On this blog I share my recommendations for lovely hotels B&Bs and villas a lot of them with pool for your holidays and they’re all very beautiful but why should you trust me?
Here are five reasons why my tips should be the best resource for your own holidays.
1. A long history
I’ve never been a backpack traveller. I did a few backpack travels but really I waited for my 30s and for having enough money to go to lovely places.
I have that story of going to Greece backpacking with my sister and a friend and even though at the time we had a budget of only 50 francs – that was before the euro – or five pounds per day, we were trying to stay in something that looked nice.
In Santorini for instance we knocked on several doors. We were not sure about the places until we stumbled upon the hostel at a village called Oia which is a lovely village in Santorini. When they opened the door, we saw this courtyard with pink flowers and roses and the white walls and blue shutters and it was just magical and beautiful. They had a roof terrace overlooking the Caldera and you could see the sunset from there in the evening. It was just perfect and we knew this was where we would want to stay.
When I started dating my husband our first romantic weekend was in Lisbon and again at the time I did not have that big of a budget but I still wanted to find a special place. I spent time looking and I found something in the old town of Lisbon which was beautiful.
So as you can see, I’ve always tried to find beautiful places for my travel because I do think and I do believe that beauty relaxes you right away.
2. My research skills and my French flair
My degree in information management
I’ve actually graduated in research and information management, that’s my degree and that’s how I started my career. I learned about finding the right resources, finding the right information, being able to analyse what was good information…
From that, I developed a system now for researching and finding lovely hotels.
My French sense of style
Not every French has a good sense of style but in my case it’s because over the years of looking at all of these places, looking at their documentation, at their website, at articles that reviews them, I can sense when what you see is what you’re going to get or if it’s just really glossy.
There is a way that information and photos and videos are presented on a website that really tell you whether it’s truly a beautiful place or not.
3. I’m very picky!
I’m very picky myself and I have a very demanding client which is my husband who is even more picky!
Every time we plan for a holiday, using my resources I do a short list of where we could stay and I share it with him and often he knocks a few off the list. I’ve learned to be even more selective as a result!
I also prefer places that are small, with maximum 50 rooms
I have stayed at some big hotels that are labelled as luxury hotels and have around 200 rooms and they can have lots of pools and restaurants and still look very lavish. However, real luxury, for me, is beautiful style with unique service and something individual, a little “je ne sais quoi”.
All the places that I will recommend are really matching these criteria.
I only look in Europe, that’s a limited geographic area so it makes it easier to really select the right places and to really hone in on a region and sense which hotels or B&B really represent the best of that country
4. A 7 years old system
I was so keen on boutique hotels and always looking for nice places that I decided to create this blog more than seven years ago. Throughout this blog I actually developed a system and resources so that I can always very easily find best new boutique hotels or the most unique places in a country.
My full set of resources, also available to you are:
- Many boards on Pinterest.
- An app with all addresses on a map and extra functionality such as the ability to add your notes or to mark a place as favourite.
- A newsletter, where I share five to six new addresses every fortnight. They are hotels with or without pool, either luxury or affordable, villas, or b&bs or unusual places.
5. I am not paid by hotels
I am totally independent.
I pay for my own stay so over the years all these hotels that are reviewed here or the room tours that you can see on my YouTube chanel are my own stay.
That’s my indulgence: I do not spend lots of money on clothes or on bags or objects, but I do like to spend money on experiences, whether it’s a nice adventure or a gastronomic restaurant or a luxury boutique hotel.
Disclaimer: some links to hotels may be affiliates. It means that at no cost to you if you click through and book I may get a commission from the hotel. It helps to pay for the cost of running the blog.
5. I just can’t help myself!
If someone asks me for where they can stay in a region or in a country, either I go for my list of addresses that I found or immediately I’m going to go on a search and try to get those places for them
So try me! Post a comment with a question and let’s see if I can find you a nice place to stay.