Cardiff was somewhere I’d never been before, so being invited by Eat PR & Marketing for a short weekend stay at Voco in Cardiff Bay, I was looking forward to the opportunity to visit a new location and new hotel, as well as being my first Voco hotel stay too (a group of currently 41 open hotels with 34 more in the pipeline). Any reviews though by The Private Traveller are completely independent.

Capella Hotels first came to my notice when they used to operate the Capella Pedregal resort in Cabo, Mexico. Capella is a small chain (which also incorporates the Patina brand) across mainly the Far East and Maldives and as soon as I saw the tented experience becoming featured at Capella Ubud I knew it was somewhere I wanted to visit.

Looking for a relaxing fortnight in Mexico before heading further to the USA and Palm Springs for Modernism Week, we first visited Cartesiano in Puebla before travelling up to the Yucatán Peninsula for two Chablé Hotels.

I had spotted Chablé Yucatán a while back, this property had opened in 2016 and is currently part of the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio; always a favourite go-to of mine for hotel choices. The stunning casitas throughout the resort all with private pools looked amazing, and they certainly did not disappoint in reality.

This new hotel, self-styled as the world’s first super boutique hotel opened in September 2021, slightly later than planned but was obviously impacted by Covid. It had been on my radar for a while and I was eagerly anticipating when I’d be able to visit, so I was very lucky to be able to stay for a weekend in March 2022.

There is the saying “Location, location, location” that I often use in hotel reviews or blog posts, and I think One Aldwych has to be one of the best examples of why that phrase can be so important. The hotel is so easily accessible, this trip we took the train and it was a very short taxi ride from King’s Cross station, and would equally be very easy by underground (the Tube) too had there not been a strike on the day we arrived.

As much as I love to revisit favourite five star hotels when in London, I also like to try out new properties and locations too. L’Oscar had come onto my radar a while back (it’s been open for just over three years now) but we had to cancel a trip last summer due to Covid, and (almost a year to day) were able to reschedule it.

Having been to Santorini before, we knew we would want to stay again at Oia, and after investigating a few options decided to book the Andronis Boutique Hotel, more on this in a separate review.

Having had to cancel a trip to Positano in Italy at short notice due to the change in Covid-19 travel restrictions, we decided to look for somewhere within the UK and opted for a two-centre short break between Gleneagles and The Fife Arms (you can read my full review on The Gleneagles Hotel here).

As I’ve talked about before, I like to undertake a lot of research on countries I’d like to visit, have visited, places I would like to see and often take note of a hotel or resort that catches my eye for a future trip. I’d looked at a few island locations in the Seychelles, and have been before to the main islands of Mahé and Praslin, but also wanted to try something different.

Our stay, booked through Leading Hotels of the World, was quite a last minute booking having had to cancel Le Sirenuse in Positano (Amalfi Coast, Italy) due to changes in Italian legislation regarding Covid-testing for UK arrivals. I had accumulated a number of points through the Leaders Club membership, so paid cash for the first night then booked a couple of extra nights using points.