10 Unique Places to Stay for a Memorable Holiday

Last year, I stayed in some incredible hotels Sri Lanka: The Fortress Resort & Spa near Galle was particularly dreamy. As I start planning my travels for 2025, I've been reminiscing about some of the other beautiful places I've stayed in over the years. I've put together this selection of my most unique and memorable stays around the world. I hope it helps inspire your own holiday plans!

Ten Favourite Travel Memories from an Expiring Passport

I was sad to bid farewell to my old passport this week — not just because it was an EU one (*sob*) but also because the stamps inside remind me of the many great travel experiences I've enjoyed over the past decade. To highlight some of these wonderful memories, I decided to pick out one photo from each year, and boy was that hard! (I cheated because the header image features an 11th photo. Sorry!) And at the end of the post, you can find more details about my experience of renewing my UK passport during these incredibly hectic times.

My Top 10 Travel Experiences of the Past Five Years

Later this year, I am travelling to Peru, where I should be able to cross another item off my bucket list: hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu. I'm really excited about the trip, which will be my first time in South America, and I couldn't help but look back on some of the other amazing travel experiences I've been lucky enough to have over the past few years. I hope some of these will inspire you with your own holiday planning for 2018 and beyond.

1. Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
Since I obtained my PADI Open Water qualification 15 years ago, I have longed to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, off the eastern coast of Australia. Unfortunately, when I finally made it to tropical North Queensland, my ears were playing up so I had to 'settle' for a snorkelling excursion instead. And it was a beautiful, memorable experience, where I got to swim with turtles, spot a shark and admire myriad species of colourful tropical fish. Despite the climate-change-induced catastrophic bleaching events of 2016 and 2017, the reef is still a fascinating ecosystem to visit. If you're interested in finding out more about the ecology and zoology, I'd highly recommend taking a trip with Wavelength.

2. Ziplining through the clouds (Costa Rica)
Costa Rica is a relatively compact country and you can see a great deal during a two-week trip. One of my favourite activities was a zipline tour through the cloud forest of Monteverde, culminating in a 1km-long zipline through the middle of a cloud.

3. Chasing the Northern Lights (Iceland)
Although the Northern Lights weren't at their most epic the night I got to see them in Reykjavik, they were still impressive and besides, the hunt — with SuperJeep — was half the fun. The tour was expensive but I would definitely take it again next time I go to Iceland.

4. Grotto-hopping in Capri (Italy)
While in sunny Sorrento for my cousin's wedding in 2016, my family hired a small boat to take us out to the island of Capri. We spent a blissful day swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing and exploring the various grotte that can be found along the island's coast. We visited the famous Grotta Azzurra (blue grotto), of course, and although it was very busy and hammier than a leg of prosciutto, I really enjoyed the experience.

5. Early-morning sushi in Tokyo (Japan)
There's nothing quite like landing in Tokyo on a sunny morning after a long, overnight flight, dropping off your suitcase at your hotel and heading straight out for an early sushi breakfast. I missed the fish auction but had the freshest, most delicious sushi of my trip at Daiwa Sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market. The market is going to relocate ahead of the 2020 Olympics, but the move is now not scheduled to take place until October 2018, so you still have time to enjoy it in its original state. I had so many memorable experiences during my 10-day trip to Japan and it's top of my 'must revisit' list.

6. Oaxacan cooking class (Mexico)
I love the flavours and colours of Mexican cuisine and ate some delicious dishes while staying in the colourful city of Oaxaca. One day, I took a wonderful cooking class with Oscar Carrizosa, where we shopped for food at a local market and then prepared (and ate) a huge variety of dishes. It was an excellent introduction to Oaxacan cooking — and understanding the local food culture also helped me feel more connected to the friendly people of Oaxaca. Needless to say, Mexico comes a close second after Japan on my 'revisit' list.

7. Skydiving from 15,000 feet (New Zealand)
After a fab fortnight in Australia and two wonderful weeks in New Zealand, I celebrated the end of my one-month sabbatical by skydiving from 15,000 feet over Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables. It was a literally breathtaking experience and one of the best things I've ever done. I jumped with NZONE and would highly recommend them; you can watch my (slightly sweary) video here.

8. Sailing through beautiful Ha Long Bay (Vietnam)
Three days and two nights aboard the small but well-equipped Dragon's Pearl, cruising past hundreds and hundreds of limestone islands in Ha Long Bay was as relaxing as it was beautiful. I was glad I upped my budget and booked with Indochina Junk, as they took us to the quieter but just as stunning Bai Tu Long Bay. On our final night, we enjoyed a barbecue feast in a UNESCO-listed cave. A top-notch trip, even if the sun didn't grace us with much of its presence.

9. Motorbike tour of Saigon street food (Vietnam)
I planned only to include one experience per country but I just couldn't choose between Ha Long Bay and the street food tour on the back of a motorbike that I took in Saigon. I'd never ridden on a motorbike before, but my XO Tour guide showed me a great time. I ate some delicious street food dishes and saw parts of the sprawling city of Saigon that I probably wouldn't have reached by myself on such a short trip.

10. Third-wave coffee tour in Portland (Oregon, USA)
You weren't thinking I'd make it through this list without a speciality coffee bucket-list item, were you? And although I could have included my fast-paced, self-guided tour of Melbourne's speciality coffee scene, I wanted to give a shout out to the excellent tour led by Lora of Third Wave Coffee Tours in Portland, Oregon. We visited five of the city's signature micro-roasteries and cafés, with a different coffee experience in each. Of course, I visited plenty of others during my short stay in Portland, but Lora gave me a great introduction to the local coffee scene.

My Top 5 Leaps of 2013

I enjoy putting together my annual leap list, mainly because it serves as a way of highlighting some of the places to which I've travelled and the things I have done. After a lack of leaps in the leap year last year, I jumped right back in this year and had plenty to choose from.

1. Paradise leaped. Tamarindo, Costa Rica. After several years of waiting and planning, I finally made it to Costa Rica this year and had an awesome time. And of course, there were plenty of great leaps. It was hard to choose just one (and this leap at the foot of the Arenal volcano came a close second), but the infinity pool at our hotel near Tamarindo was pretty paradisiacal.

2. The Game of Thrones leap. Dubrovnik, Croatia. With its stunning Mediterranean views and handy city walls, Dubrovnik proved a particularly lucrative place to leap. I just need to remember to wear better footwear next time. The things we do for art...

3. The arty leap. New York, USA. Speaking of art! I only managed one trip to New York this year, but it was a good one. In City Hall Park, there was a series of sculptures in the Lightness of Being series, which were just asking for a good leap. Naturally, I obliged.

4. The Dreaming Spires leap. Oxford, UK. So apparently my father was the last person to discover that all of those Oxford postcards featuring the gorgeous Dreaming Spires were taken from the top of South Park. It didn't stop us from taking a few celebratory leap photos.

5. The highest leap. London, UK. When I took a tour that allowed me to climb over the top of the O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome), I was convinced that they wouldn't let me leap at the top, but apparently leaping is totes legit, as long as you don't go too close to the edge.

Runner-up: The coldest leap. London, UK. As all of the above leaps feature beautiful sunshine, I'm allowing myself a bonus entry on this year's list to remind me that London had a pretty horrific winter at the beginning of this year. The snow and the cold didn't keep some of the members of the nascent SoLoDo Running Club from running and, in my case, leaping, on a particularly inclement Saturday.

Two Weeks in Costa Rica

The nice thing about Costa Rica is that it is small enough that you can see a lot of the key sights in two weeks. Most visitors head out of San José pretty quickly and then visit La Fortuna and the Arenal volcano and the cloud forests at Monteverde and Santa Elena. This itinerary takes about a week, leaving you with another week to spend on the beach, and this is when you have a choice to make: Pacific or Caribbean coast?  Although I was sorely tempted by the possibility of nesting turtles at Tortuguero on the Caribbean side, it wasn't turtle season, so we decided to do the Pacific beaches instead. You could just about fit in Tortuguero and  the Pacific, but it will be a bit rushed.

Here's how we organised our time. Most of these hotels were chosen through a combination of my guidebook (the latest Lonely Planet) and the top-rated properties on Booking.com, and for the record, most places offer pretty good free wifi and some form of free breakfast, and will help you organise activities and travel.

San José
When you fly to San José from Europe, you will almost certainly arrive in the city at night, which means staying there one night. A lot of the buses and excursions from San José leave early in the morning and, uncertain about jet lag, we decided to stay two nights in the city. We were starting to run out of things to do at the end of our first full day, but we left early the following morning. We also stayed for one night at the end of our trip.

Hotel Fleur de Lys, San José

Both times, we stayed in the eastern part of the city centre, which I would recommend, because it's quieter, cleaner and prettier. We first stayed at Hotel Fleur de Lys, which was great. It's a small hotel in a beautiful, rambling house, with shiny wooden floors and local art on the walls. There was a free breakfast buffet, full of goodies, from fresh fruits to breads and the usual rice and beans. The staff were extremely helpful and friendly. 

On our return, we stayed at the Hotel Aranjuez, which was slightly cheaper and a little less central, but still only 15 minutes walk to the Teatro Nacional. This hotel is formed of a series of interconnected houses and its labyrinthine hallways are a little hard to navigate, but the rooms are clean and comfortable, if a little spartan. A free and extensive buffet breakfast is served in the garden terrace each morning.

The breakfast buffet at Hotel Aranjuez, San José

La Fortuna and Arenal
We took a public bus from San José to La Fortuna, which cost $7 and took about four hours — not much slower than a private minibus — so I would recommend using public transport at this stage. Do keep an eye on your bag on the bus though, as the on-bus policeman warned us. 

We stayed at Hotel Campo Verde, at the base of the volcano and about six miles out of town. There isn't much in La Fortuna itself — most of the activities are outside, and transportation to and from your hotel tends to be included — but we did have a couple of $10 taxi journeys to go into town for dinner. 

This hotel was one of my favourites: the rooms are a series of canary-yellow cabins with private porches and amazing views of the volcano; we were in number 11, which had a front-row view. Breakfast is included and involves fruit and a choice of eggs on toast, yoghurt and granola or rice and beans.

Hotel Campo Verde, near La Fortuna/Arenal

In terms of activities in the area, several companies run combo tours: we did a four-in-one tour that included a river safari, a tour of the La Fortuna waterfall, lunch at a restaurant in town, a guided hike around the volcano and entry into and dinner at the Tabacón hot springs. At about $220, this isn't cheap but is an efficient way of combining multiple activities, especially if you would otherwise have to factor in the cost of taxis.


Monteverde
The best way to get between La Fortuna and Monteverde is by 'jeep-boat-jeep,' actually a minibus-boat-minibus service that takes you from your hotel to Lake Arenal, ferries you across the lake and delivers you to your hotel at the other end. This costs $25 and takes about three hours, saving a good 90 minutes' driving on very poor, rocky, unpaved roads.

Hotel Mar Inn, Monteverde

In Monteverde, we stayed at Mar Inn, which was a little more rustic than some of our other hotels, but clean and perfectly nice. The staff were very friendly and helpful and can arrange pretty much any kind of tour or transportation you might need. I enjoyed sitting in the hammock outside our room, watching the birds in the garden and enjoying the view over the town. NB: the hotel is pretty high up the hill and a short but very steep hike up from the town centre. Breakfast — scrambled eggs on toast or pancakes — was also included.


Tamarindo
While in Monteverde, we discovered that it's actually quite hard to leave the cloud forest. We wanted to go to the beaches of the Nicoya peninsula but all of the public buses involved long journeys with multiple changes. Nor was there a car hire place in Monteverde and it would cost $100 for a car rental company to drop a car off there for us to return to San José. We decided to spend the $100 on two tickets on one of the tourist minibuses to Tamarindo and the roads were so bad, we were glad we weren't driving.

El Sabanero Eco Lodge, near Tamarindo

Our cabin (the wifi didn't reach this far...)

Our hotel, El Sabanero Eco Lodge, was about 10 miles outside Tamarindo. Its main selling point is its amazing infinity pool, but the lodge was a nice place to hang out too. The rooms are small cabins, but not as pretty or well kitted out as at Campo Verde. I liked the cabins, though, even if it was a little disconcerting to wake up one night and find the cabin completely surrounded by a herd of cows! Don't come here without a car though; taxis into town are expensive and the buses are unreliable.

El Sabanero Lodge's amazing pool

Mal País
It is only about 100 miles from Tamarindo to Mal País, right down at the bottom of the Nicoya peninsula, but it took us most of the day to drive it. We drove to Playa Samara via the 'fast' (i.e. paved) roads and then went the scenic route for the rest of the journey, which involved almost no paved roads, lots of steep hills and several river crossings. But it was an adventure and the views were stunning! We were able to stop at a number of different beaches, and I really would recommend the drive — in dry season, of course.

Moana Lodge, including the sunset view from the cliff-top restaurant

In Mal País, we stayed at Moana Lodge, a lovely hotel on the cliffside above the town. The more expensive cabins have 180 views of the coastline; our room was lower down, but well appointed and with a nice terrace. There is a cute pool, hot tub and chill-out area and the beach is only minutes away. The hotel's key selling point is its restaurant, Papaya, perched on the clifftop and offering amazing views of the coast and the jungle. A good and well presented breakfast is included; we also went for dinner one night, enjoying a selection of tapas as we watched the sunset.


Montezuma
Originally, we planned to drive from Mal País to Quepos, via the Paquera–Puntarenas ferry, but after our epic road trip, we realised we had been too optimistic and had to cut our planned trip to the Manuel Antonio National Park, a real shame, because who doesn't want to to go a national park brimming with cute monkeys frolicking on the beach? With hindsight, I would have cut a day from La Fortuna or Monteverde to have time to visit Manuel Antonio.

The Ylang Ylang Beach Resort pool, Montezuma

Instead, we drove a little way along the coast to Montezuma, staying at El Sano Banano Hotel. The main attraction was the access to the pool, beach and facilities of the hotel's more luxe sister hotel, Ylang Ylang Beach Resort. El Sano Banano was cheap and cheerful — a little noisy at night but the pool was amazing.


Back to San José
To get back to San José, we drove 45 minutes from Montezuma to Paquera, where we caught the car ferry to Puntarenas, which took about 70 minutes and cost about $30. From there, it's only about 60 miles to San José. Because we were driving along Highway #1, we assumed the road would be relatively fast, but there was rarely more than one lane and we often slowed down to 20 mph. It was a scenic journey, though, and by this point we had learned to be grateful for small mercies: namely paved roads and no river crossings!

And now I just have to decide where to go on my next adventure!

Costa Rica Critter Round-Up

Warning: image-heavy post ahead. One of the reasons I wanted to visit Costa Rica was because of its incredible biodiversity. Although it's a pretty small country, the landscape and the climate changes quickly from cloud forest to rain forest to hot, dry beaches and as such, it would be difficult to spend two weeks there and not see some cool creatures. I'd been hoping for some mammal close-ups—particularly of sloths and monkeys—but although I saw numerous monkeys and one lone mama sloth, they weren't exactly frolicking at my feet either. Then again, it's pretty cool when you no longer need your iPhone alarm because you get a dawn wake-up call from a troop of howler monkeys. For the first few nights at least.

Spot the howler monkeys

Shy baby capuchin monkey

We went on several nature hikes, including one at dusk, but we tended to get better views when we just happened upon the creatures in question, like the sloth our guide spotted in a tree by the road while we were driving to the Arenal Volcano, or the coati that was wandering around near the La Fortuna waterfall, looking for lunch.

Mama sloth

The catarata coati

The thing that surprised me the most was how beautiful the country's birds are. I prefer fur to feathers, but we saw some gorgeous birds, including the emerald toucanets I spotted in the garden of our Monteverde hotel, or the blue-crowned motmot I saw hanging out at a dusty bus stop near Tamarindo. Despite it being the right season, we didn't see a quetzal, although our guide heard one, and we did catch a glimpse of the equally elusive bellbird, although I wasn't fast enough to photograph it. Even in the middle of San José, the random birds you see out and about are so pretty. We were initially captivated by the white-throated magpie jay who came to perch on the railings of the roof-top restaurant at our hotel in Mal País and who seemed so tame. We soon realised he came every day, because he knew when it was time for his French toast. The iguanas that climbed to the top of the canopy and sunned themselves, just below the restaurant, were just as predictable.

Emerald toucanet

Blue-crowned motmot

Breakfast time for the white-throated magpie jay

A tree-top iguana

In the butterfly garden in the Museo Nacional in San José, we saw the beautiful blue morpho butterfly, but it was too shy, so my only photos were far too blurry. I did manage a close-up of a pretty red and black butterfly, and we saw many other lovely butterflies throughout the country. I also enjoyed spotting a tarantula in the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve and a "Jesus lizard" in Monteverde.

A pretty butterfly. Not a blue morpho.

It's a good thing I don't have arachnophobia

Jesus lizard

I didn't see the newly discovered "fairy" insect; or then again, maybe I did? Oh, and although Costa Rica is really a dog country, I did see a few cute cats, including this one, which lived in our hotel in Tamarindo.

In Search of the Perfect Beach

After an action-packed first week in Costa Rica, we have been spending our second week hopping from beach to beach. En route from our hotel to Playa Tamarindo, the heavens opened for the first time of the holiday and we were forced to seek refuge in one of the main restaurants that line the main drag of 'Tamagringo.' Luckily, we picked Longboards BBQ, which does a fine line in pulled pork sandwiches. Even more luckily, after we had eaten, the sun came out and produced one of the most spectacular sunsets of the holiday.

We spent the morning on Playa Tamarindo with about 10,000 would-be surfers. The surf was pretty strong, although with hindsight I didn't know how good I had it there, being able to bob up and down without being sucked into the current.

After a quick bite to eat, and in my case, some Italian conversation with the owner, at Buon Appetito, we went in search of prettier beaches. Playa Conchal, a few miles north of Tamarindo, certainly fit the bill: it's beautiful, has soft sand and relatively gentle waves—for the Pacific, anyway—plus, you have to drive across another beach, Brasilito, to get it to it. We spent a few hours in our own portion of paradise, before heading on to check out the competition.

After checking out the posh yachts and smart real estate in Playa Flamingo, which reminded me a lot of Cannes, we made it back to Playa Brasilito as the music stopped and the sun started to set. It wasn't quite as good as the previous one, but sipping an ice cool juice smoothie in a beach café was pretty cool.

Then it was time for our epic road trip from Tamarindo to Mal País, a tiny village and area in the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula, known for its beaches and particularly its surfing. The distances involved are tiny, but we lost the paved highway soon after our first pit stop at Playa Samara and Playa Carrillo, and the rest of the journey involved over two hours of slow, winding dirt roads, which led us over hills, round tight bends and, eventually, through three rivers.

We knew that river crossings might be a possibility but were hoping that the fact that it is the very end of the dry season might mean we would escape. Alas. Luckily, our 4WD did the trick, although I still waded across each river first to check its depth and terrain. It was more than a little nerve-wracking but we made it in the end, in time for a much-needed swim in our hotel pool.

As all we had consumed at this point was a cappuccino at an American-run B and B and coffee house on the road from nowhere to nowhere (pictured above), we then hurried into town for some food, which we found in the form of burgers at Burger Rancho, near the beach. I had ordered my burger "à point" from the French waiter, but it came medium-well; it was still tasty and we managed our first pudding of the trip: a very good brownie.

Today was another beach day. The beach at Santa Teresa (part of the Mal País collective) is beautiful but not very good for swimming: even when I stood in knee-deep water, the waves were pounding in so vigorously that I couldn't even stay on my feet. Round the corner at Playa Hermosa, the current is less strong, although at high-tide, you have to be really careful not to hurt yourself on the submerged outcrops of rock, which form tide pools at low tide. Hermosa indeed, but tough for the boardless.