Rob’s travel highlights of 2024

As we slowly get back into things after Christmas, Rhys and I are bringing you our annual reflections on our travel year gone by.

If you’re looking for exciting tales of new aircraft and intriguing long haul destinations, stop reading now. Come back tomorrow for Rhys’s review of 2024.

I have managed a unique (for me) achievement – I haven’t taken a single long-haul flight this year. I will break my duck on 30th December, but a combination of GCSE’s, a cancelled New York trip and a cancelled holiday due to a passport malfunction meant I haven’t got any further than Bodrum.

In some ways I’m happy about that – no jet lag, no long flights. On the other hand, with one child now at boarding school and an almost annual run of A-levels and GCSE’s between 2026 and 2029, the loss of two years of long haul family travel during the pandemic begins to feel more acute.

The lack of long haul travel in 2024 means that I’m dedicating this article to my 2024 hotel round-up.

Some of the hotels here were not reviewed on HfP. This is because the stay was too short, or because I didn’t spend much time in the hotel, or because I didn’t want to disturb a holiday. If you have any questions on them please ask in the comments.

If I’m honest, I’ve not stayed anywhere this year which has totally knocked me out with its brilliance. It’s partly a factor of not flying long-haul, of course – there is a limit to how wow’d you can be by a hotel at Manchester Airport.

I’ve marked stays as ‘cash’ or ‘free’ to avoid any perceived conflicts of interest. ‘Cash’ includes stays where I used points or where HfP paid, because the cost still came out of my pocket in some form at the end of the day. Of course ‘free’ stays are never really free, with travel and subsistence costs often exceeding the value of the hotel room.

Hotels of the Year

I’m giving my ‘stay of the year’ award to the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Istanbul hotel, reviewed here and image above. This was a cash stay.

The location is fantastic and, thanks to our GHA DISCOVERY Titanium status, we were upgraded to rooms with outstanding Bosphorus views. In some ways staying here is like a beach holiday (water views, large hotel grounds, outdoor pools and dining) with the added benefit of having the facilities of a city on your doorstep.

An honorable mention goes to Marriott’s Hotel Arts Barcelona (review here, cash stay, image below) where I took my daughter for a post-exam break. It’s the epitome of an urban resort – directly on the beach, walkable to the city centre, lovely outdoor pools, good food and large rooms. It is currently being refurbished which works in your favour, with 1/3rd of the rooms (and so 1/3rd of the guests, 1/3rd of the pool crowd, 1/3rd of the breakfast crowd) out of action at any one time for the next year or so.

My final honorable mention is the Reykjavik Konsulat hotel (reviewed here, cash stay) which is part of Hilton’s Curio Collection. It has an exceptionally homely feel and, when it’s snowy and cold outside, you feel just right being inside.

(Technically I could also include Paris’s Hotel Lutetia on this list, as my review was published in 2024 despite a 2023 stay. As it is transitioning to Mandarin Oriental soon I won’t go into it. Review here.)

‘Better than I expected’

What is a HfP ‘better than I expected’ award? It’s best described as somewhere that exceeded my expectations, albeit those expectations may have been low to start with. You should NOT think that these hotels are all on the same quality level because they are clearly not.

In alphabetical order:

Berlin Marriott (reviewed here, cash stay) – I stayed here again for the ITB travel fair. I paid cash for a suite because I like them and didn’t want to risk my upgrade not clearing. It’s probably the best Marriott-branded hotel in Europe. I shouldn’t really put it under ‘better than I expected’ because I deliberately booked a suite knowing what I was getting, and I like it.

The Bodrum EDITION (reviewed here, cash stay) – this is an odd resort (very narrow, and tumbling down a cliff face) but it had the best group of hotel staff I’ve dealt with all year – despite an exceptionally young average age. It also had the joint best food with Cowley Manor, albeit you pay for it through the nose. I was not a big fan of Bodrum itself, and if you don’t use Bonvoy points you’re looking at a ludicrous €2,000 per night in August.

Cowley Manor Experimental, Cotswolds (reviewed here, cash stay, image above) – our three storey room was a little eclectic and it’s not on the scale of, say, Four Seasons Hampshire but the food here was exceptional. It ties with The Bodrum EDITION for our best hotel meals of the year.

Dorothea Hotel, Budapest (reviewed here, free stay) – an impressive and eclectic conversion of several historic buildings in the city centre. For once I was given one of the poorest rooms in the hotel for review but the exterior-facing ones I saw on my tour impressed.

The Grand, York (not reviewed, cash stay) – historic 5-star UK city centre hotels often fail to deliver, but I thought The Grand, part of Preferred Hotels, was decent with spacious rooms in their modern extension. We didn’t eat there or use the extensive pool and spa complex. It wasn’t so amazing for the money that it will become my default York hotel though.

Grand Hyatt Barcelona (reviewed here, free stay) – a good value option slightly off the beaten track in Barcelona, if you don’t mind the ‘conference hotel’ vibe

Hilton Newcastle Gateshead (reviewed here, cash stay) – despite getting close to needing a refurb, it’s a solid example of a 4-star city centre hotel with large rooms, lovely views of the Tyne and an executive lounge

Holiday Inn Manchester Airport (reviewed here, cash stay) – a great example of how good a new-build mid-market hotel can be these days

Hilton Molino Stucky Venice (reviewed here, free stay, image below) – I’ve been intrigued about this hotel for years so it was great to finally visit. The canal-fronting rooms with high ex-warehouse ceilings are great value for money in an expensive city. It’s a huge hotel with too many people milling around but that is offset by the generally tourist-free environment of Guidecca. I would go back.

Lindner Hamburg Am Michel (not reviewed, cash stay) – my first experience of Hyatt’s German acquisition was a solid 3-4 star modern hotel which was walkable to the Messe. I would happily rebook although for tourism there are more central hotels.

Maison Astor, Paris (reviewed here, free stay) – part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, this is a lovely boutique hotel on a quiet Paris street that is just minutes from Printemps / Lafeyette and the boutiques of Rue Faubourg St Honore. I’m not big on boutique hotels in general but for a couple wanting a quiet and classy break I’d recommend it.

Manchester Marriott Piccadilly (reviewed here, free stay) – a lot of money was spent refurbishing the old Macdonald hotel and it has paid off. The location is great for Piccadilly station although it sits on a busy road.

Moxy York (not reviewed, cash stay) – I stayed here for a night with a group of friends on a golf trip, and have also stayed with the family in the past. The genius of Moxy is that, whilst nominally ‘young and funky’, the Marriott-ness makes it perfectly suitable for a group of 50+ year olds too.

SCHLOSS Fleesensee (not reviewed, cash stay, image below) – long-term HfP readers will know that I occasionally drop in a recommendation for a German resort hotel which I have been guided to by my wife. Not only have I usually not heard of the hotel, I’ve usually not even heard of the town where it is. SCHLOSS Fleesensee is in the Mecklenburg Lake District of Germany and is a sister hotel to Hyatt’s SCHLOSS Roxburghe in Scotland, although this one is NOT part of Hyatt. There’s no reason why you would ever go there but it’s a reminder that there is a lot out there which never even crosses our path.

‘Does what it says on the tin’

Apologies for the Ronseal reference which younger or non-UK readers may not understand!

I won’t go into these hotels in detail, except to say that you get what you expect to get. I WOULD go back to them but they won’t change your life.

• Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht (not reviewed but Rhys covered it here, cash stay)

• Park Hyatt Paris Vendome (needs refurbishment but amazing staff, not reviewed, cash stay)

• Radisson Blu Hamburg Airport (not reviewed, cash stay, image below)

• Radisson Blu Sheffield (review here, cash stay)

• Raffles Europejski Warsaw (review here, cash stay – it is very impressive but the layout of my suite and the odd breakfast threw me)

‘Not rushing back’

These two hotels did nothing to excite me and are in cities with many other options:

• Malmaison Edinburgh City (not reviewed, cash stay) – It’s not even the best hotel in St Andrew Square – Gleneagles Townhouse bags that (review here) – yet alone Edinburgh. I got a dark, dingy room despite booking one half way up the size chart. I only booked it for an Amex cashback offer and would have been very annoyed otherwise.

• Scandic Copenhagen (not reviewed, cash stay) – I got an amazing deal here using Avios via Finnair and you can’t argue with the value for money, but the room was the most basic I have stayed in for years – it felt like what I always suspected an ibis Budget would be like.

Finally, I’ve been talked out of running the story behind the photo below by the rest of the team, who are concerned we might be sued 🙂 It’s a shame to waste the picture though, which is of my 13-year old:

Coming up ….

Despite a lack of real ‘wow’ hotels above, the good news for me is that I will be spending New Year at my favourite resort in the world (and what I honestly think is still the best multi-generational resort developed in the last 30 years) – Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.

My children basically grew up here, to the extent that the kids club staff knew their names every time we returned. It will be less fun now my kids are both teenagers (and will run a mile if recognised by anyone from the kids club!) but I don’t think you can beat it for a family break. I’ve also been here for a ‘boy’s weekend’ and with my wife before we had children – you can make it work for any occasion.

Tomorrow, Rhys will share his memories of the year.