Giles Coren has stayed in many amazing hotels, but which stands head and shoulders over all the others?
Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby Tuesday 8.00pm BBC2
Ed Grenby - 1 December 2021
I’ll have to be careful,” says Giles Coren, “because I got slaughtered last time I was in Radio Times" (He was hosting BBC arts show, Front Row, and admitted that he never wanted to retake his seat in the theatre after the interval, which the newspapers had fun with.) This time, though, we’re talking about the fourth series of his globetrotting BBC2 series Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby. So which are the best and the worst he’s stayed at?
Which hotel you’ve stayed at for the show would you return to on your own dime?
The third hotel of the first series was Giraffe Manor in Nairobi (thesafaricollection.com/ properties/giraffe-manor). It’s like a colonial Edwardian golf club, but giraffes come bobbing out of the forest for breakfast, sticking their heads through the windows of the building, and people feed them. I made a mental note to take my kids back there, and out of the dozens of places where I’ve made myself that promise, this is the only one where I’ve actually done it.
And where wouldn’t you take the kids?
Bangkok, where I stayed in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental (mandarinoriental.com). I went there with Tom Parker Bowles, the chef – and famous naughty boy – and we had three or four nights whizzing round the city on mopeds. The street food and the food markets are so edgy and exciting, though we look at wet markets slightly differently these days. It’s all fantastically good, but wouldn’t work with my kids, who’ll only ever eat margherita pizzas.
So where do you go for food?
Outside the hotel! When I’m away for the show, the highlight for me is always getting off-piste, because the super-rich want to see the same menu whether they’re up a mountain or on a coral reef, so that’s what top-end hotels give them. That’s a busman’s holiday for Monica [Galetti, co-presenter and chef] and me, so we often sneak off and eat in the staff canteen, because the food’s more interesting, especially in these massive Asian super-hotels. Anything you eat in the streets in South East Asia will be fantastic.
What’s the best service you’ve had?
The Lanesborough, in Hyde Park (oetkercollection.com): the service there is incredible. But they’re really approachable and warm – proper London geezers – so you don’t feel awkward asking for them for stuff. I dropped my bag off and went out, and when I returned they’d unpacked everything: shirts, socks, pants, whatever.
Your favourite pool?
The best swimming pool in the world is at the Colombe d’Or, near Saint-Paul de Vence in Provence, where I spent my 40th birthday (la-colombe-dor.com). It’s a restaurant and hotel with amazing art, Picassos and Matisses all over, and the pool is this shimmering aquamarine colour, with Joan Miró sculptures beside it.
You stay at some amazing hotels, but tell us about the worst hotel you’ve stayed at…
Well the kind of place the BBC makes you stay when you’re filming anything that isn’t about hotels is pretty terrible – I’ve seen an awful lot of Thistles and Travelodges. But the worst experience I had was in a luxury hotel in Rome. My wife – back then my fiancée – and I had been promised a garden view room, but after we’d checked in, they led us through the nice ornate old bit of the hotel into this drafty airlock of a corridor, like something from the Crossroads motel, to a room with no view of anything whatsoever – and for €1,000 a night. I complained and they said they couldn’t move me, and then I just stood there and said, “I will jump out of that window and all your Italian viscounts will see.” They moved us – but got their revenge by billing me £1,000 for scrambled eggs, £200 each for five mornings!
I’ll have to be careful,” says Giles Coren, “because I got slaughtered last time I was in Radio Times" (He was hosting BBC arts show, Front Row, and admitted that he never wanted to retake his seat in the theatre after the interval, which the newspapers had fun with.) This time, though, we’re talking about the fourth series of his globetrotting BBC2 series Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby. So which are the best and the worst he’s stayed at?
Which hotel you’ve stayed at for the show would you return to on your own dime?
The third hotel of the first series was Giraffe Manor in Nairobi (thesafaricollection.com/ properties/giraffe-manor). It’s like a colonial Edwardian golf club, but giraffes come bobbing out of the forest for breakfast, sticking their heads through the windows of the building, and people feed them. I made a mental note to take my kids back there, and out of the dozens of places where I’ve made myself that promise, this is the only one where I’ve actually done it.
And where wouldn’t you take the kids?
Bangkok, where I stayed in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental (mandarinoriental.com). I went there with Tom Parker Bowles, the chef – and famous naughty boy – and we had three or four nights whizzing round the city on mopeds. The street food and the food markets are so edgy and exciting, though we look at wet markets slightly differently these days. It’s all fantastically good, but wouldn’t work with my kids, who’ll only ever eat margherita pizzas.
So where do you go for food?
Outside the hotel! When I’m away for the show, the highlight for me is always getting off-piste, because the super-rich want to see the same menu whether they’re up a mountain or on a coral reef, so that’s what top-end hotels give them. That’s a busman’s holiday for Monica [Galetti, co-presenter and chef] and me, so we often sneak off and eat in the staff canteen, because the food’s more interesting, especially in these massive Asian super-hotels. Anything you eat in the streets in South East Asia will be fantastic.
What’s the best service you’ve had?
The Lanesborough, in Hyde Park (oetkercollection.com): the service there is incredible. But they’re really approachable and warm – proper London geezers – so you don’t feel awkward asking for them for stuff. I dropped my bag off and went out, and when I returned they’d unpacked everything: shirts, socks, pants, whatever.
Your favourite pool?
The best swimming pool in the world is at the Colombe d’Or, near Saint-Paul de Vence in Provence, where I spent my 40th birthday (la-colombe-dor.com). It’s a restaurant and hotel with amazing art, Picassos and Matisses all over, and the pool is this shimmering aquamarine colour, with Joan Miró sculptures beside it.
You stay at some amazing hotels, but tell us about the worst hotel you’ve stayed at…
Well the kind of place the BBC makes you stay when you’re filming anything that isn’t about hotels is pretty terrible – I’ve seen an awful lot of Thistles and Travelodges. But the worst experience I had was in a luxury hotel in Rome. My wife – back then my fiancée – and I had been promised a garden view room, but after we’d checked in, they led us through the nice ornate old bit of the hotel into this drafty airlock of a corridor, like something from the Crossroads motel, to a room with no view of anything whatsoever – and for €1,000 a night. I complained and they said they couldn’t move me, and then I just stood there and said, “I will jump out of that window and all your Italian viscounts will see.” They moved us – but got their revenge by billing me £1,000 for scrambled eggs, £200 each for five mornings!
ED GRENBY