A Flaming Cosmopolitan at the Egerton Hotel.

There are hotels. And then there are hotels. Places so imaginative, so extraordinary and so unusual that they stand out as experiences in their own right. The Egerton Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, is one of those hotels.

The Egerton: A Boutique & Luxury Hotel in London

First things first: the reception staff are knowledgeable, friendly and seem pleased to see you. This may seem a strange place to start. After all, I could have mentioned the original art from Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, the Egyptian cotton sheets, the personal bartender service, the close proximity to Harrods or any one of the many features of this five star luxury hotel that make staying here a pleasure.

No, I mention the service because:

a) it baffles me why so many in the hospitality industry don’t seem to think that it’s important and

b) the Egerton excelled at it.

By the end of a brief chat with the staff at the desk, I had personal recommendations for my next destination (Istanbul, no less) plus an airport-security-approved bottle of water to take with me onto the flight.

In my room, in addition to the usual luxurious touches, I found a pillow for the bath and multivitamins for the frazzled traveller. And by the time I reached the Egerton, after delayed flights, reroutes and sprinting around London with a suitcase, I was a frazzled traveller.

The More Traditional Egerton Hotel Review

Twenty-eight rooms and top floor suites manage to fit into this charming townhouse, with each room wearing a different version of fine fabrics and Italian antiques. Rooms are cosy rather than spacious but come with all the mod-cons: wifi, widescreen TV and air conditioning (should you ever need it in the UK.)

Breakfast is also an intimate affair, served in the basement and combining a freshly-prepared à la carte menu with a cold platter buffet.

The bar at the Egerton Hotel is one of its star attractions because it houses its star attractions: its bartenders. Antonio is the name on everyone’s lips but he was away on the day I was in town. Instead, I had the great pleasure of meeting Esley Gunaratne, character and bartender extraordinaire. It is no mean feat to eke both a conversation and a smile out of me after a day spent schlepping around London and failing to win an industry award ;)

So, to you, Esley – and to all the staff I met at the Egerton – thank you for a wonderful stay and I wish you all the best for the New Year ahead.

The Egerton Hotel, London

Who it’s for: able-bodied adults in search of luxury in the centre of London.

Who it’s not for: large families with young children or anyone searching for a faceless international chain.

Disclosure: I received a night’s accommodation at the Egerton Hotel on a complimentary basis but was free to write whatever I truly thought about the place. Otherwise reviews are rather pointless. And for any cynics out there who may think I always write glowing reviews, check out the review section and disabuse yourself of that notion!

The Egerton Hotel is a Red Carnation Hotel, read more about them on the Red Carnation Blog.

On Fire at the Egerton Hotel: An Independent Luxury Hotel Review first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

The Rubens Hotel, London

The feeling of a country manor in the heart of the big smoke.

Like many a hotel in London, a Union Jack flag hangs over the doorway of The Rubens at the Palace, the fabric swaying with all the haste of an oak tree expanding its roots. Unlike many hotels in London, the Rubens maintains that slow-paced country tempo well after you’ve left the frazzled streets of London behind.

Decked out in chestnut browns and rich deep plums, a stay at the Rubens transports you back to a time when royals ruled and guests dined in elegant country manors. Gilded portraits of kings and queens gaze down from the walls, while busts of the noble stare into the drawing room.

Black chandeliers hang from the ceilings and the cocktail of the month blends bourbon, bitters and brown sugar into a firestorm called, somewhat appropriately, Old fashioned.

With 143 guest rooms (and 161 rooms in total,) this four star hotel is not quite an intimate boutique. It has a bar, a lounge, a drawing room and a Leopard Champagne Bar. Yet each room feels intimate, a private bedroom in an aristocratic country home.

A home that has moved with the times, of course, with wide screen TVs and wireless internet, plus the signature touch of a single red carnation. Rubens belongs to the Red Carnation family of hotels, a network with properties in Geneva, Cape Town and beyond.

Closer to home lies Buckingham Palace and the convenient transport hub of Victoria Station (with direct links to London Gatwick Airport and a crossroad for the District, Circle and Victoria lines.)

As for the rooms themselves, they come with touches of luxury such as a white fluffy dressing gown (with a signature stitched carnation) and an assortment of pillows to suit every sore neck. Those expecting a full luxury service should remember the four stars, however, as details such as turn down need to be booked in advance and don’t always run smoothly.

However, in every other way this is a four star hotel with five star service.

Overall: the Rubens at the Palace offers a cosy London retreat with easy reach of the rest of the city.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary stay at the Rubens Hotel in order to write this review. Reviews, like the rest of this blog, are always completely independent.

The Rubens At The Palace – An Independent Hotel Review first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Afternoon Tea at The Cranley

A clock plods through its strict rhythm as the clink of china echoes through the drawing room. A Union Jack plays hide-and-seek at the window when the teapot isn’t watching and a platter of cucumber sandwiches make themselves comfy for afternoon tea.

It’s hard to play tourist in your own country. Particularly when your own country’s customs derive from other countries and when even the question of which country you come from turns a straightforward question into a geopolitical Sudoku. England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Wales. They’re not the same thing, in case you were wondering…

Jammy Dodger - Waiting Upstairs

I’m at The Cranley, a luxury boutique hotel in the devilishly handsome London borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Upstairs waits a four-poster bed with free wifi, a fluffy dressing gown and that quintessential British biscuit the Jammy Dodger, sidling up to its old ally, the plain digestive. But they can wait…

Right now, I’m sitting here enjoying Afternoon Tea and reflecting on the unusual journey of those small brown leaves.

Afternoon Tea Around the World

Afternoon Tea in Malaysia

Just a few weeks ago, I stood in the sweaty hills of the Cameron Highlands, where shrubs tickled the ridges and contours of the tea plantations that rise and fall across central Malaysia.

We walked between them, the sun pressing against our skins, the hum of insects and scattered birdsong crowding into our jet-lagged minds.

Behind panes of glass, tea leaves withered, rolled, fermented and then dried themselves before freshening up and hopping into packets ready to travel the world.

Malaysia is hardly the world’s top tea producer. Yet, back in London, scone in hand, I remembered just how Asian this English custom is.

Afternoon Tea in Japan

Afternoon Tea in Asia

In Japan I knelt on the floor, kneecaps howling, as a woman performed the Karantei Tea Ceremony in Matsushima. There tea came with rice cakes and perfection, served on a tatami mat.

In China, men carried around jam jars, sloshing with a warm cocktail of pond juice that tasted surprisingly good.

And in the Boh plantation in central Malaysia, tea came with the offer of a Firecracker hot dog.

English Afternoon Tea

English Afternoon Tea

Here in The Cranley, Afternoon Tea obeys the traditional English customs.

Juicy strawberries with scones dusted in the softest white sugar. Plum, cream and chocolate treats beneath the twinkle of the chandelier. Silver tongs for rough-edged cubes of sugar and paper doilies resting provocatively on gleaming plates.

And among this elegant feast of cakes and tea, fresh salmon and chopped egg sandwiches, I find the component that mystifies me still: the near tasteless and always soggy fingers of cucumber sandwiches.

I think it’s time we took on another Asian tradition. Rice cakes anyone?

Cucumber Sandwiches at Afternoon Tea

Disclosure: I received a special rate for my Afternoon Tea at The Cranley and in Matsushima. Nothing from the Jammy Dodger Foundation though…

Have you had afternoon tea before? And would you admit to liking cucumber sandwiches?

Dirt, Sweat & Cucumber Sandwiches – English Afternoon Tea first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

What is RiotCleanUp?

Sophie Collard spills the beans…

I sat with one eye on BBC News 24 and one eye on my Twitter feed the night the rioting peaked. I have ongoing issues with 24-hour news channels, where the same image of a burning building is replayed again and again as if a new building is on fire every half hour.

Journalist Nikki Bayley tweeted that during the Vancouver riots, residents just got the mess cleaned up.

So I replied to her.

I said I thought it would be a wonderful idea to get sensible people to the affected areas to clean up. That we
should call it #riotcleanup. And then I switched off my computer and went to bed.

I didn’t look at Twitter again until 11am the following morning and couldn’t believe what I saw.

Overnight, a man called Dan Thompson had mobilised a large number of people. The idea was that everyone would turn up at the nearest place to them that had been damaged in the riots, armed with brooms. Celebrities like Stephen Fry and
Simon Pegg had written tweets using the hashtag #riotcleanup. It was trending at the top of the list (the most widely used hashtag) worldwide.

My heart leapt, I got ready to leave and headed to Clapham Junction with a broom.

The scene there was amazing. Hundreds of people had turned up to help out and although the council’s street cleaners and firefighters had already cleaned the place up, the crowd of people with brooms did a little sweeping and served as a powerful message to the world.

A message that Britain was not being taken over by a small minority ofopportunists, that most of us who live here would rather help our communities than destroy them.

A message that Britain was not being taken over by a small minority ofopportunists, that most of us who live here would rather help our communities than destroy them.

 

In the days that followed, I rounded up some of the guys who built the website and some others who could help improve its functionality. It turned out that two of them were 16 year-olds: Patrick in France and Jake, who I managed to meet.

We formed a team and called ourselves @Riotdevs (devs meaning developers) on Twitter. We spent a day in a Google Hangout, all six of us in a video conference. It was great.

Meanwhile, Dan Thompson was getting a call a minute on his phone and thousands of emails. He ended up having to get some volunteers from Twitter just to go through all his answer-phone messages and emails.

I myself had an interview with the Travel Trade Gazette (very exciting) as well as a one with a cleaning industry magazine called Tomorrow’s Cleaning. Dan and I then met politicians and councillors, and I met some community groups with a musician who had run the Riotcleanup Twitter account and linked people up all over the place.

Dan and I have recently had a meeting with a volunteering organisation and spent some time thinking about the future.
I was contacted by some volunteers who wanted to help out – and we spent a day working on an allotment.

When I asked the woman who ran the allotment on the estate whether she felt we were intruding or that they might not want help from outside she replied, “oh no, when we heard you were coming we were jumping up and down for joy.”

Moments like that lead you to realize that you can change things and that most people want to help you to do so.

They want to change things too. They want to help people, they just need to be shown how.

Watch this space. Riotcleanup has started something – and it’s really exciting.

 

Sophie Collard is a freelance travel writer and copywriter. Read more about her work at Sophie On Track.

 

Were you affected by the London Riots? Did you get involved in #RiotCleanUp?

How Social Media Contributed to the London Riots first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

First of all, this article is going to be about finding accommodation in London. Second of all, just how enjoyable are the words Roomorama and the Big City Sleep? Absolutely wonderful, to a Londoner who delights in words that make me smile and who’s long since forgotten the plot of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but who still enjoys the rhythm of the phrase.

Staying in London

Anyway, to business. Luckily for me, I have friends and family scattered about the British Isles who let me stay with them (a lot.) However, even I flinch at asking again and again and again, particularly when early morning airport starts or late night revelry at industry awards are concerned.

So, although being a hotel girl at heart, stay manchester opened my eyes to short term rentals. An approach from US-based vacation home rentals made me take a second look at the idea and then Roomorama (the booking service) introduced me to Big City Sleep (the place to stay) and offered me a test run of their idea…

Roomorama

Roomorama liases with the landlords of London (and beyond) to create a searchable database for those looking for a place to stay. Properties range from shared accommodation in the outskirts of London to plush and lovely suites right in the centre of town. Which brings me to…

The Big City Sleep

With these Ferrero Rochers, you are really spoiling us...

Big City Sleep was founded by two former interior design professionals – and boy does it show. I tried out a studio flat in London, a quick dash from Earl’s Court tube station right in the heart of the city. With a trademark London entrance and high ceilings, I loved this place from the moment I stepped inside.

I was on my own but could have easily stretched the arrangement to accommodate another three people (one standard double bed and one fold out double bed.) Discreet screens separated the area into partitions, the free wireless internet sent my geeky little heart into overdrive and the kitchen had all the facilities (hobs, oven, fridge, utensils) that I would have undoubtedly used had I not been quite so busy…

Gift toiletries gave it the touch of a high-class hotel, while spare books and magazines made it feel like home. Was everything perfect? Of course not, nothing ever is. Typically, you’d need to book for three nights at a time rather than two, pay a cleaning fee and make your peace with the 24 hour soundtrack of life in the city of London (traffic, voices and glass recycling schemes.)

However, if this is the future of short term rentals in London – I’m in (with or without a Lion, a Witch and a Wardrobe.)

Roomorama & The Big City Sleep first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Zipping Around London in a Classic Mini Cooper: Cool, Sexy and  A Ridiculous Amount of Fun.

The Coolest Way to See London

Emerging from Clapham Junction’s grey and predictable train station, I saw him straight away. A scarlet Mini Cooper, unflappable sixties gear, a glamorous assistant and the promise to show me London in a whole new light.

London, Baby

It just so happens that I am a London baby. I was born here, I’ve studied here and I’ve worked here. I know the etiquette of the tube and where to find the shortcuts between its spaghetti network. I know how to get free theatre tickets and where all the funkiest markets live. I’ve sunbathed in its parks, cycled past its deer and seen the inside of its law courts, police stations and hospitals (in a profesional capacity, I hasten to add.)

Yet, after all my years of travel, I’ve never played tourist. I’ve never stepped back into the swinging sixties and swerved through the streets, gaping at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  I’d never snapped away at guards on horseback or at the pigeons in Trafalgar Square and I’d never gazed at St Paul’s from across the mighty Thames.

So when smallcarBIGCITY invited me to see London through their classic Mini Cooper tour, I thought it was about time I gave London the respect it deserves.

Enjoy the photos, enjoy the video and fasten your seatbelts for the coolest way to travel around London:

Classic Mini Cooper

London, Baby

Westminster Abbey, London

Peaceful Protests Outside the Houses of Parliament

St Paul's & the Wobbly Bridge, London

The Coolest Way to Travel in London

To arrange your own cool tour of London, contact smallcarBIGCITY.

London: The coolest way to travel… first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral

In nature, most of us find some peace and quiet. In grief, we search for peace – and in Britain, most people search silently. When Edmund Kell Blyth returned from fighting in the First World War he, like many others, had lost a great number of friends. He wanted to remember three in particular, men who had served alongside him, but he longed for more than just another memorial. He imagined a place that they themselves would have enjoyed – as well as providing a sanctuary for future generations.

That’s what sparked the creation of the Tree Cathedral, officially known as the Whipsnade Tree Cathedral,a short drive from St Albans.

I visited under much happier circumstances, with a group of friends still very much alive and already enjoying themselves. It helped, it has to be said, that the Tourdust team (which included three spirited young children) leaped out from behind the hedges to offer us mulled wine and laughter.

From the ground, it’s a little difficult to make out the cathedral’s shape. Every now and then, a cluster of oaks or limes take on the shape of a wall, some silver birches perhaps an archway.

Easter Chapel, Whipsnade Tree Cathedral

Blyth, with the help of Albert Bramson, planted these trees by hand in a labour of love that took almost a decade. They planted cherry blossom in the Easter Chapel, Norway spruce for Christmas and decked summer in whitebeam & rowan.

Our pilgrimage took place in autumn, when beech and field maple starred in this leafy show.

Perhaps the eclesiastical outline becomes obvious from the sky, in the same way that the Nazca lines in Peru form lizards and hunters when seen from the air. From earth, however, its structure remained mysterious, although it did provide a chance to find peace.

I visited the Tree Cathedral with friends on a trip called #BlogStAlbans. Whipsnade Tree Cathedral, Whipsnade, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU6 2LL, Telephone: +44 1582 872406

Planting for Peace – A Cathedral of Trees first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

The true City of London, or the Square Mile, forms the financial heart and hub of London. It’s a place of steel and glass, of suits and speed and the habit of gambling on the future rather than rambling on about the past. Yet among some stunning new buildings, the decadence of the Victorian era and the legacy of ancient Rome live on.

Roman walls at the base with medieval walls above

Just a few hundred yards from Tower Hill tube station, these former city walls stand outside the Grange City Hotel. Roman walls form the base, with the more uneven section at the top a remnant of the medieval London boundary.

St Andrew Undershaft - Opposite the Gherkin

Next up is the tiny St Andrew Undershaft church, a medieval building that looks decidedly out of place on St Mary Axe, surrounded as it is by some of the City’s most famous modern buildings. Somehow it survived the Great Fire of London, the bombing of the Blitz and enthusiasm of the property developers and now sits snug and smug between the Gherkin, the Willis Building and the Lloyds Building:

The "inside-out" Lloyds Building reflected in the Willis Building, City of London

The Gherkin, 30 St Mary Axe, City of London

Opposite the Gherkin, you can step back to the 1930s with this Art Deco extravaganza:

Art Deco in the City of London

Then, by disappearing down a few side streets, you reach the Victorian Leadenhall Market…

Victorian London: The Leadenhall Market, City of London

..to return right back to the present day with the rather eccentric Stirling Building at 1 Poultry Lane:

Stirling Building, City of London

Yet there’s one building that will, to me at least, forever represent the City of London: St Paul’s Cathedral.

St Paul's Cathedral, City of London

These photos were taken with the lightweight hybrid Sony NEX-5. A special thanks to Context Travel* for arranging an extremely intelligent guide to show me the secrets of the City of London. Context Travel* arrange scholarly led tours of the world’s greatest cities and you can find out more about them here.

The City of London’s Secrets – In Photos first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

British Weather

In Britain, talking about the weather is an accepted, even expected, way to start, finish and sometimes fill a conversation. Every time it snows, the country grinds to a halt and the press fills its pages with scenes of gridlocked white. Every time the sun shines, people rush to parks and roll up their trousers and sleeves until they turn red. Both extremes are rare.

Instead, the weather in Britain lurches and stumbles through various shades of grey and flattened blue, with clouds, drizzle, fog and mizzle (a word that describes a cross between mist and drizzle in the north of England, which has plenty of both.) In this way, British weather provides citizens with enough small-talk to sustain a conversation for decades.

This year, Lloyds TSB has launched a competition to celebrate Britain’s crazy weather (perhaps as an explanation to outsiders as to why we talk about it so much.)

How to Enter

The British Weather Photographer of the Year is open to all UK residents (except for professional photographers) and is free to enter. First prize is £10 000 and the photographer with the most votes each week wins £100. Get snapping soon as the deadline is 30^th September.

Geese On Ice

You can upload as many photos as you like and the good news is that you can vote without registering a gazillion details in advance. Try it out now by voting for one of my pictures ;)

Or, if you don’t want to do that – just let me know in the comments box which photo you prefer.

Sponsored Post – See the full disclosure policy here.

A bee takes shelter just in time

Ice Swan

Sunset on Ice

British Weather Photo Competition, Win £10 000 first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Chunky British Traffic Lights

“Is it weird to be back?”

I hear that a lot each time I return to this jigsaw-shaped island that floats west of mainland Europe. The first answer that springs to mind is “well, yes…and no.”

Since that makes for a spectacularly boring blog post (not to mention conversation), I thought I’d pay my homeland of Britain a little more attention and write about something I have only noticed since I started travelling so much:

Britain is Chunky

Britain is chunky.

Chunky British Signposts

Chunky, not as a euphemism for fat, but as an expression for sturdy, bold and substantial. Britain is the Yorkie chocolate bar of countries. If France and Spain have a tendency for finesse and fiesta, then Britain’s street furniture (don’t laugh, that’s what it’s called) says “no fuss, please.”

Solid red post boxes, block letters on signposts, road markings so thick they could double as a new form of Braille. Huge angular 50p pieces, police helmets like church bells and those cubes in Branston Pickle.

Just imagine a pint of real ale next to a flute of champagne and you’ll understand what I mean.

Chunky British Post Box

So, is it weird to come back? No, not weird. Just chunky.

Spanish Traffic Lights - A Casual Approach

Chunky Britain first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...