Michael Edwards, Author at A Luxury Travel Blog : A Luxury Travel Blog

Short stay: Hampton Manor, Hampton-in-Arden, West Midlands, UK

By Michael Edwards on Oct 27, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The country house party is stylishly back at the foodie estate of Hampton Manor. In the parlour, lavish books and board games sit invitingly on coffee tables. Wellies are ready for country rambles. The croquet lawn awaits. Guests gather for pre-dinner cocktails, gins or wine. After dinner Frazer guides guests through a tour of whiskies. […]

Short stay: The Cavendish London, Mayfair, London, UK

By Michael Edwards on Oct 13, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

In the true spirit of The Cavendish London you could order The Duchess from The Petrichor Bar: a cocktail of Galliano, Cointreau, orange juice and double cream. Then toast Rosa Lewis, known as the Duchess of Jermyn Street, who worked her way up from humble origins to purchase The Cavendish London in 1902. Back then […]

Short stay: Roseate House, Hyde Park, London, UK

By Michael Edwards on Sep 30, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Roseate House London is a white stucco confection of a 48-room boutique hotel within a five-minute walk of Hyde Park. An invitation to revisit an era when London aspired to become the next Athens or Rome. Dating back to 1842, three Grade 2 listed townhouses with classical columns and balustraded balconies, make up this dignified retreat […]

Short stay: The Duncombe Arms, Ellastone, Staffordshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 30, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The Duncombe Arms shows just how far The Great British Pub has travelled. Gourmet pub classics have brought a Michelin Bib Gourmand, two AA rosettes and foodies from afar. This is no longer just a place where only locals drop by for a pint and a bite. Ten rooms in Walnut House, every one, with […]

Short stay: New Hall Hotel and Spa, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 28, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

New Hall is the romantic castle, complete with water lilies floating on the moat, where you have always wanted to stay. There are more coats of arms, griffins, stone fireplaces, Norman French mottoes, crenelated towers, timber beams, cupola topped by a weather vane and mullioned-windows than you can shake a jousting lance at. Rumour has […]

Short stay: Middlethorpe Hotel and Spa, York, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 14, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The red-brick and white-sash-windows house, built in 1699, has echoes of both the grandeur of Hampton Court and Sir Christopher Wren’s elegant rebuilding of London after The Great Fire of London. Although owner Thomas Barlow’s views on architecture were influenced by his Grand Tour of Europe, Middlethorpe Hall Hotel and Spa, with its lawns and […]

Blackheath and Greenwich: 10 reasons to visit

By Michael Edwards on Aug 06, 2020 in Attractions, Europe, Going Out, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The 211 acres of Blackheath’s common tell the story of England over the last millennium. The Royal Hundred Hides, traditionally, a hide is enough land to house and feed a family, lead south to Greenwich Park and it’s history. Over the centuries, Blackheath has been a gathering point for both celebrations and revolts: Henry V […]

Short stay: Rookery Hall Hotel and Spa, Nantwich, Cheshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 02, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Two centuries on from its naming as Rookery Hall, the rooks still fly over 38 acres of grounds, waddle across the terrace and perch on the handsome Georgian mansion built back in 1816. Yet, there is an air of the Loire valley to this grand sandstone and grey slate property. When Baron Von Schroeder purchased […]

Short stay: Homewood Hotel and Spa, Bath, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jul 25, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Homewood, in ten bucolic acres of lawns and soaring trees, brings relaxed but stylish Mediterranean living to the rural village of Freshford: palms, olive trees in deep terracotta planters, Goddess sculptures and modernist art. It’s a sensuous taste of the Côte d’Azur slotted between the rivers Avon and Frome. The Mediterranean theme is apt, given […]

Short stay: The Swan Hotel, Newby Bridge, Cumbria, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jul 18, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The Swan Hotel is a former sixteenth-century coaching inn that has been extended to become virtually a Lake District resort. Ivy grows on whitewashed walls that overlook the five arches of the narrow 1651 Newby Bridge. Meanwhile the River Leven that sedately flows towards Lake Windermere. After flooding in December 2015, The Swan Hotel rose […]

Short stay: Country Living Lansdown Grove Hotel, Bath, UK

By Michael Edwards on Mar 20, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Country Living Lansdown Grove Hotel is not just a hotel, it’s a radical new concept, a way of living. Sat high on one of Bath’s seven hills, the hotel looks down on a UNESCO World Heritage City and over Somerset’s green hills and valleys. “An escape from the ordinary” is the hotel’s motto. Decor brings […]

Short stay: Highbullen Hotel, North Devon, UK

By Michael Edwards on Mar 04, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Highbullen Hotel sits high on a ridge in North Devon with views across 127 acres of beautiful country towards Exmoor. Built in Victorian Gothic style in 1879, the interior of the house with its tiled floors, elegant carved staircase and grandiose fireplaces plays tribute to the skills of the late-Victorian Arts and Craft movement. The […]

Short stay: Ambong Pool Villas, Langkawi, Malaysia

By Michael Edwards on Jan 24, 2020 in Accommodation, Asia, Featured, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Malaysia, Regions, Resorts, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany

Ambong Pool Villas sits stylishly on one of the 99 (natural) islands that make up the Langkawi archipelago in the Andaman Sea, close to Thailand’s southern border. Open for just two years, this is a family run small rainforest resort set into the contours of a steep hillside where hornbills fly and monkeys clamber. The […]

Langkawi, Malaysia: 10 reasons to visit

By Michael Edwards on Jan 07, 2020 in Accommodation, Adventure Travel, Air Travel, Asia, Attractions, Cruises & Boat Travel, Going Out, Hotels, Malaysia, Regions, Resorts, Speciality Travel

Bathing in the warm aquamarine Andaman Sea, Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 Malaysian islands just shy of the border with Thailand. White sand beaches backed by dense rain forests provide a base for relaxing holidays. But Langkawi is also a base for adrenaline infused adventures too. The Oriental Village The Oriental Village is an […]

Short stay: Paschoe House, Devon, UK

By Michael Edwards on Dec 21, 2019 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Michelin inspectors are keeping a close eye on Paschoe House’s stratospheric rise into foodie heaven. Since its opening in August 2017, Paschoe House has been on a soaring trajectory, awarded 5 stars by the AA for its discrete luxury and on the verge of a third AA rosette for its imaginative cuisine. It’s a phoenix […]

Short stay: Hartwell House Hotel and Spa, Aylesbury, UK

By Michael Edwards on Dec 14, 2019 in Accommodation, Europe, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Hartwell House Hotel and Spa has some history. When Louis XVlll was exiled from France after the French Revolution, he rented this stately home, in 90 acres of Buckinghamshire parkland, at £500 a year, for his family and courtiers. Eventually, in the Hartwell House library, Louis signed the document for his restoration to the French […]

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