Small but perfectly formed: Steephill Cove

“Where are you taking me?” I called out to my friends Michael and Lucinda as they raced along a woodland track. “ Back in time”, they called back. “We can go down by the steps or by the path. Race you to the bottom”.

 

We’d been lunching with friends in Ventnor and were driving out of town when on a whim Michael pulled into a tiny car park near the Botanical Gardens. They wanted to show me Steephill Cove, a hidden world of its own tucked into the Undercliff and accessible only on foot or by boat.

 

I took the steps that lead steeply down through semi-tropical vegetation and eventually squeeze between two stone cottages at the bottom. Suddenly I was amid a jumble of rocks and a riot of colour – old-fashioned striped deck chairs, fluttering flags, brightly painted beach huts and front gardens filled with hydrangea, agapanthus and exotic palms.

 

Steephill Cove is small but perfectly formed, lined by pretty cottages, some thatched, plus a seafood restaurant fit for castaways on a desert island, a crab shack and a beach café, all with glorious sea views. The sound of children’s chatter and their yelps of delight as they dodge the waves fills the air; for entertainment there’s rock pooling, and swimming, or lazing with a good book in a deck chair, the sort with a shade that shields your head from the sun. This southern stretch of coastline has a tropical micro-climate: there’s a much better chance of blue skies than elsewhere and it’s often baking hot.

 

Britain has many lovely beaches and seaside spots, but Steephill Cove, to which I have often since returned, has a special charm, partly because of its hidden quality, partly because the beach is privately owned (each house owns the portion of shore in front) and partly because of the Wheeler family, who have been fishing from here for around 500 years. Every morning, brothers Mark and Jimmy go out in their boat, and the crabs and lobsters they bring back are served, simply with salads, in the delightful Boathouse restaurant, run by Mark and his wife Vanessa. A wooden beach shack on two floors with an outdoor upper terrace, it’s like something out of Robinson Crusoe, and an in-the-know secret that’s never advertised but booked solid in high season (open only for  lunch, May to October). The shellfish are also served as crab pasties and sandwiches and lobster salads, from Jimmy’s Crab Shack just along the beach.

 

Their father, David, looks after the deck chairs and the beach, and has been awarded an MBE for the effort he’s made over the years to keep it safe, clean and unspoilt. “He’s 82 now, but he can still carry six deck chairs at a time”, Vanessa tells me proudly.  “He loves this place as we do; he still sleeps in the bedroom he was born in”. A sign on the blue and white painted deck chair store asks customers to put the money in the slot: £2 for all day hire or £1.50 after 1pm.

 

In the middle of the cove is the brothers’ fishing boat, pulled up on the shore and surrounded by buoys, nets and lobster pots. At the far end is an ice-cream kiosk and a queue of children, and Bill and Jayne Nigh’s Beach Café, which does a swift trade in snacks and drinks on its sun-trap terrace overlooking the sea, with a jolly mural across one wall of surprised-looking yachtsmen bobbing about in their boats.

 

Best of all, you can stay at Steephill Cove. Bill Nigh lets Seagull Cottage, for two, while Vanessa and Mark own three superb self-catering properties: the Crow’s Nest, the Boathouse, next to the restaurant, and the new Lighthouse, built earlier this year, with a fantastic circular master bedroom. If you can’t wait till summer, consider a winter weekend break in one of them, at amazingly reasonable prices.

 

Essentials

 

For further information visit www.theboathouse-steephillcove.co.uk and www.steephillcove.com. For more information about the Isle of Wight, visit www.islandbreaks.com. Wightlink (0871 376 1000; www.wightlink.co.uk) offers a 24-hour shuttle service to the island on a choice of three routes.

 

 

The Hotel Guru goes Krug camping

What’s the connection between champagne, Mexican food and Mongolian yurts? None whatsoever you might think, but believe me, when conjured by the makers of Krug, this bizarre brew makes a pretty magical combination.

 

All will be revealed. The bare facts are these: we are camping in yurts, we are eating a Mexican feast and we are drinking Krug on tap: the Grande Cuvée, the Rosé and, pièce de la résistance, the statement 1996 Vintage.

 

The camping bit is being carried out in extreme boho-style luxury, though devotees of Krug would, I suspect, be content to sleep on nothing more than a mattress under the stars in this particular campsite. It is Krug’s own vineyard, Clos de Mesnil, perhaps the finest of only 16 walled vineyards in Champagne, sheltered not only by its protective walls but also by the surrounding houses of the village of Mesnil xxxx. The grapes from this sunny, sloping plot of gold, with views from the top across gentle hills patched with dark green woods and bright green vineyards, help to make the exquisite blend for which Krug is renowned and also, in certain top quality years, a champagne in its own right, Krug Clos de Mesnil. Here too, in the Krug maison, is one of its presses, plus high tech wine room and hundreds of handmade oak casks in which the grapes are brought vibrantly to life. Go camping at Krug and an expert from the House will guide you round, and explain all.

 

Forget hotels, stuffy or not. This is a wonderfully different way of spending time with friends or colleagues; expensive, yes, but truly one-off. At various times of the year, eight traditional yurts and one onion-domed, Persian-carpeted Grand Pavilion, all handmade by family run tent company LPM Bohemia, will spring up at Clos de Mesnil and other locations around Europe. Each large and airy circular tent contains a blissfully comfortable double bed dressed in Irish cotton and canopied in muslin, plus antique furniture and mirrors, fresh flowers and scented candles. Lighting, inside and out, is courtesy of bespoke lantern maker, Jig Cochrane.

 

By nightfall, the mood is set, the light from the lanterns piercing the gathering dark. Thomasina Miers, the celebrated chef and owner of Wahaca in Soho, produces dish after refreshing dish of the Mexican food for which she is renowned, and we all help to barbecue the most tender of beef bought by her that day from the butcher in Reims. The connection between champagne and Mexican food becomes clear: champagne, declares Tommi, is the perfect companion for her dishes, the only wine that can take the chilli. And where do the yurts come in? “Just a bit of fun”, says Charlie Mount, from Krug.“Why not?” Why not indeed?

 

Dinner over, singer songwriter  Tallulah Rendall, barefoot and full of charm, woos us with her gently swooping voice and delicate guitar playing. The champagne flows into the night, accompanied by Tommi’s wicked chocolate truffles, laced with chilli. The lanterns guide us to our tents. Champagne, Mexican food and Mongolian yurts: bizarre indeed, but also memorable.

 

Music, castles and lakes – and Berlin too

You are in Berlin for a short break, for the city’s excellent, inexpensive shopping, for its superb museums, its dark and joyful memories, its palaces and pomp (in central Mitte) and its funky edginess (in Kreuzberg). As more and more of us are discovering, Berlin makes an absorbing and affordable choice for a weekend away.

 

Take my strong advice: don’t go home. Not just yet. Extend your stay, if you possibly can, by a night or two away from the city, and indulge in a contrast that will make you almost disturbed by the powerfulness of its effect. “Berliners need three days to completely adjust to the tempo here”, say Helmuth and Alla von Maltzahn, owners of the romantic Hotel Schloss Ulrichshusen where we stayed. “At first they find the peace positively unsettling”.

 

Heading north, leave Berlin and follow the sparsely populated autobahn through a flat landscape of tall pines and even taller wind generators  for an hour and a half (sat nav makes the trip a doddle). Now you are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany’s second largest yet least populated region and, more specifically, in Mecklenburg’s lake district, an area of polite hills and of valleys filled with stretches of shining water, some huge like Müritz See, others no more than overgrown ponds. Over 600 of them make a patchwork with natural forests, undulating meadows and reedy marshland, with sleepy market towns and forgotten villages dotted between. Of course there are houses and cars, as everywhere, as well as wind farms, the odd factory or platten architecture (communist style housing blocks) in the distance, but the sense of watery calm and silence and of being about 20 years behind the times, is palpable.

 

Waren, on the shores of Lake Muritz, is the region’s main town and low-key tourist hub. Distinguished by a huge red brick Gothic church, typical of the area, it offers cobbled streets, leading off a spacious central square, brightly painted houses, a small harbour and an air of pleasant domesticity. The lake is for boat trips, fishing, sailing and bird watching, while to the east, the Muritz national park is the place for walking and cycle rides. Winters are sharp and cold, summers often extremely hot.

 

Now the northernmost part of Germany, stretching to Poland and the Baltic Sea, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s old fashioned tranquillity is bizarrely at odds with its history, having been pushed and punished for centuries, under the control, at various times, of Sweden and Poland as well, of course, as the communists from 1945 until the Berlin wall came down in 1989.

 

Baron von Maltzahn, Helmuth’s father, had inherited 35 properties in Mecklenburg, a land of castles as well as lakes. In 1945 he was forced to flee with his family to the west, and the ruination of his manor houses and farms, accumulated since the 13^th century, swiftly followed.  When the Berlin wall came down, Helmuth, Alla and their two young daughters drove north to see what they could find of the houses that Helmuth had heard lovingly described as a child. “I felt I knew the castle at Ulrichshusen so well that sometimes I forgot I hadn’t actually lived there as a child”, he says. “And when I stood in its burnt out shell and received a hefty owl dropping on my shoulder (since time immemorial, a good omen) I knew we had to return and rebuild it”.

 

It took seven years. Now the von Maltzahn family lives at its foot and the soaring Renaissance castle, standing alone on the shores of its own unspoilt lake, operates as a very comfortable low-key hotel. At once forbidding, with its cliff-like walls, and engaging, with its pretty adjoining gatehouse and rocket-like tower stuck to its side, it offers 35 spacious, elegant guest bedrooms with attractive furniture and ensuite bathrooms on two upper floors. On the ground floor there’s a vast baronial hall and gallery and a cosy sitting room and, in former stables, a charmingly rustic restaurant. Best of all is the delightful, summery breakfast room set in the glass-walled top floor of the circular tower. All for the price of a basic b&b in Britain.

 

 

How to decorate this rebuilt castle? In a stroke of genius, the von Maltzahns invited a talented Russian muralist to decorate much of it, which he has done so artfully that it’s impossible to tell what is trompe l’oeil and what is not. The breakfast room, surely, has a tented ceiling, complete with folds and seams and open flaps where the sky peeps through; the plunging circular staircase winds through a  ‘family tree’, an oak whose branches are hung with coats of arms, stretching from basement to skylight; a corridor leading to bedrooms contains a glass fronted apparently filled with Maltzahn family memorabilia; step into the lift and you are in a gilded birdcage in which Papageno sings his famous aria each time it starts.

 

But there’s more to lure you to this lovely castle in the middle of nowhere. Stay between June and September and you can coincide your visit with a concert, set in a massive, specially converted barn as part of the annual Ulrichshusen classical music festival. “Menuhin put us on the map” Helmuth tells us, “by agreeing to play during our first season, not long before he died”. Nowadays you’ll find the likes of Alfred Brendel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Nigel Kennedy amongst many other stellar names on the programme.

 

Essentials

Air Berlin (www.airberlin.com; 0871 5000 737) has daily flights from Stanstead to Berlin Tegel from £24 per person, one way. AVIS (0844 581 0147; www.avis.co.uk) have offices at Berlin Tegel,  Tempelhof and Schönefeld airports, where cars can be hired from £18 per day.

Schloss Ulrichshusen, nr Waren (0049 39953 7900; www.ulrichshusen.de). Doubles from £60 to £97 per night, including breakfast.

 

 

Caroline de Rothschild’s gorgeous soaps

Looking for the perfect personalized gift for girl or bloke? My friend Caroline makes the most wonderful soaps in the old dairy of her farmhouse at Exbury. Handmade using an old fashioned process, they contain a combination of olive, palm, coconut and avocado oils together with luxurious shea butter, plus the finest essential oils to create the perfume and allow them to last for ages. “Nothing goes into the soaps that I wouldn’t eat” says Caro, and they certainly look good enough to eat. Even better, she packages them in charming wooden boxes fashioned after her family’s famous Mouton Rothschild wine cases and personalises the pretty printed labels for each customer. The label on the box (one of several in my house) in front of me reads, appropriately for the man in question “Caroline de Rothschild olive oil based, natural, handmade SAILOR SOAPS for ANDREW These SEAWORTHY soaps are made specially for yachties, anglers, surfers and old sea dogs. Just add water”.

Go to Caroline’s beautiful website, www.carolinederothschild.co.uk and see what I mean. If you buy, let me know if you agree with me about what lovely and unusual gifts they make. They’ve certainly brought pleasure to my friends and family.

Hotels in Dublin and Around

Today my elder son has arrived home after a 3 month filming adventure on board the Yacht Kalani as it made its way from the furthest south to the furthest north of the British Isles, chasing the spring as it unfolded along the west coast of Britain from the Isles of Scilly in the south to the Outer Hebrides in the far north and finally, when the weather eventually allowed them, into the Atlantic to  the remote and enigmatic island of St Kilda (see www.chasingspring.co.uk). Great to have him back, and even better, he has provided me with a much needed pair of wheels by buying himself a new (well, new to him) car and letting me use his old one, a Peugeot convertible which drinks so much petrol it’s impossible for him to drive. Pretty impossible for me, too, but at least it’s a car…. I rather need one in my job, discovering and reviewing hotels all over Britain, and my last one has been kidnapped by my younger son and disappeared to France…. it’s a complicated life, but we muddle through. I shall enjoy Alexander’s soft top, though it’s a pity that the handbrake cable snapped on a steep hill this afternoon….but that’s another story.

Meanwhile, back to work. Does anyone want to go to Dublin, or the countryside around that fair city? Because here’s where you should stay. 

DUBLIN HOTELS 

The decade-long, though now declining, Celtic Tiger success story has created a Dublin building boom not seen since Georgian times, including a slew of new, design-conscious, celeb-friendly hotels. Existing ones, too, have been revamped, notably the landmark Shelbourne, reopened as a lacklustre Marriott hotel after a £55-million refit. As well as staying in the heart of the city, you might also consider basing yourself within easy reach, in the beautiful surrounding countryside, in Wicklow, Kildare or Meath counties, where there are hotels that cater for every preference, from sleepy time warp to glitzy splashout. Prices are for a double room, per night, including breakfast. Dublin hotels – in town The Merrion Upper Merrion Street (00353 1 603 0600; www.merrionhotel.com; from €250 in the Garden Wing, €595 in the Main House). An effortlessly gracious grande dame that just happens to be 10 years old. Everything feels right, from its location opposite the Government Buildings and the twinkly Irish doorman to the polished service and the timelessly classic bedrooms. Four tall, sober Georgian town houses, one of which was the birthplace of Wellington, have been opened up to create a series of expansive, welcoming drawing rooms with elaborate stucco ceilings, peat fires, antique furniture and the owner’s outstanding collection of 19th- and 20th-century Irish art. Just as impressive is the spacious formal garden, around which the hotel’s two wings, old and new, are wrapped. The feel here is of calm and order, as it is in the restaurant of two-Michelin-starred Patrick Guilbaud, and the small spa with its pillared infinity pool. No surprise to hear that the general manager, Peter McCann, has been in place since the start. If you feel confused by Dublin’s thrusting, cosmopolitan 21st‑century face and miss its faded, pre‑boom charm, take refuge at the Merrion. La Stampa Hotel & Spa 35 Dawson Street (677 4444; www.lastampa.ie; from €180). Ideally situated between Trinity College and St Stephen’s Green, La Stampa is fun, different and full of surprises behind its Georgian façade. The narrow, Eastern‑influenced reception hall morphs into the enormous Sam Sara Café Bar, with a reputation for the best cocktails in town and, below that, Tiger Becs for Thai food in stylish surroundings. Changing the pace, Balzac, serving glamorous French food but using local produce, has the feel of a Parisian brasserie, with its airy high ceilings, vast mirrors and wood floor. The surprises continue. Proprietor Sarah Murray’s Mandala Spa is an oasis of Asian peace, while the principal Moroccan Suite is a stunning room by top designer Miguel Cancio Martins. Perfect for honeymooners, it comes with the use of a chauffeur-driven Bentley once owned by the King of Morocco. Standard bedrooms are bright and spacious, with exotic touches such as silks and velvet throws on crisp white Egyptian cotton linen. No 31 31 Leeson Close (676 5011; www.number31.ie; from €220). Part slick designer hotel, part intimate guesthouse, No 31 has a split personality that should suit all tastes. Two buildings – a Sixties mews house designed by the controversial Dublin architect Sam Stephenson, and a Georgian town house – together create one of the most visually pleasing, as well as unstuffy places to stay in the city. The tone is set in the open-plan living room of the mews house, where guests congregate in a sunken “conversation pit”. A superb, home-based breakfast is served at long tables, with fresh flowers, sparkling silver and white linen napkins, in a light-filled upper room of the mews house, where there are also five stylish bedrooms, two with patios. The 15 rooms across the garden have recently been redesigned, using eclectic colours and Fifties styling, with new bathrooms. Staff ensure a welcoming, easy-going but professional atmosphere. Bentley’s 22 St Stephen’s Green (638 3939; www.bentleysdublin.com; from €198). It’s all change at Brownes, a fine Georgian town house, with restaurant and 11 bedrooms, on a quiet stretch of St Stephen’s Green. It reopens next month as the Dublin branch of Bentley’s (there’s a Bentley’s in Swallow Street, London), whose current proprietor, the chef Richard Corrigan, is Irish-born. The elegant, Paris brasserie-style restaurant, with brass-railed central stairs leading to an upper floor, makes the perfect setting for Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill, while the newly refurbished bedrooms combine period charm with modern touches. With views over St Stephen’s Green, this has always been a fine place to stay, but has been feeling its age of late; Corrigan’s arrival gives it a new lease of life without diminishing its character. Dublin hotels – outside town Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt Enniskerry, Co Wicklow (1 274 8888; www.ritzcarlton.com; from €255). To appreciate fully this talked-up £100‑million project, next to the Powerscourt Gardens, you need to be drawn to the sort of American-style luxury that includes computerised bedrooms, a helipad, and just the merest hint of Ireland (a harpist and a recreation of a Victorian pub) to remind you where you actually are. Assuming that, you’ll be suitably impressed by the sweeping, Palladian-style curve on six floors, with 200 lavish rooms (124 are suites) in the two arms, plus a grand central lobby and, of course, a hushed spa with an infinity pool that glitters with Swarovski crystals. But whether or not you warm to it (and who doesn’t enjoy being spoiled from time to time?) Powerscourt presents some flaws. For a place that aspires to be among the top five resort hotels in Europe, its approach feels peculiarly reminiscent of a high-end shopping mall, and the view, too, is marred. Yes, Sugar Loaf Mountain is in the background, but whereas the majestic 18th-century Powerscourt Gardens along the road melt into the Wicklow landscape, here a dense wood of gloomy pines distracts the eye. And the hotel’s grounds seem to consist of a circular fountain (not working on our visit) and an unlovely helipad. The hotel’s ESPA spa, on two floors, is faultless. Bedrooms, too, are lovely: spacious, calm and classically styled, some with suntrap terraces. For me, it wasn’t the frameless television in the bathroom mirror (which leapt unbidden into life at 6am) nor the irritating screen-operated curtains, lights and temperature that impressed. It was the bed, on which I seemed to float, the pillow in the bath, and the soothing, powder-blue walls. The hotel’s restaurant is Gordon Ramsay’s, and herein lies another problem. Apart from a bar area, and the naff “pub”, there’s no other restaurant if guests don’t want the full Ramsay experience, or find the tables fully booked. Though our panoply of main dishes, pre-dishes and amuses‑bouches were up to expected standards, I wouldn’t have wanted all that fuss two nights running. But nor would I have wanted to spend my second evening in the subterranean “pub”, or the bar. I wish someone could explain the point of signature restaurants in hotels. Rathsallagh House Hotel and Golf Club Dunlavin, Co Wicklow (45 403112; www.rathsallaghhousehotel.com; from €270). Superficially similar to Powerscourt, in that it offers a fine golf course as well as beauty treatments, this family-run hotel could not be more different. Presided over by the delightful, larger-than-life O’Flynn family, Rathsallagh House offers genuine hospitality in its panelled drawing rooms, with family photographs, large, light-filled windows, squashy sofas, crackling fires and fresh flowers. Much of the produce for the excellent dinners and award-winning breakfasts come from the lovely, walled garden. Bedrooms, either in the creeper‑smothered converted Queen Anne stables or low-key extensions, are all different, but full of luxurious touches such as power showers and bath menus. If you are looking for “craic”, you are much more likely to find it here rather than via the lonely harpist at Powerscourt. Hunter’s Hotel Newrath Bridge, Rathnew, Co Wicklow (404 40106; www.hunters.ie; from €190). Ireland’s oldest coaching inn, run by the fifth generation of the same family, is a time warp, as well as an institution for traditional Sunday lunches and teas on the terrace or in the pretty dining-room. The flowers that grace the white-clothed tables come straight from the garden that runs down to the river, and though the area has become almost part of Dublin commuterland, not much changes in this little island of constancy. “We strongly recommend Mr Hunter’s inn, the most comfortable in the country,” reported travellers in 1840. Once installed in one of the fresh, homely bedrooms, you will find little reason to disagree: quirky, dowdy and more than a bit doddery it may be, but this is a proudly old-fashioned place, where you would not be surprised to hear the sound of trunks being carried into the beamed front hall, which still has the tiled floor laid in 1720. And frankly, if it’s good enough for the King and Queen of Sweden, who have stayed three times in the past 10 years, it’s certainly good enough for me. Bellinter House Navan, Co Meath (46 903 0900; www.bellinterhouse.com; from €200). Think Babington, but more expansive. Or Ireland’s Ballymaloe, but for young people. Or, if you don’t know those, just think of a hotel were you would be happy to spend every minute of the day, basing yourself in the elevated double drawing room with its delicate stucco ceilings, ever-lit peat fire, eclectic collection of armchairs and sofas, wacky art and full-height windows overlooking the Boyne, where wine, cocktails and food are served all day (and all night if you wish). You can divert to the river for a spot of fishing, or to the rustic spa for an Irish seaweed bath or beauty treatment, or to the indoor infinity pool, or the outdoor one that curls beneath large boulders overlooking the river. Or to the snooker room. Or back to the bar for another cocktail. There’s pretentious hip, and there’s that rare thing, unpretentious hip, and Bellinter House definitely falls into the latter category. Perhaps it’s the nuns who previously occupied the fine Georgian mansion that have given it such a genuinely soothing, lived-in feel. The house is allowed to speak for itself and the scuff marks and cracked paintwork that spell disaster for try-hard hip hotels just add to the charm of this one.

 

Afternoon tea in the park

Call me a Londoner. I’ve lived in this city all my life, but can still be taken by surprise at its attractions. Having cycled from Clapham, I met a friend for tea in St James’s Park, which could not have been more beautiful. Gone were the old fashioned flowerbeds of clashing begonias and petunias; instead the park was awash with lush herbaceous borders filled with country flowers and shrubs, with the lake shining in the background. Even the tea house was attractive, a subtle building made of wood. And the ice cream stall was irresistible. My friend makes wonderful audio guides, read by actors, that you can download on to your i-pod to lead you round cities, revealing their most charming aspects including (in one of their London walks, the delights of St James’s Park). Check them out: www.strollon.com. Brilliant idea. 

Where the Venetians Eat

It’s often said that Venice is a poor place for food, and that its restaurants are a disappointment, especially compared to other Italian cities. But that’s only true if you are prepared to look no further than your nose ­­– or rather no further than the main tourist trails around St Mark’s and the Rialto. Armed with the right addresses, you’ll find a rapidly growing clutch of gastronomic eateries specialising mainly in the local cuisine, not slick, trendy places as in other cities but tiny ones with a great neighbourhood feel about them. Fish, from the superb market in Chioggia) is often the speciality. As for fine dining, there are only a handful of places worthy of your money; the two best, described below, are both hotel restaurants close to St Marks. The neighbourhood osterie,  trattorie  and bacari (wine and snack bars) where the Venetians themselves go to eat and drink are often buried deep in quiet backwaters amongst a maze of calli and canals. Many are tiny: it’s best to book in advance at any time of the year. Here’s a selection.

 

Agli Alboretti Rio Terrà Foscarini, Dorsoduro 884 (0039 041 5230058).

Back in the 1950s Agli Alboretti, just along from the Accademia, was a haunt of artists and art aficionados, including Peggy Guggenheim. After years of closure, the charming Anna Linguerri brought the restaurant and its adjoining hotel back to life and made it popular once more with well-heeled Venetians. In 2006, the chef, Pierluigi Lovisa, took over the management, and the restaurant’s reputation for innovative yet well balanced combinations of colour and taste has never been higher. A perfect venue for a low-key yet sophisticated family celebration, either inside in the pretty dining room or, in warm weather, outside under the pergola. The interesting wine list, created by Anna, remains strong on grappa and vini da meditazione (dessert wines).

 

Alla Madonna Calle della Madonna, San Polo 594 (0039 041 522 3824; www.ristoranteallamadonna.com).

This famous trattoria, tucked down a side street by Rialto Bridge, was opened in 1954 and makes a great choice for a large group of friends. Always busy, often with a queue outside, it’s memorable not so much for it’s traditional dishes as for the bustle, the old-fashioned ambience and the swift service from uniformed waiters. Speed is the essence: you can be in and out inside an hour.

 

Al Portego 

Calle la Malvasia, Castello 6015 (0039 041 522 9038).

For a typical, and good value Venetian bacari, try this upper floor, wood-lined place with prettily curtained windows and a separate eating area for those who want to be one remove from the buzz. Choose from the range of cicheti (snacks) or hot dishes such as pasta e fasioi or bigoli in salsa, or simply stand at the bar with the locals and have a glass of wine.

 

Anice Stellata

Fondamente della Sensa, Cannaregio 3272 (0039 041 720744).

On a romantic canal side in a slow-moving corner of Cannaregio, this simple, family-run osteria, opened in 1999, has gained a strong reputation for traditional dishes that are carefully cooked and often subtly flavoured with herbs and spices (the name of the restaurant means star anise). You might try carpacci di pesce (thin slices of raw tuna or salmon dressed with olive oil and fragrant herbs, or tagliatelli with prawns and courgette flowers or the fish risotto. Whichever, you’ll find excellent cooking at very reasonable prices.

 

Antiche Carampane

Rio Terrà de la Carampane, San Polo 1911 (0039 524 0165; www.antichecarampane.com).

Don’t even think of venturing to Antiche Carampane, not far from  Rialto yet buried in an almost impossible network of dark calli, sottoportegi  and courtyards, without first working out the route (details on the website). A long-time favourite with politicians and city dignitaries and their fur-wrapped wives, the white-walled restaurant, hung with pictures, is both cosy and elegant and the seafood, especially the outstandingly delicate fritto misto di pesce con le moeche (soft-shell crabs) is beautifully cooked. Service is brisk, but warm. There are tables on the pavement in summer.

 

Corte Sconta

Calle del Pestrin, Castello 3886  (0039 041 522 7024). Despite its cult status, especially amongst British visitors, no recommendation of Venice restaurants would be complete without this well- hidden courtyard (as its name translates) specialising in Venetian lagoon fish dishes. Choose the tasting menu and expect a seemingly endless parade of little fish dishes: marinated anchovies, soft-shell crab, spider crab paté, schie (tiny shrimp) with polenta, garusoli (spiny-shelled snails), sarde in soar, latti di sepie and more. Then perhaps a primi patti of pasta made on the premises; you are unlikely to have room for more. In summer you eat under a thick canopy of vines in the courtyard; the indoor restaurant is nothing special.

 

Dalla Marisa

Fondamente di San Giobbe, Cannaregio 652b (0039 041 720 211).

Marisa comes from a family of butchers (becheri) and her wonderful menu is mainly meat-based, an antidote to the many fish restaurants in Venice. Dishes include the unusual risotto con le secoe, made with a cut of beef around the backbone, bollito misto, tripe and succulent ragouts. A small, no nonsense place with tables inside and on the pavement. Once found, it will become a favourite.

 

De Pisis Hotel Bauer Campo San Moisè, San Marco 1459 (0039 041 520 7022; www.bauervenezia.com).

With sensational views, perhaps the best in Venice, of both the Grand Canal with its church of Santa Maria della Salute and St Mark’s Basin overlooked by Palladio’s church of San Giorgio, there is simply no more romantic place to dine than the terrace of De Pisis. Not only is it seductive, by candlelight and under moonlight, but the food lives up to the setting. Chef Giovanni Ciresa is responsible and his delicate, widely influenced dishes make a refreshing change from the usual Venetian diet. Choose from seasonal tasting menu (highly recommended), the traditional Venetian menu or the short à la carte menu – you are unlikely to be disappointed, and the desserts are particularly delicious.

 

Met

Hotel Metropole, Riva degli Schiavoni, Castello 4149 (0039 041 520 5044; www.hotelmetropole.com).

Of the half dozen or more hotels along the Riva degli Schiavoni, with its matchless views of the lagoon, this is my favourite. Still in private hands, it has endearing touches (the owner is a collector: everywhere you look are carved angels, lecterns, church pews, crucifixes, fans) and a core of twinkle-eyed staff who have been there forever. But while this privately owned hotel retains its personality, it has also kept up with the times with the arrival of the Zodiac bar and the Met restaurant, where rising star Corrado Fasolato has achieved the only Michelin star in Venice. You can dine in the intimate wood-panelled former chapel where Vivaldi taught orphan girls to sing, the velvet-hung salone or the shady garden.

 

Vini da Gigio

Fondamente San Felice, Cannaregio 3628a (0039 041 528 5140; www.vinidagigio.com).         

Vini da Gigio is not secret, and nor should it be, for it is one of the best value restaurants in Venice, filled with locals, with a cosy yet buzzing atmosphere and colourful owner. The comfortable dining room and small tables are ideal for groups of four or five, and though it’s always busy, the service is courteous and you never feel hurried. Specialities include raw fish antipasto, beef carpaccio, meatballs and masorino alla buranella (Burano style duck). You must leave room for a dessert.

 

 

 

Parisian pleasures

Whatever your style, there’s a Paris hotel to fit the bill. They fall into four distinct categories; once you know what they are, it’s a question of choosing the type that suits you, or your mood, best. Find all our recommendations, below, on the Hotel Guru.

First, there’s the thing that Paris does better than anywhere in the world, that indeed it invented: chic. Don’t stand at the reception desk of a chic Paris hotel in a pair of trainers, with a rucksack trailing on the ground. The reception staff won’t expel you, but the merest glance, even the flicker of an eyelid, should be enough to send you straight round to Prada for emergency supplies. You won’t mind the expense: these hotels may be haughty but they are also elegant and beautiful in a way that’s authentically French, entirely natural and very seductive.

The French may have invented chic, but they do hip pretty well too, though not always with such successful results. Sometimes style beats substance by a country mile, but when it works, it works spectacularly well. Witness Costes, in rue St Honoré (tel 0033 1 42 44 50 00) a hotel so cool that it doesn’t even stoop to a website, and where, once you are inside its faux-Napoleon III cocoon, you are swept into a parallel universe of beautiful people (the staff often outdo the guests) lolling on stuffed velvet love-seats, grooving to DJ Stephan Popougniac’s disco sounds, and canoodling behind wispy curtains around the misty, subterranean pool. But if Costes is still the daddy of them all, there have been a crop of successful new openings of late, each one creating a well-deserved buzz and its own following. We bring you the best. 

And then there are hotels with traditional French character, legions of them. Crooked floors, old beams, breakfast rooms in stone-walled cellars, nostalgic decoration. Many of them have been around for decades; some are on their last legs, while others have been refreshed. A few, even, are new, or have been substantially renovated in a characterful way. The trick is to know which are well run, and which have had their day.

As for budget hotels, most in Paris tend to be of the ‘character’ variety rather than contemporary, although there are one or two exceptions. Expect tiny wrought iron lifts and the feeling that you should be writing a novel at your desk, in the style of Colette, or getting out your easel. All the hotels listed here are in locations that make the best of this incomparably beautiful city.

 CHIC HOTELS

Meurice (228 rue de Rivoli, 1st; (00 33 1 44 58 10 10; www.meuricehotel.com; doubles from £599 per night, including breakfast).

If Costes is the daddy of hip, then the Meurice is the mère of chic. Officially Paris only rises to “four star luxe” rather than five-star hotel accommodation, which is probably what makes its top hotels so sensational: they are all in traditional mode and set in historic mansions, rather than bling new builds as in so many other cities. If only for its location, entered from the arches of the rue de Rivoli and overlooking the quintessentially Parisian Jardin des Tuileries, it has the edge, for my bar of gold, on its rivals the Ritz, Plaza-Athénée, Four Seasons Georges V, Bristol and Crillon. Once inside, it only gets more and more chic, the revamped interior glittering in gold, marble and glass in a way that’s dramatic yet dainty, with rows of gilt framed glass doors leading into the shadowy majesty of the Bar Fontainbleu, and the scintillating Versailles-themed, Michelin-starred restaurant. Rooms and suites hark back to the Empire and 18^th century and many have superb views, while the terrace of the Belle Etoile Suite has an amazing 360­º panorama over Paris. Spoiling spa; appropriate service.

Lancaster (7 rue de Berri, 8^th (00 33 1 40 76 40 76; www.hotel-lancaster.fr; doubles from £336 per night, including breakfast).

A recent stay at this aristocratic Champs-Elysées hotel proves that its new owners, the Spanish Hospes group, headed by the high society owners of Zara, have left well alone, only improving amenities such as beds and in-room entertainment. The grand ancien régime townhouse was bought in 1930 by legendary hotelier Emile Wolf, who filled it with unusual things and a starry array of guests from Coward to Dietrich. The original furniture remains intact, as does the enchanting Salon Berri and the red leather lift that takes you to your lovely bedroom. For the epitome of chic, choose the Marlene Dietrich Suite. Michel Troisgros oversees the menu in the classy restaurant.

Verneuil

8 rue de Verneuil, 7th (00 33 42 60 82 14; www.hotel-verneuil.com; doubles from £146 per night, including breakfast).

Chic usually means expensive, and it certainly doesn’t mean cheap, but this Saint-Germain address is at least affordable and provides a bolthole that feels both exclusive and welcoming, decorated in the manner of an elegant private house. Bedrooms (specify a large one) are furnished with antiques, with attractive lighting. There’s a cosy sitting room, and once you step outside, a wealth of antique and fashion shops. Owner Sylvie de Lattre, Parisian to her fingertips,  picks out her favourite local shops and cafés on the hotel’s website.

Thérèse (57 rue Thérèse, 1st; 00 33 1 42 96 10 01; www.hoteltherese.com; doubles from £154 per night, including breakfast).

A smart whitewashed building in a narrow street near the Louvre announces the Thérèse, carefully and calmly designed in classic/contemporary style, with an eye for quality. The elegant bedrooms have good quality beds and linens, while bathrooms neatly mix contemporary with traditional, such as Philippe Starck lighting and attractive old style tap fittings. Most importantly, the hotel attracts an interesting clientele, many from the world of publishing and fashion.

 HIP

 Amour

(8 rue de Navarin, 9th; 0033 1 48 78 31 80; www.hotelamour.com; doubles from £115 per night, including breakfast).

Brainchild of graffiti artist and nightclub entrepreneur André, the Amour has come storming on to the Paris hotel scene. It has the right name, is in the right place – up-and-coming SoPi (south Pigalle) – and is achingly hip. Bedrooms lead off black-painted corridors lit by naked bulbs. Some have been decorated by named artists; others display risqué photographs; all are eclectic, done out in vintage colours and with finds from the marché aux puces. The buzzing bistro downstairs, all black, white and fire-engine red, swarms at night with young bohos. In warm weather, tables and chairs spill out into the lush courtyard garden.

de Sers

(41 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 8^th; 0033 1 53 23 75 75; www.hoteldesers.com; doubles from £401 per night, including breakfast).

Less than 100 metres from the iconic George V, here is a smaller mansion turned hotel with a dash of zaniness. When architect Thomas Vidalenc remodelled the 19^th-century home of the Marquis de Sers, he made a happy marriage between the traditionally elegant and cutting-edge design. Through a sliding glass door, the entrance hall sets the tone: a gallery of heavy gilt-framed portraits hangs on the panelled wall above a row of funky grey armchairs on deep purple carpet. The wood-clad, candlelit S’Bar becomes a magnet for a glamorous young crowd at the cocktail hour, and bedrooms offer deep-pile, wrap-around comfort.

Murano Urban Resort

(13 boulevard du Temple, 3^rd; 00 33 1 42 71 20 00; muranoresort.com; doubles from £290 per night, including breakfast).

If Costes is hip in an opulent way, then Murano Urban Resort, a close contender for top contemporary hotel of choice for A listers, is hip in a fun way. You may find the lift lined in faux fur on your first visit, glitter on your second; the iconic white chesterfield sofa stretches in front of an enormous working fireplace; the restaurant ceiling is a sea of stalactite lights; fingerprint scanners have replaced room keys, the corridors feel like nightclubs, two of the suites have tiny rooftop pools. Austen Powers is in there somewhere, and A Clockwork Orange, with a dash of Sci-Fi. Fun. And not nearly as intimidating as you might think.

CHARACTER

Daniel

(8 rue Fréderic Bastiat, 8^th; 00 33 1 42 56 17 00; www.hoteldanielparis.com; doubles from £350 per night, including breakfast).

Turning its back on the all-white minimalism of some of the latest hotels, newcomer The Daniel puts Chinoiserie firmly back on the style map, with Khotan carpets, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper, jewel-coloured silk sofas and porcelain lamps. The look, created by designer Tarfa Salam, is flamboyant and uplifting. From the lobby, in tones of almond green and grey, a lift resembling a Chinese box whisks guests up to the lovely bedrooms, most lined with toile de Jouy and all furnished with hand-picked oriental pieces. An Asian influence continues on to the menu of the excellent restaurant.

Caron de Beaumarchais (12 rue Vieille-du-Temple, 4^th; 00 33 1 42 72 34 12; www.carondebeaumarchais.com; doubles from €129 per night, including breakfast).

A glimpse through the glass front of this Marais hotel tells all: a recreation of 18^th century taste, complete with pianoforte, card table and first editions, and the world of Mozart’s librettist Caron de Beaumarchais, who lived in the street. It may be mannered, but it’s impossible not to be caught up in the charm and warmth of the place. Bedrooms, the best with walk-out balconies, are decorated with as much care as the public rooms. Good value for the area. 

L’Hôtel

(13 rue des Beaux-Arts, 6^th; 0033 1 44 41 99 00; www.l-hotel.com; doubles from £236 per night, including breakfast).

The ‘pavillion d’amour’ of the early 19^th century, the final home of Oscar Wilde in the early 20^th century and the louche and decadent celebrity hangout of the 60s and 70s is now, resplendent in its Jacques Garcia livery, in the caring hands of Jessica Sainsbury and husband Peter de Frankopan of Cowley Manor. Climb the fabulous circular staircase to rooms like jewel boxes and themed suites (if you can bear the tristesse you can sleep in the room in which Wilde expired beyond his means).

BUDGET

Arvor Saint-Georges

(8 rue Laferrière, 9^th; 0033 1 48 78 60 92; www.arvor-hotel-paris.com; doubles from £88 per night, including breakfast).

Around the corner from one of the city’s hidden gems, place Saint Georges, the Arvor is the new kid on the budget block. Behind a sober façade, hands-on owner Nadine Flammarion has transformed a standard three star into a hip, laid-back hotel with chic, retro-contemporary looks. The finished bedrooms – some are still being refurbished – major in white but with a single wall of vivid colour and are minimally yet carefully furnished. The open-plan ground floor incorporates a sitting area with bookshelves, a bar, reception and breakfast area decorated with the striped posters of French conceptual artist Daniel Buren. The tiny patio comes into its own in summer.

Chopin

(10 46 passage Jouffroy, 9^th; 0033 1 47 70 58 10; www.hotel-chopin.com; doubles from £76 per night, including breakfast).

Glimpsed through a glass façade at the end of one of the 19th-century arcades which thread this shopping and theatre neighbourhood, the Chopin’s entrance looks cosy and inviting. Inside, plants, a piano and, predictably, Chopin playing in the background infuse it with old-world charm. It could easily be a tourist trap. But it’s not. Staff are caring and attentive, and prices close to rock bottom. The bedrooms, off salmon pink corridors, are simple but attractive and blissfully quiet. The best, tucked under the eaves, have classic views across the Paris rooftops.

Mayet

(3 rue Mayet, 6^th; 0033 1 47 83 21 35; www.mayet.com; doubles from £90 per night, including breakfast).

Fun, relaxed, breezy and good value, the Mayet shows how colour – judiciously applied – can lift a hotel from the rut. There’s colour everywhere: graffiti-style murals; painted tables; carpets; even the mugs for your self-service breakfast (which you can take back to bed or eat at a long table d’hôte in the vaulted cellar). The more sober bedrooms in red, grey and white use stylish ‘office’ furniture to good effect, and all have excellent beds. Wondering where to dine? The friendly staff chalk up recommended restaurants on a lobby blackboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More hot tips from Paris

New Paris Hotels

Check out the Paris lists (Chic/Hip/Character/Budget) on our Hotel Guru website (www.thehotelguru.com) to find our new discoveries. One in particular, the Académies et des Arts in Monparnasse, stands out, but there are others too: the Serrs, Daniel, Le A, Murano Urban Resort to name but four. If you want a blow out and a serious treat, look no further than the Meurice, which we prefer to all the other deluxe city hotels. And the 360º view from the roof terrace of the Belle Etoile Suite is quite simply staggering.

Great Paris Restaurants

The theme of the single chef cooking with the help of just one waitress in tiny restaurants no larger than a postage stamp could take you on a gourmet trail across Paris. Apart from Le Timbre and La Cerisaie, described in my article on 24 hours in Paris, there are others, notably the amazing Spring, whose chef/patron is a young American, Daniel Rose. You must go there, and unless it’s lunchtime (Thursdays and Fridays) you must book (dinner is served on Mondays though Fridays). Daniel has no menu, he just cooks what he feels like and according to what he finds in the market on the day, and his choices are inspired. On a Friday lunch we ate snails in a wonderful broth of coriander and lemongrass, followed by a melting lamb salad and a to-die-for chocolate mousse. We chatted to Daniel for a long time afterwards and he was pretty interesting, not just about the culinary scene in Paris (very poor) but also about Paris itself. Oh dear. To quote Daniel “Paris is dead. No it’s worse than dead – at least death is interesting. It’s fossilized”. Wealth tax, the thirty hour week and the bypassing of Paris as a financial hub has meant that educated young Parisians are largely working abroad (they all seem to be living in South Kensington, don’t they?) and the city has lost much of its sense of importance. “It’s just another European backwater of a city” another cultured but disgruntled Parisian told me.

 

But I digress.

Here is a list of small chef/patron eateries in Paris, as recommended by a couple of charming gents we got chatting to in La Cerisaie. You can find their details by entering their names and then ‘Paris restaurant’ in Google.

 

Spring xxxx

Le Timbre (see my post ’24 hours in Paris’)

La Cerisaie (see ’24 hours in Paris’)

Fulvio, in the Marais (Italian)

Le Goupil, Place Jules Reynard, Porte Maillot

Atelier Berger, Rue Berger, Les Halles (Norwegian chef)

L’Epi Dupin, in Saint Germain

Pasco

Le Temps au Temps

L’Enredgeu

Le Chai, in the suburb of Boulogne. Ony lunchtimes. Highly recommended by our informant

Ribouldingue

Le Comptoir du Relais, at l’Odeon in the 6^th arr. Well known chef.

 

A great weekend break

Where were you for Sunday lunch? I found myself, quite unexpectedly, on the border between the old East Germany and Poland. A charming restaurant, and one of the best meals I’ve had in ages, for about a quarter of the price one would pay at home.The weekend had started badly: an inspection trip to add a few more hotels to the Berlin section of this website, for which I suggested to my husband that he choose the hotel we stayed in on Friday night. We could have gone anywhere, including the slew of five star properties that Berlin now offers. But the husband made a mistake, got a couple of names muddled up and booked a student hostel! We were lucky…we had a room to ourselves instead of a dormitory, but we shared the (very clean) bathroom and the bare walls and metal wardrobe of our room didn’t particularly help my husband’s prospects of not being clubbed to death by his wife with one of the large, German style pillows! But it wasn’t all bad….not at all: it was set in an atmospheric pre-war factory in the funky, ‘real Berlin’ district of Kreuzberg and actually makes a great budget address, so much so that we are pleased to included it on the website: Die Fabrik.The next day, a great surprise in store. We headed out of Berlin for an hour and a half for the peaceful, little visited lake district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Read about the very special place we found on my next post….   Before heading back to Berlin Tegel airport on Sunday we drove north to another place we’d heard about (we were researching for our Charming Small Hotel Guide to Germany as well as for Hotel Guru) which turned out to be a low key hotel in a farmyard setting…with the great restaurant. If you find yourself up there, its called Rittergut Bomitz, in the village of Bomitz. A three mile track across fields takes you there. A West German couple with a background in hotels are bringing it up to speed. More work needs to be done to the bedrooms, but the restaurant…. already superb.