Choose the right hotel near Edinburgh airport carefully and you might find a few appreciated extras. A relaxing swim before you slip into a spa pre-evening flight, perhaps, or an excellent breakfast to fill you up ahead of your journey – or even a round of golf to kick-start the trip. You might consider staying for…
Prestonfield is hidden in lush grounds a short drive from the city centre, and it is the swankiest, most swoon-some country house hotel imaginable. With swags and columns, brocades and velvets, rich colours and intimate corners, it is wildly opulent; drama, theatre, romance and passion hang heavily in the air. Service is utterly spoiling from…
In those heady early days of infatuation, romance can be found wherever you go. Love is blind to candlewick bedspreads, rude waiters and stale cigarette smoke. Indeed, in Paris these are essential ingredients for your first weekend break together. It’s almost ironic that the honeymoon should be your ultimate romantic blow-out, at a stage when you…
Is your idea of the perfect romantic weekend in Scotland snugly seductive or outrageously opulent? More ‘Sex in the City’ or ‘Monarch of the Glen’? Should there be candlelight, moonlight or city lights? Scenery, saunas, or shopping? Happily there places that offer all that and more – often in the same place. And then there’s…
This modern hotel has everything you would expect from the brand, with bells on. Although predominantly aimed at business travellers, the location, range of rooms and services, luxurious spa and well-regarded restaurant make it the perfect choice for travellers who like to know exactly what they’re getting. The wellness offering is brilliant, making it one…
Wow, and you thought the media was bad in the United States. Check out the snotty ITV reporter trying to get Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to admit trans women are “not equal” because those who’ve committed sexual and violent crimes against biological women will be banned from being incarcerated in women-only prisons. Does Scotland’s…
Romance is a glass of champagne at the edge of an infinity pool with your loved one as the sun sets. It’s a seven-course tasting menu in a candle-lit dining room with white tablecloths and gleaming silverware after a soothing couples’ massage. Or a day simply spent pottering about the thermal suites, half an hour…
Is there any better way to sooth away the exertions of strenuous sightseeing – be that clambering up Munros or conquering cities – than indulging in a top-to-toe treatment in one of Scotland’s best spas? Whether its a pool with a view, thermal suites and Scottish seaweed (or cashmere) wraps, or new-fangled ice fountains, light therapy…
If you’re a regular Twitchy reader, you probably know by now that TERF stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” and it’s meant to be a derogatory term for a feminist who doesn’t include trans women in her struggle. J.K. Rowling was branded a TERF after standing with a woman who was fired for her tweets alleging…
It’s always more of a pleasure going out for an evening’s entertainment when you know it’s just a stroll from hotel to theatre. Better still, you’re within easy walking distance of some of the city’s best restaurants—in fact can sleep above one with a Michelin star in luxuriously glamorous hide-away rooms. Not only are these…
The heart of Midlothian may be on the Royal Mile but Princes Street is the city’s main artery, running the length of Princes Street gardens past the National Gallery and Scott’s monument. Surrounded by the best shopping in the city, with views of the castle and the Old Town’s dramatic skyline, it’s a fifteen minute…
Who hasn’t wanted, at least once, to stay in a castle? Particularly a Scottish Baronial castle bristling with turrets and towers, castellations and crenelations, with the promise of fragrant peat fires and sweeping staircases designed for grand entrances. Castles also tend to come with pleasing views and extensive gardens (and in Scotland often some craggy…
Located just 10 minutes by car from Edinburgh’s city centre, and across the street from Hampton House, this hotel in a Victorian mini-mansion is anything but stuffy. It may come with preserved original features, but it’s enjoyed a design-led transformation into sleek boutique property. Picture deep, dramatic colour palettes, bold wallpapers, tasteful tweeds, warm Persian-style…
Queen Elizabeth II’s royal tours always packed a diplomatic punch. Over the course of her seven decades on the throne, many of her subjects were not only enthralled by the exotic locations she visited and the rare glimpse her travels provided into her private world – they were also inspired to follow suit. When her…
While many fans and followers of the royal family are familiar with “Operation London Bridge” — the 10-day plan in place if Queen Elizabeth II were to die in London — fewer are aware of “Operation Unicorn,” which The Crown established many years ago just in case the monarch passed away in Scotland. “Operation Unicorn”…
The best of the rest Pharaoh enough Bumping through night-time desert, we slumber in our seats, the teenagers lost in uneasy dreams. The Nile curves to meet us again, the sun rising as we cross the Aswan High Dam. Lake Nasser gleams an unreal blue. Beyond, Abu Simbel crouches, cupped in its mound. Impassive guardian…
Bannau Sir Gaer, Carmarthenshire, South Wales When it comes to Wales’ south, there’s a whole cluster of areas within the Brecon Beacons, replete with peaks, yet the majority of visitors will make a beeline for Pen-y-Fan so that they can lay claim to being the highest person south of Birmingham. Far more exciting however, is…
Murray Evans: “Fab piece, made me smile, thanks. Having spent most of my life camping in one form or another my expertise grew as I got older. From a sweaty tent and a ground sheet through to a sherpa caravan with beds, huge tents, carpets, kitchen and more. My motto was if you can’t stand…
You wait two years for a minibreak then two come along at once. First, a multi-generational get-together in the Cotswolds at the Swan Inn, stone the colour of honey and set on the dreamy banks of the Windrush beside an absurdly comely bridge. The barman walked us to our room, which felt like home only…
Today, kayakers and paddleboarders nose in and around these same coastal features to reach otherwise inaccessible beaches, or to get closer to the thousands of seabirds that breed on the St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve from April to July. An outdoorsy vibe has been adopted further along the coastal path, too, particularly on the…