Photos Courtesy of Quincy Hotel
Hallelujah! A hotel utterly conceived around the understanding that those checking in might be suffering from a common ailment called jet-lag.
The Quincy Hotel, Singapore, ticks all the boxes.
Early check-in to suit arrival times of transworld planes? Check. Super-fast transit from showing passport at front desk to bedroom with blackout blinds, (with [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
We didn’t do it, but we think we saw who did.
But then again, if you’d been freaked out by a red queen, you might need a quiet puff to calm down too.
We found Alice at Antony, a grand old house in Cornwall that Tim Burton used as a location. After we’d partaken [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
“It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive,” wrote the Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson in an age before Easyjet and Ryanair. These days, it is, generally, better to arrive, along with one’s luggage, than it is to travel; except when one is touring in a Bentley.
I don’t even like cars, [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
The bargain of Venice is the 7-day Vaporetto ticket at 50 euros - steep to start with, but terrific value if you make a point of chugging up and down the Grand Canal to all the museums (although it would take months to visit them all) and going to as many of [...]

Photos by Peter Woodcock
When I see the letters, ‘B&B’, I think cosy chintz, a selection of jams in little pots, maybe a snarly cat curled up in the corner. I do not think modern design done subtly and well, ceilings so high and white that a whole wall beneath can be painted jet black and [...]

Did your Mum always tell you to wear nice underwear in case you were hit by a bus? Might I suggest you also maintain a flawless pedicure? Because you never can tell when you might have to exit a limo. It’s your twinkle toes the paparazzi spot first.

From now on, I’m going to follow my [...]

I have to admit I’m feeling smug about this one. As everybody knows, on Thursday 15th April, a volcano with a name no one can pronounce erupted in Iceland and grounded planes all over the world. We were due to leave for Venice that afternoon. Perhaps because I have spent so many years sitting [...]

I love a city that can fit neatly into a weekend. They say Amsterdam is one of the most livable cities on earth but for me, the thrill of dodging all those beautiful people with their bikes piled with perfect blond children wears thin after a couple of days. As does cheese. And more cheese. [...]

If you want to learn about the might of the Hapsburg Empire’s capital, Vienna, Gerhard Strassgschwandtner is your man (he’ll explain why the bit over there looks like it was lifted from Brussels, the bit over there looks it’s come from Greece). If you want to know about the whys and wherefores of the etiquette [...]

The Tuscan town of Siena is best seen entirely on foot. In just two hours, the boho-chic Cinzia Mariotti, who clambers with you up and down medieval towers in high-heeled rope wedge sandals, can point to the evidence of the moment the 1348 Black Death struck - a half finished arch; then guide you through [...]