I was going to have to investigate Niton’s ‘The Enchanted Manor’ and discover just why TripAdvisor rated it Number One amongst the Island’s B&Bs. Well, I have.And I have, because owners and hosts extraordinary, Ric and Maggie, were kind enough to invite me, today, to a Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea Party at their fairyland palace. Where do I start?
The name. The name kind of gave me the chilly willies. But I was wrong. The name is utterly and totally apt. The rating? Get this out of the way. The Enchanted …

I have often heard it’s what you do immediately following a long-haul airline flight which has a direct effect on your body’s ability to acclimate to your new environment. For example, it is generally agreed that travellers should adopt the time and lifestyle of the destination they have flown to. I find this excellent advice. But now I think I can take that a little further.
Last night, I flew from New York to London (nine hours) and then immediately boarded a train taking me from London to Plymouth (3.5 hours) on the Devon/Cornwall …

At Best Loved, much like Jack Kerouac (or Willie Nelson), we’re always On the Road (Again) endlessly searching for unique and fantastic places to stay. All those hours spent criss-crossing the byways of the UK and Ireland have paid dividends of late as we have added three newbies  to www.bestloved.com over the past few days. Ranging between six and twelve bedrooms, these are all very exciting, intimate, well-run, character-filled places to stay.
Starting our tour in the West Country, we have Pentillie Castle & Estate on the Tamar Valley – technically in …

For you petrol heads out there, or even people that just like going to a huge garden party in a picturesque estate in the Sussex Downs, the Festival of Speed affectionately referred to as FOS is a “must go to at least once in your life” event. Lord March, The Duke of Richmond, has laid on this spectacle on for 18 years at Goodwood his family seat and it gets better every year.
It is not just loud racing cars and the smell of benzene, Castrol R and rubber, at …

As much as I am saddened by England’s exit yesterday from Football’s World Cup competition in South Africa, there may be some good news coming out of this national sporting tragedy.
In advance of the competition, I had warned the entire Best Loved Team that visitor levels and enquiries to our website BestLoved.com might be down from 2009 for June and July. This was absolutely the case during the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in Japan and Germany not only for our website but we observed this across the entire …

ONE of Jersey’s longest established hotels, Grand Jersey, is celebrating securing five star status from the Automobile Association GB (AA). Following a recent inspection by the AA, the property, part of the Delancey portfolio of hotels which includes Best Loved Hotels’ Bovey Castle in Devon and Brooklands Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey, has become only the second hotel in Jersey to be awarded the much coveted accolade of five stars.
The AA assesses establishments that offer accommodation to a set of common quality standards. These standards are agreed by the AA …

26 March 2010 a landmark day in my evolving social-networking persona. After five months of relentless tweeting, I stopped. Cold tukey. Turned it off. Took a deep breath and waited to see what would transpire. Had Twitter gotten the best of me? What had I become? Was I @bestlovedhotels or Jeffrey Epstein or both. I wondered?

Valentine’s Day marks a special day for Best Loved Hotels. On 14 February 1994, the first edition of Best Loved Hotels was printed. Intended to help travel professionals identify interesting places to stay for their clients in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Best Loved guide was an immediate success. Over the past 17 years, Best Loved Hotels has become one of the most important sources for anyone seeking a unique place to stay in the beautiful British Isles.
The underlying premise of Best Loved Hotels was a compilation not of …

Is it hard to open a new hotel? Ask any veteran hotelier, and they will tell you it certainly is. Add to the mix, renovating a historic and listed building and the complex becomes sublime.