By the time you read this, hopefully I will be looking through my binoculars watching a Chestnut-sided warbler or Siberian rubythroat, bird species that should be migrating south to Central America or South East Asia but have been blown thousands of miles off course by strong autumn winds to the shores of the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall.
Yes, once again for a week I have gone birding, which is what we birders call birdwatching.
The Isles of Scilly is one of my favorite places in the world, and I wrote blogs about it here and here.
You will not get another birding blog today, although you will when I return home.
Instead, I saw the 2024 roundup of what are, supposedly, the 50 best hotels in the world, from online site theworlds50best.com.
These lists are largely meaningless plaudits, just as for some people the Isles of Scilly would rank as the world’s dullest place. Each to their own, and long may it last like that.
Such exercises are amusing games, and if they help hoteliers create and maintain better hotels, these lists might provide some good.
The hotels on the list are very expensive ones, which might reveal an indication of how things become very good and how they are ranked the best.
Some people like luxury as we generally understand the word; others define luxury as escape, simplicity and connection, which can come at a price large or small.
The bottom line is that these lists can be fun or vacuous, interesting or nonsensical, with the hotel industry having room for everyone.
The first thing I do is to see if I have ever had the good fortune to have stayed in one of these hotels. From this list, no, although I have stopped for drinks and canapes in one, and I have visited the lobby of another.
Instead, I had better make a list of my favorite 10 hotels or guest houses — I will save you from seeing 50 — I have stayed in, as my list is just as valid, as yours would be, too.
I do like a good list, and I keep a lot of them. Certainly, of bird species seen, and those seen on the Isles of Scilly, and countless other lists besides, including one of the hotels I have stayed at.
Some no doubt no longer exist; others would have changed their names; some would never be in the running for hotel awards.
- Ahaspokuna — Belihul Oya, Sri Lanka
- El Cortejo de Luisa María — Cachi, Argentina
- Grand Hotel — Stockholm, Sweden
- Hoshinoya Kyoto — Kyoto, Japan
- Itegue Taitu Hotel — Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- The Lodge at Pico Bonito — La Ceiba, Honduras
- Hotel Monasterio de Cusco — Cusco, Peru
- Nhow Marseille — Marseille, France
- Posada de San José — Cuenca, Spain
- The Woodhouse — Lower Milovaig, Scotland
There you go. That makes me feel better just writing them down.
I hope you get a chance to stay at one of these hotels, whatever they are called now, and let's hope they still exist.
The memories remain, which is what hotels are all about, be they the world’s 50 best or 50 worst.
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