To ask you to name the best hotel you've ever stayed in?

[FatFacedDog]

I love hotels. The best I've ever stayed in is probably a toss up between the Shard in London (Shangri-La) or Phu Petra in Krabi, Thailand.

Do you have any memorable (for the right reasons) hotel stays? Currently trying to organise this years holiday and can't decide on hotels.

On the contrary, the worst was a hotel (so called) in koh Pangan which was an absolute hell hole. Concrete shack with a concrete block topped with a mucky old mattress for a bed! I cried!

W New York
Dream downtown New York
De Tuilerien Bruges
Le Petit Folie, Honfleur, France (a b&b but amazing).

The malmaison oxford, which is the old Oxford prison. Very nice- and we got engaged there!

We stayed in a fabulous hotel in Cape Town but I can't remember what it was called.

I love hotels, and I love hotel breakfast so usually judge them on that first.

Thakadu River Camp in Madikwe, rooms were tents with wood floors and balconies overlooking the river. Beautiful freestanding bath behind the bed too. Not many 'rooms' either so it almost felt private. You could see the monkeys running over the top at night and we saw a newborn elephant having its first bath in the river from our balcony. Magical place, I hope to go back when DD is old enough to appreciate a safari.

The London Marriott Hotel County Hall. Twice a year I bugger off there by myself for 3 nights, order room service and eat it in my pyjamas.

If you look at my Rome posts you'll see I stayed in the residenss gens Juillia on largo de torre Argentina. I've never stayed in a really expensive hotel but this was lovely. Amazing location , view, huge suite type room , lovely Sergio who looked after me so well - umbrella offered as it was stormy , every time I went out and taken away and dried on my return. Fizz coffee and local cake when I arrived. The amazing " so sorry we do not do breakfast but what sort of coffee would you like at what time Madame -that's " not breakfast" of coffee pastry and juice brought to your room 😂 . And the day I went out early he put juice in my fridge and gave me a very careful lesson in how to use the kettle to make myself a tea as he wasn't allowed to let me use the coffee machine !

Hayman Island Resort in Australia.

If you're going to Bangkok, it's so worth choosing a hotel on the river.
Shangri-la is good but The Peninsula is outstanding.

The Glasshouse in Edinburgh

The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.
CRU hotel in Tallinn.
Bristol Hotel in Warsaw.
Steigenberger Wiltchers and the Dominican, both in Brussels.

The Empire in Brunei, the sheer size of it!

Shangri La Rasa Ria in Borneo but they've closed down the orangutan orphanage that was in the grounds of the hotel and one of the best attractions
Coco Bodu Hithi in the Maldives
The Mondoro safari lodge in South Africa
The Peninsula in New York
Marina Bay Sands in Singapore

If I could go back to any of them, it would be the Maldives or the Safari one

Swissotel Nankai in Osaka. The most friendly, helpful staff ever. Huge selection of Japanese and European dishes for breakfast.

Atlantis - Dubai
The water park was amazing

Hearing a fully burka'd up lady say to her husband "don't bloody well tell me what to eat I'll 'ave what I want" in a broad brim accent was fairly amazing too

Oh and the gold nugget dispensing machine was awesome

The Royal Penguin, Kathmandu.
It was interesting in a slightly off-the-wall way. Ultraviolet lights in the corridors, huge stuffed toys in the bedrooms (triceratops, tigers, antelopes etc) and reception area where they balanced on a polished wood sculpture. The rooms themselves were huge, or perhaps that was just the white walls making them feel more spacious. Ours had a partition wall in the middle of the room between the two beds with little glass animals perched in alcoves carved out of it. I can't remember the food very well but the restaurant had little cards you could display on the table indicating whether or not you wanted to engage in conversations with the staff, which I thought was a great idea!

lilianfels, blue mountains, Oz. Pure luxury but not stuffy.

I found Le manoir had gone off - stayed there several times.

I like Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall.

I used to like Hotel du Vin, but prefer Malmaison.

In miami the Surfcomer or sagamore.

The Grace, Santorini, elegant, casual, understated and utterly fabulous

The Son Brull in Pollensa, Mallorca

Not a fan of big hotels, there are so many wonderful smaller ones

The Gellert in Budapest. It looks like a mad gothic wedding cake, and it has absolutely amazing and fabulous indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The food is a bit ... well, it's perfectly edible. (I love unusual buildings, and swimming, but I don't really care about food.)

The Sandy Lane in Barbados. Gorgeous you can't help but relax the second you walk through the door.

Wanderlust, Singapore.
Utterly mad, but beds and shower to die for.
Oh, and the breakfast....
wanderlusthotel.com

Earls Regency, Kandy
Galle face, Colombo
Four seasons, JBR, UAE
Hotel du Palais, Biarritz
South Sands hotel, Salcombe, Devon,
Weston Excelsior, Rome
Maison Arabe, Morocco

We have been lucky enough to stay in some astonishing hotels around the world. The most memorable are

Old Cataract Hotel, Egypt - where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile
Grand Hotel Evian, France
Vatulele Resort, Fiji
Hotel Quintessance, Quebec

And Silky Oaks Lodge in Queensland

The Datai in Langkawi. I love everything about it.

The Del Coronado in San Diego was brilliant.

Also stayed in the Salamander Resort in Virginia not long after it was opened. Beautiful town, food, lovely walks, horse-riding, and the service was simply the best I've ever had but what I loved is that it was a dog-friendly hotel so there were several very well-behaved dogs around.

My favourite London hotel is No. 16

We stayed a couple of nights in a hotel near Versailles on our honeymoon that had a michelin starred restaurant. We were pretty young compared to everyone else in the dining room and the wait staff/chief sommalier (we were ordering one half bottle of the cheaper wine but he came over and talked to us very seriously about it) were so so lovely to us - one of the nicest places we have stayed and one of the nicest meals I have had.

Stapleford park, near Melton Mowbray just lovely

The Atlantis in Dubai

But the absolute best holiday experience I have ever had was on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas. Not everyone's cup of tea but just perfect for our family.