Clockwise from top left:

This playful Monsoon swimsuit has a great 1950s feel about it – I especially love the striking contrast between the cream and the navy. £38.

I’m really loving these swimsuits for their retro feel, and this lovely one from H&M brings that right up to date with this perfect, bright shade of purple. £17.99.

If you’re up to being a little more daring in your cossie, this Mango swimsuit has a fabulous, very trendy print but won’t make you feel like you’re exposing too much. £27.99.

Keep things simple, but still sexy, with this halterneck option from Monsoon – perfect paired with a wide-brimmed hat. £38.

This Topshop cossie screams Hawaii – but it’d be a great, fun option for any beach holiday, and equally lovely with a pair of shorts thrown over it. £32.99.

If you want to make a statement with your swimsuit, then try this striking, very fashionable one from H&M – its open back will knock ‘em dead when you’re on the sand. £12.99.

Clockwise from top left:

The paisley print of this H&M bikini gives it a bit of a 1970s feel, but the slightly unusual cut of the top ensures it remains absolutely up-to-date. Top £3.99, bottoms £3.99.

You can’t go wrong with nautical stripes on a bikini – this one from Oasis looks perfect for lounging about on a yacht in the South of France. Top £16, bottoms £14.

The combination of bold colours and black stripes in this bikini from Mango means that it manages to remain fun but sophisticated. Top £14.99, bottoms £14.99.

If you prefer your colours a bit more muted, navy makes a great choice – complemented on this one from Monsoon with a great print and ribbon ties. Top £20, bottoms £16.

Carry this season’s block colours on into your swimwear with this brilliant jade bikini from Topshop – I love the contrast against the pink straps. £28.

A great choice if you need more structure to your bikini, this vivid-print bikini from Monsoon has moulded cups to keep you supported. Top £22, bottoms £16.

]]> http://www.thehoneymoonproject.com/2012/05/18/honeymoon-swimwear-the-high-street-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.thehoneymoonproject.com/2012/05/16/hotel-of-the-month-ramathra-fort-rajasthan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotel-of-the-month-ramathra-fort-rajasthan http://www.thehoneymoonproject.com/2012/05/16/hotel-of-the-month-ramathra-fort-rajasthan/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:48 +0000 emmgibbs http://www.thehoneymoonproject.com/?p=4541 There’s no doubt that India is a magical destination, regardless of whether it’s your honeymoon or not, but if you are heading there on your ‘moon then you’re really spoilt for choice for fabulous places to stay. When the lovely people at i-escape shared Ramathra Fort with me, I knew it had to be a hotel of the month here on The Honeymoon Project. There’s something undeniably romantic about Rajasthan – so it’s no surprise that it’s one of India’s most popular honeymoon destinations – and remote, cut-off Ramathra Fort  has been beautifully designed to make the most of its situation, and provides a really wonderful hideaway.

To give you a taster of what the fort is like,  here’s a glimpse of what i-escape say about it:

“It’s safe to say that the craftsmen who built this Rajput battle fort were not thinking about luxury tents and sundowner cocktails when they built it; their minds were on elephant attacks, tribal skirmishes and invading warriors. 350 years later, the beautifully renovated fort is a real gem, and far from repelling invading forces, it welcomes visitors warmly.”

Accommodation is made up of a handful of luxury tents and another handful of suites, which have views of the river valley and the mountains beyond, and are set in the fort itself. I especially love the look of the outdoor bathtubs that the suites have (above) – they look like a perfect, romantic way to unwind (by candlelight) at the end of a day spent exploring. The combination of local textiles and teak furniture in the rooms creates a homely but sophisticated feel, which is complemented by ample space to enjoy your surroundings – not to mention the fabulous views.

Speaking of surroundings, Ramathra Fort offers a number of guided tours and activities so that you can really experience the area – from jeep safaris to visit the cave temples at Ghanteshvar and night safaris in Kaila Devi National Park, to cycle tours to the local village and surrounds, and boating on the lake. This hotel is properly isolated though – so expect to eat all of your meals here, but it’s locally-farmed, traditional-style food so that’s unlikely to be too much of a hardship. And of course the pay off is being able to enjoy a peaceful, secluded situation – which always helps a place feel like the height of luxury – not to mention amazing views of the Milky Way at night.

Suites from £99 a night, with a two-night minimum stay. 

To book a stay at Ramathra Fort, or for more information, visit i-escape.com.

 

Destination: Thailand and Malaysia – capital cities, islands and rainforest.

Itinerary: Kuala Lumpur (3 nights) – Bangkok (2 nights) – overnight train – Koh Samui (3 nights) – Surat Thani (1 night) – Khao Sok National Park (2 nights) – Hat Yai (1 night) – Georgetown, Penang (1 night) – overnight train – Kuala Lumpur (1 night).

Duration: 16 days

Accommodation standard: Everything from budget to luxury.

Thailand and Malaysia are justifiably popular honeymoon choices – with some of the worlds greatest food, beautiful, varied landscapes, and easy to travel around, they remain undeniably exotic, but accessibly so. This itinerary is a great way to take in both countries – we did it in just over two weeks, but you could easily spend all that time focussing on one country – in Thailand, you might just want to spend a couple of days in Bangkok and then the rest of your time on an island, while in Malaysia you may want to tack on time on one of the islands like Langkawi or Tioman, or spend more time exploring the peninsula.

Budget airlines – notably Air Asia – make exploring especially cheap and easy, but don’t entirely overlook travelling overland. The overnight train journey from Bangkok to Surat Thani was one of the highlights of the trip for us.

Kuala Lumpur makes a great entry point for southeast Asia – though if you’re flying from the UK, it’s worth noting that only Malaysia Airlines fly direct, so for more options you may think about starting in Bangkok, or in Singapore.  Though it’s not quite as sanitised as Singapore, KL is a relatively easy introduction to the region – the thing you’re likely to struggle with most is the heat. A huge highlight of heading to KL is the absolutely fantastic food – my favourites include the nightmarket on Jalan Alor (just up from the Bukit Bintang – KL’s major shopping street) and the fabulous banana leaf curries at Sri Nirwana in Bangsar – and though there’s not a huge amount of sights, there’s enough to divert you for a few of days (not least the famous Petronas Towers and exploring Chinatown and Little India). We stayed in the Ritz-Carlton, which was a great experience, though if I hadn’t gotten the accommodation through my work at the time I would have opted for somewhere smaller and locally-run like Anggun.

From KL, we flew up to Bangkok on Air Asia – a nice, short (and cheap) flight – to begin the Thai leg of our trip. Bangkok is absolutely sprawling – I always like to explore cities on foot, and we found that though we could do some walking here, we did have to use a lot of public transport to see much of the city. One of the most important things when visiting Bangkok is choosing carefully where to stay – we opted to stay in Banglamphu, a few streets away from the travellers’ ghetto of the infamous Khao San Road, and though it was well-placed for visiting the beautiful Grand Palace, we found it a little awkward for getting downtown (often requiring us to travel by boat – great fun – and then by Skytrain, or by cab/bus and then Skytrain), and a bit too full of other tourists. That said, our little budget hotel – New Siam II – was a fantastic bargain, and tucked-away enough to feel secluded – and was in walking distance of the beautiful Grand Palace and nearby Wat Pho (see picture, above).

On our first day in Bangkok, we headed to the main train station – Hua Lamphong – to book tickets on the sleeper service to Surat Thani, the jumping off point for the island of Koh Samui. I’d recommend doing this as early as possible so that you can get the berths you want – we were lucky enough to still get sleeper seats (which convert into beds), but we were situated across the aisle from each other. Though the nature of a night train obviously means that you miss out on seeing the scenery, it’s a fabulous experience – we loved having people get on at stations to hawk various tasty snacks, and sitting late at night in the dining car eating a ridiculously cheap dinner and drinking cold beer was a real highlight. You can, of course, also fly directly to Koh Samui and many other Thai islands, but if you’ve got the time to spare, this is a lot more fun. Once we reached Surat Thani, we bought tickets for the ferry connection, and jumped on a bus (included in the price) that took us to the ferry port, from where it was a relatively short trip to the island – one word of warning though, do make sure what port you are going to as we ended up at a different one to the one our hotel pick-up was waiting at.

Koh Samui is one of Thailand’s most developed islands, which won’t appeal to everyone, but by choosing your accommodation wisely it’s easy to find a secluded, special spot. We were very fortunate to stay at Six Senses Samui through my job at the time which was an amazing experience, with a pool villa perched on the hillside overlooking the water. It was an isolated spot, however, which was great in some respects, but it did mean we had to work harder to reach a more local side of the island – though it was worth it, and we managed to track down some fabulous local food. If you don’t want to be so isolated, I’d recommend looking at somewhere like akyra Chura Samui which is at the quieter end of Chaweng Beach, in easy reach of loads of places to eat and drink.

After Koh Samui, we headed back to Surat Thani, where we had to spend an unscheduled night after not factoring enough time into getting to our next destination. Surat doesn’t have a great deal to recommend itself, other than being a major transport hub and having a great nightmarket, and its hotels aren’t worthy of a stopover (ours was literally a fleapit), so I’d recommend planning a bit to make sure you can avoid staying there. The next day, we headed up by public bus (though minibuses are also an option) to Khao Sok National Park – a gorgeous stretch of jungle north of Surat Thani. Here, we stayed at Art’s Riverview Jungle Lodge, where we had a really atmospheric tree house (though I’d recommend being wary of the monkeys, no matter how cute they are!). One of the highlights of a visit to Khao Sok is a stay at the Cheow Lan Lake rafthouses, which unfortunately we didn’t have time for – instead, we spent a very enjoyable afternoon canoeing down the Sok River with a guide, having various insects (blue furry caterpillars and swimming spiders, anyone?) and animals pointed out to us, and the following day we went on a self-guided walk through the jungle, which was quite an adventure (rope bridges covered in red ants were a little too Indiana Jones for my liking…). After a few days at the beach, being in the middle of the jungle was a fabulous change, and a great experience.

After Khao Sok, we hopped on a public bus back to Surat Thani, where we changed to another bus to Hat Yai – after the bus was severely delayed, we ended up having to spend an unscheduled night in Hat Yai; it’s worth being aware, especially if you’re pushed for time, that travelling by public transport can be fun but unpredictable, so it’s always good to have a day or two spare just in case you get stuck somewhere. I should point out here that there is ongoing violence in the deep south of Southern Thailand, and Western governments advise not to travel through the provinces of Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, which includes Hat Yai – a major transport hub (for buses and trains). The recommended way to travel is via Satun – check guidebooks for up-to-date information – but time constraints for us meant that we had no choice but to go through the town (and the region), though fortunately we encountered no problems. Hat Yai for us was another stop much like Surat Thani – notable only really for its nightmarket. We had wanted to travel into Malaysia by train, but as they were all booked up, and so we joined a rather cramped minibus, which took us over the border, and then onto the island of Penang in Malaysia.

Many people head to Penang for its beaches, but they’re not amazing compared to those elsewhere, and certainly far from the best that Malaysia has to offer. I’ve always loved Penang for Georgetown, its major city, with a fascinating mix of old colonial buildings, decrepit Chinese shophouses, and – yet again – absolutely amazing food. On previous visits to the city, I’d dreamt about staying at the Eastern & Oriental, a grand old colonial relic, and so when we arrived in the city we tried our luck to see if we could get a last-minute bargain – and, fortunately, we did (it cost us around £70 for a huge strait-view suite). This is a really beautiful hotel, and relatively cheap by Western standards, and well-worth a stay at, if only to evoke a sense of what the city was like during the time of Somerset Maugham and his contemporaries.

After just one night (and a full day) in Penang, we took the overnight train back to Kuala Lumpur – I’d recommend allowing at least another day to explore the island if possible. When we pulled into KL Sentral Station in the wee hours of the morning, we decided to stay at the adjoining Le Meridien – which wasn’t amazing, but was well placed for having to get up early the next day to get to the airport.

This was a fabulous trip – it was fairly non-stop, which won’t suit everyone, but we felt like we saw a decent amount of each country, and had some amazing experiences. To save time, you could do a few more of the journeys by plane, but travelling overland is a great way to get a better sense of a country and, of course, enables you to meet local people. Probably the biggest highlight of this trip for us was the food – both countries are culinary destinations in their own right, and whether you’re eating at fancy restaurants or basic street stalls, you won’t fail to be excited by what’s on offer.

Need to know:

Airport: Kuala Lumpur, served by direct flights by Malaysia Airlines; Bangkok, served by Thai Airways, British Airways and (from within the region) Air Asia.

Go packaged: A huge number of companies offer package holidays to southeast Asia, including Selective Asia, Turquoise Holidays, Trailfinders and Kuoni.

When to go: Generally speaking, the best time to visit Malaysia’s west coast is between November and February, when the weather is warm and dry; December to May is generally best for Thailand’s Gulf Coast. We visited at the end of May/early June, which meant we had some blisteringly hot weather (though, to be fair, that’s pretty standard throughout the year), and a few short but heavy downpours, though that didn’t hamper our enjoyment.

Costs: Both countries are very cheap to travel around – even just £10 a night (aside from in the major cities) will usually get you a decent room.

Photos courtesy of: Qi-Guang Chew; Trey Ratcliff; Trey Ratcliff; Six Senses Samui; Jeff Gunn; Marc; hugolim.com

It’s also worth considering clothes that are versatile enough to work both during the day and at night – not only does it mean less packing, but it also means that if you’re out exploring and decide to stay out and have a few drinks and then dinner, you won’t feel underdressed (and a quick smear of lippy can do wonders for making you feel a bit more dressed up). Today I’ve chosen a handful of lovely dresses (and skirts) that make perfect choices for a honeymoon in a city. For more city suggestions, check out the first half of this post.

Rayavadee, Krabi, Thailand

From £387 a night.

Photograph courtesy of Rayavadee

Ibrahim Pasha

This gorgeous hotel had me at its rooftop terrace, which overlooks the stunning Blue Mosque, and beyond to the Sea of Marmara – where better to rest your feet over a drink at the end of the day? I love the blend of old and new here; the hotel is set in a couple of twentieth-century townhouses, and beautifully combines traditional features with a modern sensability. Rooms are elegant and stylish, while maintaing a gorgeous Turkish ambience; there’s just 24 of them, creating a lovely, intimate feel to the hotel.

Situated in the heart of old Istanbul. Sultanahmet, Ibrahim Pasha is ideally placed for exploring some of Istanbul’s best sights, including Aya Sofya and the Topkapi Palace. From £84 a night.

The House, Galatasaray

Don’t be fooled by the gracious late-19th-century mansion that’s home to The House, Galatasaray - this is one of the most fashionable places to stay in town. Inside, the interiors blend an effortlessly chic mix of 19th-century and contemporary styles, creating a sense of luxurious apartment-style living. With just twenty suites, it’s small enough to feel intimate, but large enough to benefit from facilities like a wonderful rooftop bar, from which you can enjoy great views of downtown and the Galata Tower.

White is the predominant colour here – which might be a bit minimalistic for some – which will make a cool reprieve from the bustle of the city. The hotel is set in the heart of Cukurcuma, one of the city’s historic old districts, just a short walk from the Bosphorus. From £96 a night.

Empress Zoe

This is a great little find – the epitome of unpretentious accommodation, oozing a real local ambience. Each of the rooms here is utterly individual and unique, ranging from regular doubles that have beds with beautiful antique Turkish canopies and the Special Double with Terrace pictured above, to a Special Honeymoon Double that comes complete with a hamam-style bathroom. There’s also a lovely, lush garden that would make the perfect place for relaxing – in summer, an informal bar sets up here in the evening, while in winter, drinks are served by the fireplace inside.

Situated in the heart of Sultanahmet, the hotel is just five minutes’ walk from the Blue Mosque, and so perfectly placed for sightseeing. Empress Zoe looks like just the kind of quirky, local place that I love – and it’s definitely top of my list for when we visit Istanbul. From £97 a night.

Photos courtesy of: Ibrahim Pasha; The House, Galatasaray; Empress Zoe

I needn’t have worried at all, however. Hotel Giraffe is run by the same hotel group – HK Hotels - as Hotel Elysée, and while this is evident in many ways, not least in the friendly, helpful staff and comfortable rooms, there’s no sense of this being part of  a chain of identikit hotels; in fact, the group pride themselves on each of their hotels having a distinctive style. Hotel Giraffe is very much a younger sibling to Hotel Elysée, with its more downtown location – just a few blocks north of Union Square (which is home to a great Greenmarket that I’d really recommend checking out) and the East Village – reflected in its much more contemporary design.

Once again, we were fortunate enough to be given a suite – specifically, a Terrace One Bedroom Suite, which I immediately loved for its small balcony that looked out over Park Avenue South. Even though I’m no newcomer to visiting the Big Apple, I loved being able to stand out on the balcony and watch the yellow cabs whizzing up from Union Square, especially as the sun began to set over the city – it felt like one of those quintessential New York moments. Though the suite was significantly smaller that our suite in Hotel Elysée (hardly surprising seeing as that one was so huge!), it was still a great size, with a lovely, cosy living room, a decent-sized bathroom and ample space in the bedroom (not to mention plenty of wardrobe room – great for a longer stay).

Like Hotel Elysée, guests at the hotel benefit from complimentary services like wifi, Continental breakfast, and wine and hors d’oeuvres in the evenings from Monday to Saturday. The lounge area isn’t quite as nice as the one at Hotel Elysée, partly due to its position in the lobby, which makes it feel a bit more open and impersonal, but it’s still comfortable and perfectly good as a pit stop before you hit the city.

For me, the selling point of Hotel Giraffe is undoubtedly the location – you’re really little more than a stone’s throw from exploring some of the city’s most exciting neighbourhoods, but the area remains quite smart and the accommodation is just as luxurious as you would want on your honeymoon (complete with a chocolate turn-down). I really liked that the hotel had its own distinct style from the Elysée – this is definitely the place to head to if you’re looking for somewhere more contemporary. I also need to give a particular shout out to the staff – in our rush at leaving at 4.45am to catch our flight home, I left my favourite necklace behind. When I called the hotel from JFK, they promised to keep an eye out for me; by the time I reached London, I had a voicemail saying that they’d found it, and the necklace was back with me by the Thursday morning – pretty amazing, considering I’d lost it on Monday, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Now that’s good service.

In a nutshell

We loved: The view from our balcony; being so close to our favourite neighbourhoods; the smart, contemporary design.

We weren’t so keen on: The rather dim lighting (though this was only an issue when we had to leave early in the morning).

Ideal if you want: To be in easy walking distance of many of the city’s attractions and most vibrant neighbourhoods; modern, unfussy luxury.

Need to know:

Hotel Giraffe, 365 Park Avenue South, Manhattan, New York City; nearest subway: 23rd Street.

Rates: From £215–£307 a night, depending on time of year and not including taxes.

Nearest airports: New York JFK and Newark Airport

The Honeymoon Project was a guest of Hotel Giraffe; however, all opinions are my own

Photographs © The Honeymoon Project

Need to know

Airlines: Bangkok makes the ideal starting point for explorations of northern Thailand, with excellent flights and overland connections within the country. British Airways and Thai Airways fly direct from London.

Where to stay: Bodhi Serene Hotel (from £51 a night); Kirimaya (from £78 a night).

Travel agents: Audley; Selective Asia

Photographs courtesy of: Leon Rice-Whetton; echiner1; ZenoWai09; Christian Haugen; Sarawut Korsoongsak; Stephane L; Dennis Jarvis; Mark Fischer

Situated in midtown Manhattan, just a couple of blocks from 5th Avenue and a few more from Central Park, you’d almost expect a hotel of Hotel Elysée‘s calibre to be extremely modern to match the gleaming high rises that surround it. And it’s not that it wasn’t modern – all the mod cons that you could want, namely free wifi and an iPod dock, were there – but it has a distinctly old-fashioned (and I mean that in the most complimentary way), European charm. With only one hundred rooms, it’s certainly not a huge city hotel by any stretch, and from the minute we entered (through the doorman-opened doors), we were made to feel at home.

In the interest of complete honesty, it’s important to point out that this is the kind of hotel – in terms of decor, that is – that wouldn’t normally be top of my list to stay in. I was concerned that the rooms would be a bit out-of-date and fusty for my liking. And yes, Hotel Elysée is undoubtedly traditional in its design, but it’s in no way fuddy-duddy – its old-fashioned sensibilities bring to mind a more luxurious age, and provide a real retreat from the busy city outside.

Now, I’ve been lucky enough to stay in a few suites in my time, but the suite we were given at Hotel Elysée really blew me away. For a start, it was bigger than our (fairly spacious) flat here in London (and yet only had one bedroom to our two), and every time we opened a door we discovered something new – another cupboard, a big walk-in wardrobe, a kitchenette… The bedroom alone was huge, and had ample space to relax in, but having a separate (and even bigger) lounge really was a luxury, and it was lovely to return in late afternoon and recharge on the sofa before heading out for the evening.

One of the highlights of staying at Hotel Elysée is the fantastic Club Room on the second floor, which has plenty of places to curl up in (perfect if you can’t splash out on a suite), with views out over the street – and there’s a small adjoining library, too. A complimentary Continental breakfast is served in the Club Room in the morning (especially good if you’d rather save your pennies for other meals), and throughout the day you have access to tea, coffee and biscuits. In addition, from Monday to Friday the hotel has an “evening reception” here with free prosecco, wine, cheese and other snacks – it’s a lot less formal than the title sounds, and it was really enjoyable to grab a drink (or two) before heading out to dinner. These are really great perks, I thought really help make this a fabulous choice for honeymooners – who doesn’t want free fizz throughout their honeymoon?

So, the important question – what about the location? Having only ever stayed downtown before (in Chelsea and the Lower East Side), I was a little wary of whether I’d enjoy the city as much from such a midtown location. But in fact, it was great. We were able to spend more time in Central Park than we had last time (last time we were knackered by the time we’d walked all the way up there), and even headed in on a couple of different visits – hardly a hardship when the trees are bursting with blossom. In addition, we were just a short walk from Grand Central Station which meant that we finally made it to the Oyster Bar (definitely recommended and worthy of the hype), and still found exploring the rest of the city as easy as previously. True, we’re big walkers, so we didn’t really mind (though our feet cursed us) that on our first day we walked from midtown all the way down to the start of Chinatown and back, but when we headed out that evening to Blue Note in Greenwich Village, it was really easy to just jump on the subway all the way there (and back once we were done). Sure, it’s not quite as gritty an area as say other parts of the city are, but  you don’t have to go far to find a bit of that, and there’s so much on offer up here – not to mention many many world-class museums (oh, and a whole load of shops) – that it’s not a hard trade-off.

In a nutshell

We loved: Our absolutely huge suite; the Club Room (especially for a glass or two of prosecco); being able to walk everywhere easily.

We weren’t so keen on: The fact that we forgot to try out the raved-about bar next door.

Ideal if you want: To feel tucked away in the heart of the city; classic elegance with modern sensibilities.

Need to know:

Hotel Elysée, 60 East 54th Street, Manhattan, New York City; nearest subway: 5th Ave/53rd St

Rates: From £188–£345 a night for a deluxe room, depending on time of year and not including taxes.

Nearest airports: New York JFK and Newark Airport

The Honeymoon Project was a guest of Hotel Elysée; however, all opinions are my own

Photographs © The Honeymoon Project