Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby Sunday 8.00pm BBC2
Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby Sunday 8.00pm BBC2
ED GRENBY - 4 August 2023
You would probably be quite happy to discover that Monica Galetti was making your breakfast given that the chef and former given that the chef and former judge on MasterChef: the Profes- sionals has had a stellar career in Michelin-starred kitchens across London. But what if you learned that Rob Rinder was in charge of cleaning your room? That’s the unexpected pleasure awaiting guests at some of the world’s finest holiday desti- nations. Because as co-hosts on the new series of Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby, Galetti and Rinder don’t merely “Ooh!” and “Aah!” over the exquisite resorts they visit, but also muck in with staff to get a feel for how things work behind the scenes. Don’t have the £2,500 a night spare to take a risk on a Rinder-cleaned room? (That’s the lower-end price at, for instance, the Maldives’ Joali resort.) Don’t worry: alongside five of the eight hotels featured in the series, we’ve found some slightly more affordable alternatives.
CEYLON TEA TRAILS, SRI LANKA
A tea-fuelled timewarp
Croquet lawns, rolltop baths, butler service – there’s a colonial-era aesthetic here that hasn’t changed in a century or so. The five bungalows and endless stretches of emerald hillside that divide them are in the glorious heart of Sri Lanka’s tea plantation country, up in the misty hills of Bogawantalawa where it’s somehow always the perfect temperature, even as lowland Sri Lanka swelters in summer. Hike, bike, brave the bustling nearby holy city of Kandy – or just drink in those views. (resplendentceylon.com/teatrails)
Budget Friendly Option There are dozens of guesthouses nearby for as little as £8 a night, but spend around £120 to stay at The Argyle (theargyle.lk) and you’ll get all the highland heritage in a stylish modern retreat – and pay around a fifth of the average rate at Ceylon Tea Trails.
KASBAH TAMADOT, MOROCCO
Starry mountain nights
Bought by Richard Branson during one of his ballooning expeditions, this exquisite, sand- coloured eyrie sits high in the Atlas Mountains. It takes the local Berber tradition of hospitality towards travellers and dials up the luxury, with palm-shaded courtyards and sigh-inducing sunset vistas from the infinity pool. When herd- ing the hotel’s donkeys and collecting firewood from the peacock-strewn gardens to fire the traditional bread ovens, Galetti and Rinder join a staff of 140 looking after just 28 rooms. (virginlimitededition.com)
Budget-friendly option A short drive down the road is Riad Aslda (morocco-hotels24.com/ riad-aslda). Same High Atlas views, same evening starscapes, from around £40 a night.
JOALI, THE MALDIVES
Robinson Crusoe with restaurants
Beautiful even by the high standards of the Maldives’ high-end, whole-island resorts, Joali adds Art Deco interiors and inventive architectural lines to the natural loveliness of its curving sandbank and lush greenery. Villas – either on land or over water – are vast but elegant, with some of the largest private pools in the country. The food and drink options here are also among the best in the Indian Ocean, with separate bars and restaurants devoted to Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern and South Asian flavours. (joali.com)
Budget-friendly option The Maldives is never cheap, but the Westin Miriandhoo (marriott. co.uk) represents excellent value, from around £500 a night, with world-class snorkelling (you could even see whale sharks and manta rays) on the doorstep.
NUSFJORD ARCTIC RESORT, NORWAY
Fresh air in the frozen north
The Lofoten Islands form one of Norway’s northernmost fringes, and it’s all end-of-the- Earth beauty up here: midnight sun in summer, northern lights in winter. But whenever you visit, you’ ll stay in stylish wood-and-whitewash old fishermen’s cabins, or rorbu. You can hike the Flakstad mountains, kayak the calm waters of the fjord, fish for your dinner or just chill out in the spa, which is some- times covered in snow... (nusfjordarcticresort.com)
Budget-friendly option If you don’t mind sharing a lounge and kitchen, you can get a basic room at nearby Lydersen Rorbuer (lydersenrorbuer.no) – another former fisherman’s cabin – for around £100, or as little as £40 for a single bed in a dorm room.
GLENAPP CASTLE, AYRSHIRE
Play at “laird and lady”
For this closer-to-home episode, Rinder can be seen donning the Glenapp kilt to join staff at this five-star Ayrshire pile, which has only been operating as a hotel since 2000. The property certainly doesn’t skimp on tradition: fireplaces crackle, whisky flows and turrets are topped with witches’ hats. Guests can try their (well-gloved) hands at falconry, fly-fishing or just pottering around the huge estate among its waterfalls and arboretum. But Glenapp is actually a relatively “new” castle (built in 1870) – so there’s no need to worry about wind whis- tling through any chinks in the stonework. (glenappcastle.com)
Budget-friendly option Starting at around £400 a night, Glenapp isn’t Scotland’s most expensive castle to stay in (many are available only on an exclusive-use basis, for thousands a night), but you can certainly get cheaper. Celticcastles.com lists multi- ple fortresses, from £55 a night, for example Barony Castle near Peebles.
You would probably be quite happy to discover that Monica Galetti was making your breakfast given that the chef and former given that the chef and former judge on MasterChef: the Profes- sionals has had a stellar career in Michelin-starred kitchens across London. But what if you learned that Rob Rinder was in charge of cleaning your room? That’s the unexpected pleasure awaiting guests at some of the world’s finest holiday desti- nations. Because as co-hosts on the new series of Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby, Galetti and Rinder don’t merely “Ooh!” and “Aah!” over the exquisite resorts they visit, but also muck in with staff to get a feel for how things work behind the scenes. Don’t have the £2,500 a night spare to take a risk on a Rinder-cleaned room? (That’s the lower-end price at, for instance, the Maldives’ Joali resort.) Don’t worry: alongside five of the eight hotels featured in the series, we’ve found some slightly more affordable alternatives.
CEYLON TEA TRAILS, SRI LANKA
A tea-fuelled timewarp
Croquet lawns, rolltop baths, butler service – there’s a colonial-era aesthetic here that hasn’t changed in a century or so. The five bungalows and endless stretches of emerald hillside that divide them are in the glorious heart of Sri Lanka’s tea plantation country, up in the misty hills of Bogawantalawa where it’s somehow always the perfect temperature, even as lowland Sri Lanka swelters in summer. Hike, bike, brave the bustling nearby holy city of Kandy – or just drink in those views. (resplendentceylon.com/teatrails)
Budget Friendly Option There are dozens of guesthouses nearby for as little as £8 a night, but spend around £120 to stay at The Argyle (theargyle.lk) and you’ll get all the highland heritage in a stylish modern retreat – and pay around a fifth of the average rate at Ceylon Tea Trails.
KASBAH TAMADOT, MOROCCO
Starry mountain nights
Bought by Richard Branson during one of his ballooning expeditions, this exquisite, sand- coloured eyrie sits high in the Atlas Mountains. It takes the local Berber tradition of hospitality towards travellers and dials up the luxury, with palm-shaded courtyards and sigh-inducing sunset vistas from the infinity pool. When herd- ing the hotel’s donkeys and collecting firewood from the peacock-strewn gardens to fire the traditional bread ovens, Galetti and Rinder join a staff of 140 looking after just 28 rooms. (virginlimitededition.com)
Budget-friendly option A short drive down the road is Riad Aslda (morocco-hotels24.com/ riad-aslda). Same High Atlas views, same evening starscapes, from around £40 a night.
JOALI, THE MALDIVES
Robinson Crusoe with restaurants
Beautiful even by the high standards of the Maldives’ high-end, whole-island resorts, Joali adds Art Deco interiors and inventive architectural lines to the natural loveliness of its curving sandbank and lush greenery. Villas – either on land or over water – are vast but elegant, with some of the largest private pools in the country. The food and drink options here are also among the best in the Indian Ocean, with separate bars and restaurants devoted to Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern and South Asian flavours. (joali.com)
Budget-friendly option The Maldives is never cheap, but the Westin Miriandhoo (marriott. co.uk) represents excellent value, from around £500 a night, with world-class snorkelling (you could even see whale sharks and manta rays) on the doorstep.
NUSFJORD ARCTIC RESORT, NORWAY
Fresh air in the frozen north
The Lofoten Islands form one of Norway’s northernmost fringes, and it’s all end-of-the- Earth beauty up here: midnight sun in summer, northern lights in winter. But whenever you visit, you’ ll stay in stylish wood-and-whitewash old fishermen’s cabins, or rorbu. You can hike the Flakstad mountains, kayak the calm waters of the fjord, fish for your dinner or just chill out in the spa, which is some- times covered in snow... (nusfjordarcticresort.com)
Budget-friendly option If you don’t mind sharing a lounge and kitchen, you can get a basic room at nearby Lydersen Rorbuer (lydersenrorbuer.no) – another former fisherman’s cabin – for around £100, or as little as £40 for a single bed in a dorm room.
GLENAPP CASTLE, AYRSHIRE
Play at “laird and lady”
For this closer-to-home episode, Rinder can be seen donning the Glenapp kilt to join staff at this five-star Ayrshire pile, which has only been operating as a hotel since 2000. The property certainly doesn’t skimp on tradition: fireplaces crackle, whisky flows and turrets are topped with witches’ hats. Guests can try their (well-gloved) hands at falconry, fly-fishing or just pottering around the huge estate among its waterfalls and arboretum. But Glenapp is actually a relatively “new” castle (built in 1870) – so there’s no need to worry about wind whis- tling through any chinks in the stonework. (glenappcastle.com)
Budget-friendly option Starting at around £400 a night, Glenapp isn’t Scotland’s most expensive castle to stay in (many are available only on an exclusive-use basis, for thousands a night), but you can certainly get cheaper. Celticcastles.com lists multi- ple fortresses, from £55 a night, for example Barony Castle near Peebles.
ED GRENBY