The honey-stone walls of Oxford city centre conjure all kinds of wishes and whimsy – and each time that I’ve stayed overnight in Oxford, it’s like slipping into an architectural Narnia. Disclaimer: On this visit I was an invited guest of Mercure Hotels and Experience Oxfordshire, but all thoughts and laboured literary metaphors are very much my own.
Oxford is one of those cities that seems unaffected by the passing of time.
One of the main reasons for going up to stay at the lovely Tewkesbury Park (a full review of our hotel stay here) was to try the delicious dishes served in the newly refurbished Mint Restaurant. Disclaimer: We were invited to spend a weekend at Tewkesbury Park but all thoughts, images and fork twirlings are very much my own.
Hotel restaurants can be hit and miss – we stayed in a hotel a fortnight later that didn’t hold a candle to just how delicious Mint Restaurant at Tewkesbury Park was.
To chase away the impending January blues, Sima (The Curious Pixie), Binny (Food and Travel Diarist), Shikha (always asking Why People Waste Annual Leave) and I plotted a cheeky respite from the winter blues, a ladies staycation in our favourite city, London. Disclaimer: We were invited to spend our London staycation in the Chronicle Aparthotel by Supercity but all views, PJs and meal choices are very much our own.
Did you ever read The Babysitters Club books by Ann M. Martin as a teenager? In one of them (Baby-Sitters’ European Vacation – The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #15 to be exact) some of the group take a trip to London & Paris from their American home of Stoneybrook. They have adventures, dance in professional performances, explore London, meet the Queen – you know, the usual things that teenagers get up to on holiday.
Like the brunch queen I am, I couldn’t help myself and put together a list of the best hotel breakfasts we have enjoyed so far around the world – they say “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” and I can’t help but agree. These are all favourites for a myriad of reasons – and every single hotel that we stayed in and listed, has excellent coffee and was part of an adventure.
The locations vary from Texas to Cornwall, from Budapest to Gibraltar but all have beautiful food, something special about them, and I would love to revisit every single one of them for retesting purposes.
During our week in Salzburg, we decided that a couple of nights in an Austrian lake retreat was in order – we just wanted a little peace and quiet in an out-of-the-way nook.
Furiously Google researching before we left, I hatched a plan to hop on the coaches that serve the towns dotted around Austria, and after boarding we merrily watched the countryside gradually change before our eyes over the 45-minute journey.