My favourite travel gifts of all time

The festive season is coming at lighting speed here in Germany, and no gift guide to my favourite travel gifts yet… I know, with Thanksgiving in the USA already passed, some people are already well and truly into the festive season, but here, we’ve just done our first Christmas Market and hung our festive lights. I am slowly getting into gear to get the house ready for Christmas and New Year, which, for me, is just a lot of cleaning and cooking, less so gift shopping. So, favourite travel gifts are immaterial but will delight every traveller in your life.

In our house, we have pretty much banished any material gifts. We have friends we rather spend time – and a good meal- with. My mother already got a load of expensive politically incorrect Japanese skincare and food stuffs and I am taking her to Japan next year, plus she has a house full of stuff, so she will get a rather immaterial gift. My husband says he has everything and I only buy him something he really wants. I am quite similar and really hate being given stuff I do not want. So my last gift was a part of a 50mm camera lens I had bought for myself second hand.

So, what to gift your nearest and dearest? Ever since I gave my mum a trip to Venice for her 70th, experiences have been my favourite gifts. Now, a whole trip might be quite a lot, but a spa day, a night in a particularly nice hotel a flight upgrade area ll gifts that any traveller would love. So, for this, I will share my favourite travel experiences and how you can gift them. They will mostly be hotels, and I am being totally upfront here, the links are affiliate links to Booking.com.

I do use Booking.com rather a lot on my trips, but it may not always be the best way to book your accommodation. The are a third party site and take a considerable commission, which may not hurt larger hotels or chains, but lessens profits of smaller businesses. However, I admit it is very convenient, especially for someone like me who changes travel plans a lot, and always books with free cancellation.

Brilliant hotels I would love to return to

I have stayed in some really amazing hotels but for most of the time, I am a mid-range price traveller. Sometimes I splurge, and these are places in well-known destinations that I remember fondly, and truly special and I highly recommend them. So here are some hotels that I have stayed in the past that have stuck in my mind, and that I will gladly return to.

Pera Palace Hotel, Istanbul, Turkiye

This was my first splurge stay with my husband and I had to work hard to persuade him because there are lots and lots of very nice hotels in Istanbul. What makes the Pera Palace special is the outrageously beautiful common rooms, bar, tea room and cafe, like straight out of an Agatha Christie novel who actually wrote “Murder on the Orient Express” here. Also, Mustafa Kemal Atatuerk lived here for awhile, and you can see his apartment as part of a guided tour – even if you are not a guest. The common rooms have thankfully been restored to their early 20th Century elegance without the modern glitz that the Turkish taste sometimes add. It feels like very adherent to the original – not that I would know, although I did visit there in the pre-restoration days (in 1996), when it was quite neglected and shabby, but still with a air of grandeur.

Although the hotel is quite large, the elegant common rooms are rarely crowded, and you can feel like you are travelling back in time – in the greatest luxury imaginable.

Service is exceptionally nice, as is expected for a luxury hotel. You are also in the centre of Beyoglu, with shops and bars just a few minutes walk away, and close to public transport, too, if you want to venture out of this beauty.

The hotel, while offering modern service and amenities, has huge classically decorated rooms, that go in line with the rest of the interior. Here is us checking into our “classic double”, the cheapest category, still about as large as our apartment at home.

I stayed in 2019 and paid about 120 Euro for the cheapest double room, so it is certainly affordable. Current prices are between 200 and 250 Euro per room per night. Of all the hotels here, this is perhaps my biggest recommendation, offering best value for money and lots and lots of history – I loved it so much I wrote a separate post about it.

Great Eastern Hotel (andaz Liverpool Street), London , UK

I stayed here while visiting jewellers to purchase an engagement ring, so we thought we might as well stay in style. I do love the old-fashioned London hotels like Brown’s, Claridges and Hazlitt’s, but they burst my budget, frankly speaking. Andaz sometimes has deals, and I wanted to stay there ever since I visited during an Open House Day when the hotel was newly opened.

The Great Eastern has always been a hotel serving the Great Eastern Railway at its terminus Liverpool Street nearby. Although Liverpool Street is pretty much a commuter station now, the location is interesting, the City of London on one side, blatant gentrification of Shoreditch and pockets of old East End in between. The building is redbrick 1880’s neo-gothic, and it is quite fitting that the vampire hunter Van Helsing stays there in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. And to add to the gothic atmosphere, you get two Victorian gothic temples in the hotels as well. Our room was minimalist and light, and surprisingly harmonious with all that red brick.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t really into travel blogging back then, and stupidly, I did not take/ cannot find any decent pictures of our room. One more reason to return!

If you wish to book the Andaz Liverpool Street, expect to pay 300 GBP per room per night in low season and over 600GBP in high season.

Algonquin Hotel, New York, USA

Another literary connection that made me insist on staying there when I visited New York City with my mother who would have happily stayed somewhere modern and bigger. Of course, we booked one of the cheaper rooms, but I think New York City Rooms are small, and we were out most of the time.

So, what is great about the Algonquin Hotel? It oozes early 20th Century history. One of my favourite writers, Dorothy Parker, met here with here friends, hanging out in its “Blue Bar” . We stayed there in the early 2000s and it was a little fusty, but with a pretty cat manning reception, and an altogether super central, comfortable and very atmospheric stay – even if we looked at a backyard from our cheaper room. OI am not sure if I like the somewhat glitzy but newish-looking remodel of the common areas – the early 2000s had pretty much original -looking old-fashioned dark wood interior and the ambiance of a slightly buzzier gentleman’s club.

I stayed here for a week in 2003, well before my digital camera days, so photos, if I have any, will be lacking a bit, although I sure took a few pictures of the resident Algonquin cat. Which is another reason for me to stay there – hotels with cats rarely disappoint, and the Algonquin cat one is a rescue who has been working hard at the Algonquin since 2017.

Booking the Hotel Algonquin will set you back 350-600 US-Dollars per room per night, but having never found a nice central New York hotel for much under 200 Dollars, this seems worth the one-time splurge.

Sukhothai Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Like many of the cities mentioned here, Bangkok is full of great hotels, and the Sukhothai isn’t even in that great a location (basically, you are taxi- dependent and there isn’t much in walking distance) . The hotel is still very special, set in a very large gardens, with a very large pool and boasting very elegant timeless modern architecture, classic teak furniture and silk soft furnishings of a high quality. It was opened in 1991 but still looks very understatedly elegant without having had much of a remodel.

What this hotel excels at is understatedly luxurious quiet rooms, huge gardens and a very large pool even by Bangkok luxury hotel standards.

You can easily spend days at the pool without doing much else. If you do want to leave the hotel, you will be quite reliant on taxis to take you to restaurants and shopping areas.

A night at the Sukhothai  will cost from 200 Euro per room per night.

The Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok

This is one that’s a bit of an anachronism – now you are able to book online through their own website, but for a long time, they only accepted reservations by fax – no need to prepay, reservation is based on your word and trust – even now!

So, when I am on a budget, and even when I am not, I usually stay at the Atlanta. It is not everyone’s cup of tea – with its largely unaltered 1950’s lobby, old-fashioned common rooms and very simple bedrooms, and a bunch of rescue animals, it is not luxurious. However, for a relatively small price you get access to a decent-sized pool in nice gardens, and access to one of the best restaurants in Bangkok.

Most guests are regulars and returning guests, and there are enough fans of the hotel to fill its rooms. Also, they take absolutely zero tolerance on bringing guests to the hotel, plus some other rules, which suit me just fine, because I want a nice relaxing holiday. It is one of my favourite hotels, and I have stayed there several time, I love it so much that it got its own post, too.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Penang, Malaysia

When we visited in 2007, this hotel was new-ish and considered mid-range budget accommodation. This is a true boutique hotel where each room is different, converted from a shipping magnate’s villa in the centre of Penang. It was crumbling for nearly a century until restoration was completed and the villa turned into a small hotel in the late 1990’s.

And what a hotel this is! Each room is decorated artistically, with lots of traditional furniture, wooden floors and modern comforts. Since our trip, there has been some gentle remodelling of the bedrooms and unification of colour schemes, resulting in brighter rooms with classic dark wood furniture, antiques and a lot of historical detail.

The ratio of bedrooms to common rooms is very low, so it often feels like you are the only guest here. And when we visited, there was a resident cat, too. 

A room at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion will cost 150-200 Euro per night, which is reasonable for the kind of understated luxury.

Winter Palace, Luxor, Egypt

On a solo trip in 2007, I felt rich and booked myself into the Winter Palace as a solo traveller. Admittedly, I stayed in the now pulled-down Soviet block adjacent to the Old WInter Palace, but common rooms and facilities were shared with the older grand hotel.

I viewed a couple rooms and thought about upgrading, but then I never spent much time in my room and chose to hang out in the classic bar and the garden instead.

If you wish to live in luxury with a Nile view at the Winter Palace, budget for 200-400 Euro per night (depending on the season) for a classic double room per night, and about 100 Euro more for a larger “luxury” room.

Dream Destinations and Stays

These are places I haven’t stayed in, but I may have been there and looked at them and added them to my long wish list. They are a little more expensive than what I am normally prepared to pay, but I am just waiting for the special occasion!

Gritti Palace Venice

Venice has a huge choice, of historic properties, and a huge choice of luxury hotels, and also plenty of luxury hotels in historic properties. So why the Gritti Palace?

Well, I have made it as far as their Canale Grande terrace there, and although we were definitely not looking like the high class traveller this hotel tries to attract, we were welcomed as if we were. So, that afternoon on the terrace of the Gritti Palace is one of my fond Venice memories.

The Gritti Palace is a mid-sized hotel (80 rooms) in one of Venice’s oldest buildings, a 15th Century residence of the then-Doge Andrea Gritti. It enjoys one of the most prominent locations on Canale Grande and has been decked out in historic artefacts while being given a modern-day makeover ten years ago, and rooms are huge for Venice.

Yes, I feel a bit hesitant dropping an affiliate link here where a one-night stay will buy a week’s trip to Japan and I would need to get into some serious money to stay here, but anyway, if I push the gondola out in Venice, it will be at the Gritti Palace.

Hotel Chourakukan Kyoto Gion

With all the Japan travel I have done on the past 18 months, and where I stayed in really nice hotels and guesthouses, you may be surprised to find a Western-style hotel on my wish list.

Again, like pretty much every place on this list, the hotel has class and history, being a conversion of a state guest house built by a tobacco magnate. The location is the best in Kyoto, in a quiet corner of Maruyama Park, merely a 5-minute stroll from Yasaka Shrine and Gion on one side, and the Higashiyama temples on the other.

With prices at Hotel Chourakukan starting at about 480 Euro per room per night, you will get very large, mid century modern flavour rooms, and stunning common rooms in Art Nouveau style – a curious but harmonious-looking blend!

A classic Kyoto Ryokan

About half of my accommodation in Japan in the past two years were traditional inns, but usually of the simpler kind. I stayed in a full-service ryokan once, some years ago, and I am not sure whether it will be worth the money when there is tons and tons of nice and affordable accommodation in Kyoto, but now I am learning more about Japanese culture, I think I will splurge on a one- or two-night stay at some point in the future.

The most famous Kyoto Ryokan are Ryokan Tawaraya – which is also the oldest- and Ryokan Hiiragiya. Both are via-a-vis to each other in a very central downtown area near the City Hall, a very convenient area to stay in. Tawaraya is so exclusive that it is tricky to book online, and sets you back around 1000Euro per room per night. Hiiragiya has a lovely website that lets you see all their rooms and make an enquiry. The pricing is also quite transparent, starting at about 500-700Euro per room per night including some meals.

If you want somewhere with instantaneous confirmation and slightly lower prices, try the late Edo era Seikoro Ryokan.

If you want the full service experience at a lower price, I recommend Gallery Nozawa Inn. I stayed there recently, and as you pay per person, not per room, the rate was very reasonable.

The inn is a converted classic Kyoto townhouse (machiya) and has only two rooms, with loads of attention lavished onto you by the lovely couple that runs the inn.

Making flights more comfortable

As a die-hard Economy Class traveller who flies Business once in a blue moon, I would rather spend all my spare money on food or upgrade hotels, so with that out of the way, I feel like spending tons of money on a flight upgrade is… a bit of a waste of money. I am a nervous flyer, and that’s that. What I do sometimes do is pay to use a lounge.

Question is, is it worth it paying for lounge access? You can get various annual lounge passes, but I have no experience with those. A regular membership with 10 free visits is currently 265 Euro, but Priority Pass lounges are often separate from airline lounges, so I have absolutely no experience with these.

What I have done is paid for lounge access on longer flights, for example for the KLM Crown Lounge. One lounge that I think is totally worth the money is the Turkish Airline Lounge at Istanbul Atatuerk Airport – firstly, because the airport waiting areas aren’t great, secondly, because these lounges really are something else. And from as little as 40 Euro, you can really enhance someone’s travel experience.

The Small Print on My Favourite Travel Gifts

All trips and hotel stays, where applicable, have been paid by myself. No freebies or discounts in exchange for favourable reviews here. If I dislike something, i rather not talk about it, if something or somewhere really offer poor service, be sure to read about it here. You can always ask me directly or email me if something isn’t clear to you. I would hate if you had a bad experience based on something recommended here. As mentioned above, most accommodation links here are affiliate links to Booking.com, meaning I receive a small commission of you decide to book through them.

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