We were originally due to visit Chile as part of a round the world trip back in 2020 - coming from the South Pacific we were to stop in Easter Island before flying onto Chile’s capital Santiago, then driving to the coast to stay at Valparaiso before flying back to the UK. With this trip having to be cancelled due to Covid-19, on rebooking the Chile part for the following year it seemed to make more sense to focus on Chile as a single country trip. This gave the opportunity to look to visit other parts of Chile, like Patagonia in the south and the Atacama Desert in the north.

Having been to Bali in Indonesia now 24 and 22 years ago, a few years ago in 2019 I thought it was about time to get back there. A couple of places really had caught my eye (both Leading Hotels of the World properties) - firstly Capella Ubud having opened a luxury tented camp just outside Ubud (designed by Bill Bensley - the Creative Director and Founder of BENSLEY) in 2018, and secondly Nihi Sumba when I had read a feature on their Spa Safari.

I love to travel and building a great itinerary with a mix of things to do and see is a great passion too. Having had to cancel a trip through Covid to the Palm Springs Modernism Week Fall Preview, as soon as this could be rearranged I put together this luxury itinerary also featuring a few locations in Mexico to being with, another favourite country.

Having had to defer a South Africa trip for the third time (albeit thankfully rearranged for the end of 2022 now) we were looking for somewhere closer to home for a week’s trip. Initially I was focussing on luxury spa resorts only, but this got me to realise that I’d never actually stayed in Bath Spa before and this would make a great location to write about my interest in spas with a focus on male spa treatments.

Coming out of the Covid-lockdown I started searching for countries we could visit without a necessary quarantine on the return to the UK, as well as country with no special quarantine requirements on arrival there. It was also important for me to be able to fly there with one of my preferred airlines - British Airways, Qatar Airways or Emirates (airlines I would trust for on-board Covid safety measures/cleaning).

This was the first visit to North Africa and I will definitely be going back to Marrakesh, as well as wanting to try out different locations too. We had a week for this trip and were looking for somewhere not too far away (easily accessible via direct BA flights).

This itinerary was for the first time I ever visited Japan, but have been back since, absolutely loving everything about this culture. We only just under a fortnight for this trip, so we had a mix of cities with Tokyo and Kyoto (modern and traditional) then some relaxing beach/resort time on the island of Mijakohima in the south.