Stays brings together Foodie Goes Travel stories about hotels, villas and other forms of hospitality encountered first-hand.
I am interested in properties that reveal something about where they are — through architecture, landscape, restoration, food, art, service or the people behind them. A hotel can provide comfort, but it can also offer a way of reading a city, a landscape or a culture differently.
These are therefore not conventional hotel reviews. Each story begins with the experience of staying, then looks beyond the room to ask what the property contributes to an understanding of its destination.
Hotels as a Way of Understanding Place
Park Hyatt Bangkok in a Different Light
At Park Hyatt Bangkok, my first impressions changed with the light—and with the people I met. Across a short stay, a wooden minibar cabinet, extraordinary beetle-shell artworks, breakfast conversations and an unexpected lunch brought a more personal dimension to the hotel’s carefully composed spaces.
The Sukhothai Bangkok
At The Sukhothai Bangkok, lotus ponds, chedis and a recurring rhombus carry the memory of ancient Sukhothai into the present. Across two nights, an early swim, a garden outside my window and a coffee arriving with my name showed me why comfort can outlast novelty.
A Hotel That Leads Back to the Harbour
In Wan Chai, The Fleming turns Hong Kong’s Star Ferry, bamboo scaffolding and maritime hardware into a design language that only fully made sense after I walked to the pier and crossed Victoria Harbour myself.
Morning above Shanghai
At the top of Shanghai Tower, J Hotel turns scale, height and contemporary Chinese hospitality into an experience suspended above the city.
A Quiet Redesign in the Heart of Bangkok
A return to COMO Metropolitan Bangkok after its redesign, considering restraint, familiarity and what allows a hotel to remain relevant over time.