the work of masters. A tour of the buildings — and the hands that made them.
7 min read
Inspiration
The Art of Arriving by Boat
No transfer on earth rivals the water approach — Venice by lagoon, Como by launch, an island dock at dusk. On the oldest and grandest way to reach a hotel.
5 min read
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
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