Volume VI

Further afield

Kyoto, Puebla, Singapore and a few more. The long flights, and what was worth them.

Written up

Six stays, with the five notes on each.

Munich, Germany

Rosewood Munich

The old Bavarian State Bank and the Palais Neuhaus-Preysing, joined and opened in 2023 as Rosewood's first house in Germany. The word TRESOR is still cut into the stone at the foot of the stairs, and nobody has tried to hide it.

Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan

Park Hyatt Kyoto

A guesthouse on the hill above Higashiyama, and the only sane way to have that district to yourself.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Capella Hanoi

Forty-seven rooms in the French Quarter, each one given to a performer of the 1920s, inside a building Bill Bensley filled to the ceiling. The loudest hotel I have stayed in, and one of the most precise.

San José del Cabo, Mexico

Viceroy Los Cabos

White blocks standing in black water on the Sea of Cortez, by Miguel Ángel Aragonés, with three kitchens in it that do three different jobs.

Singapore

Andaz Singapore

A vertical hotel inside Ole Scheeren's honeycomb towers, with André Fu reading the shophouse alleys of Kampong Glam back into the rooms. Everything happens between the twenty-fifth floor and the thirty-ninth.

Robertson Quay, Singapore

The Warehouse Hotel

An 1895 godown on the Singapore River, thirty-seven rooms, with a lobby that still has its trusses and a bar under forty hanging pulley wheels. In a city that photographs itself from the fifty-seventh floor, this one is at water level.

Outside the groups

Houses here that belong to no chain.

They are a mix. A hotel run by the family that owns it, a villa, a house of a few rooms on an island, and here and there a larger place that sits outside the programmes anyway. No group stands behind any of them, and several appear on no booking portal at all. I have stayed in all of them, several over a number of years. Tell me what the trip has to do and I will say which one fits, and where there is nothing to book online I write to the owner myself.

A roof terrace at night under strings of bulbs, with low timber seating and red metal chairs and the lit towers of Manhattan behind — New York

A bed with white linen against a tall headboard panel painted with pale grasses, a reading light on each side and a dark timber nightstand — Chicago, Illinois

A woman in a long dress playing a grand piano in a tall lobby bar, under a timber slatted ceiling and a cloud-shaped light, with the bar running along the back wall — Brasilia, Brazil

A breakfast buffet with a steel bowl of fresh oysters on ice, smoked salmon on two tiers beside it and a whole pineapple on a stand behind — Cape Town, South Africa

A tall lobby under a fluted arch, low sofas on a patterned rug — Brussels, Belgium

A lounge hung with white paper globes of different sizes under dark timber beams, with low armchairs on a patterned carpet and the city through the windows — Fort Worth, Texas

A pool seen from above through the branches of a garden, blue parasols along one side — Cuernavaca, Mexico

A pool tiled in a green geometric pattern, teak decking around it — Puebla, Mexico

An oak-slatted screen with a tall arch cut through it, a red moulded stool and a white chair on a green and white checkerboard terrazzo floor — New York

A rooftop pool with the water lit turquoise, looking across a glass rail to wooded hills and scattered houses under a clear sky — Los Angeles, California

Twin beds and a sofa in a panelled room, towers filling the window — Singapore

Two blue leather armchairs on chrome frames either side of a small round table, against a wall of pale timber panelling, under one pendant lamp — Brasilia, Brazil

White parasols standing in a row, reflected in the still water of an infinity pool — Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

A pool seen from above in a courtyard between brick and glass towers, with striped parasols and loungers along one side — Fort Worth, Texas

A bed in a room lined entirely in pale timber, looking out through a deep window to the lit towers of the city at night — New York

White pyjamas laid out on a made bed beneath a large black calligraphic mark on the wall — Osaka, Japan

An open wrought-iron gate under a white arch, with a brick terrace, a round pool and timber loungers beyond, and green hills behind — Cape Town, South Africa

A black staircase in a pale lobby, flowers on brass tables at its foot — Wellington, New Zealand

A tan leather banquette and pale timber chairs at a laid table against a whitewashed brick wall, with a framed drawing above and a tall plant beside — New York

A tiled roof and white parasols above a pool in a palm garden — Cuernavaca, Mexico

A hotel lobby under a large mirrored ceiling disc hung with scattered bulbs, with mid-century timber chairs on a dark green rug and shelves of books along the back wall — Fort Worth, Texas

A bed and a long bench in a plain room, a tall window onto the plain beyond — Brasilia, Brazil

A black staircase rising beside a lit stone arch, a church tower beyond it — Puebla, Mexico

A corridor of yellow doors with pixelated figures laid into the terrazzo floor — Stockholm, Sweden

A long room seen through an arch in an oak screen, with the checkerboard floor running away to a lit bar, leather and timber chairs and planted pots along the way — New York

A sitting area behind a drawn white curtain with a cluster of red and yellow glass globe pendants above two lounge chairs and a round table, with plants in the corner — Miami Beach, Florida

A round mirrored niche in a timber wall, the bed and the city beyond it — Brussels, Belgium

A corner bedroom with a timber platform bed under a striped cover, a paper pendant above and two tall windows onto the city — New York

A white leather armchair with a sheepskin on the seat, in front of floor-to-ceiling glass looking out to green farmland and a long mountain ridge — Cape Town, South Africa

A sitting area in a suite with a yellow swivel armchair, a dark sofa under a woven hanging of pale diamonds, a brass floor lamp and a striped rug — Fort Worth, Texas

A bed in red and white under a wall of framed pictures on pink toile paper — Gothenburg, Sweden

Striped loungers and pink parasols along a rooftop pool under a scalloped awning — Singapore

A hotel lounge with blue velvet tub chairs round black marble tables, a long tan banquette along one wall and a lit bar across the far end — Chicago, Illinois

A curved timber staircase under coloured ovals set into the ceiling — Seoul, South Korea

A long room with a patterned perforated screen down one side, a dark leather sofa and a slatted bench on a polished floor, open through full-height glass to a lawn — Brasilia, Brazil

A wrought iron gate hung with pots of pink flowers, steps climbing into the house beyond — Cuernavaca, Mexico

A door of fluted glass in a curved oak frame standing open onto a room of shelved glassware, with a rubber plant in the foreground and terrazzo underfoot — New York

A dark library corner of stone and timber shelves, two cane armchairs under the lamps — Puebla, Mexico

A hotel lounge with a long timber table and low sofas on a black and white triangle patterned floor — Osaka, Japan

A bed with white linen against a full wall of fluted pale timber, with reading lamps either side and a striped carpet running under it to a curtained window — Fort Worth, Texas

A lounge with a long wall of books, low pale sofas and a dark table in the foreground set with small candles and a sprig of greenery — New York

The names stay off this page. They come with the inspection, or by email. More of them here.

On foot

The ground, where I stood on it.

Grey double-monk shoes on a carpet of yellow ginkgo leaves

Six SensesKyoto, Japan

Red loafers on black granite with an inlaid brass star

Capella HanoiHanoi, Vietnam

Brown sneakers among mirrored sculptures on a concrete floor

New YorkNew York

Red mesh slip-ons and polka-dot socks against white panelling

The MarltonNew York, NY

Ask about Further afield

Tell me the month and who is travelling.

I come back with one or two properties, the room I would take in each, and the notes that stay off the site. In English, Italian or Spanish.

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