Why should I go now?

In the lead up to Christmas London really comes into its own. With sparkling light displays, artisanal markets and towering Christmas trees, it’s one of the best places to go for festive cheer.

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Great Scotland Yard hotel occupies one of the city’s most historic buildings and retains a grand old world charm. Plus it’s now home to one London’s hottest new restaurants, Ekstedt at The Yard, reinforcing the hotel’s well-established reputation for dining and drinking.

First Impressions

Few approaches to a London hotel can rival that of Great Scotland Yard. You’re surrounded by the capital’s beguiling mix of history and heritage, architectural styles and even touches of pageantry with the Horse Guards on watch at Whitehall Palace.

The Lobby at Great Scotland Yard Hotel

The area known as Great Scotland Yard dates back more than a thousand years, but was most famously the former home of London’s Metropolitan Police. More recent incarnations included an army recruitment centre and Ministry of Defence office, but today elegant glass street-lamps illuminate the hotel’s Edwardian exterior and brickwork, beckoning in guests from the quiet street outside.

The Experience

An unconventional hotel arrival immerses guests straight into a number of f&b offerings, with a compact reception desk tucked away around the corner. It’s a deliberate move to emphasise the hotel’s growing reputation for gourmet experiences including Forty Elephants Bar, named for a ruthless all-female 19th century gang of robbers and a perfect spot for an aperitif or social drinks. The Parlour is a sensory and design delight where afternoon tea is a big draw for foreign guests while the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Terrace is a real find, a rooftop hideaway for bubbles overlooking the Westminster skyline. But the biggest draw has to be Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt‘s Michelin-starred restaurant, where dishes are cooked over wood fire, using Scandinavian techniques and British ingredients, and accompanied by natural wines.

The Parlour serves afternoon tea from Saturday to Sunday

Elsewhere, a gymnasium, an innovative events space, a hideaway whisky bar and an intriguing collection of art and police artefacts from over the centuries ensure constant stimulation whether you’re staying in-house or visiting to drink and dine.

Takeaway

A perfect spot for tourists wishing to discover London, or a fun bolthole for Londoners looking to drink and dine in style, Great Scotland Yard mixes the historical and contemporary to great effect in a storied location.

Rates: From £315 per night

Book your stay: greatscotlandyard.com

Chris Dwyer

The El Mirador swimming pool at the Ritz-Carlton, Abama. Photograph by Gary Schmid.

Seclusion, service, tropical weather, Michelin-starred dining, multiple pools, golf, gardens and sports: The Ritz-Carlton, Abama offers an escape for everybody

As we all endure multiple lockdowns of varying strictness and duration, the idea of an escape from the past year’s febrile world is an attractive one. Time for a break from the pandemic fallout accompanied by multiple heated global conversations, including one which would have brought tears to Voltaire’s eyes, about whether we should actually be allowed to have a conversation.

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All of which makes your own beachside villa a delightful prospect. Although for some people, the attractiveness fades when you start to examine the details. It may have full service, but your chef realistically isn’t going to be able to rustle up a Michelin-starred Japanese meal one night and some molecular gastronomy the next. Your pool, while potentially big, will be just that, a pool, not a choice of numerous pools in different locations. As to the atmosphere, you’ll either have to make your own, or travel to the nearest establishment which has one.

Then, there is The Ritz-Carlton, Abama. Perched on a cliff at the southern edge of the Canary Islands, with a spectacular view across the sea to a volcano bursting out of the ocean and looking as if it might come alive at any moment (don’t worry, La Gomera hasn’t erupted for three million years). Abama has a sense of geography that would be the envy of many places in more exotic settings, in a location that is a short flight and transfer from the major cities of Europe.

A view from the hotel’s Citadel building. Photograph by Roger Mendez Fotografo, S.L.

The luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel is at the heart of the complex, but we stayed at one of the villas, located on a series of pathways traversing exotic hanging gardens tumbling down the peak of the cliff. Despite the name, these are not villas per se, as they do not have a kitchen: ours was a large private apartment, with two big bedrooms with vaulted ceilings, marble bathrooms with North African touches, a marble living and dining room, and no fewer than four balconies, all facing the sea, the volcano and, at night, a view of the stars for which the islands are famous.

Read more: Professor Peter Newell on why the wealthy need to act on climate change

On our first night, we became addicted to room service, taking it on the biggest of the balconies, itself the size of a decent suite. Iberico ham, local Canarian potatoes with an intensity of taste served with a spicy vegetable sauce, the day’s catch of local white fish, and as secluded as you might ever want to be. Eventually one evening we headed out to El Mirador restaurant. This is located below the villas with its own pool, on the edge of the cliff itself. We dined on the restaurant’s speciality, its seafood paella with clams, mussels, white fish and calamari.

The resort exists in an elevated sphere of gastronomy. A short ride in your own dedicated golf buggy takes you up the hillside to Kabuki, an outpost of the famed Madrid restaurant of the same name, with a 100km view in three directions, a Michelin star and dishes that remain in the soul, like butterfish and white truffle nigiri, and white fish and Iberian pancetta sushi.

The Beach Club. Photograph by Roger Mendez Fotografo, S.L.

There are more outdoor pools than we could count – we gave up at ten. Each set of villas has its own long, sinuous, sneaky 40m-long pool at whose side socially distanced sunbathing on the garden terrace, accompanied by butterflies and exotic flowers, is not just possible, it happens naturally. This is a place with a luxury of space.

At the bottom of the cliff, accessible by lift, hotel transport or a short walk, is the only white-sand beach of the island, with its own beach restaurant, bar, rock diving spots and a sheltered swimming area where even short swim brings you into visual contact with an array of multicoloured fish. And at the top of the resort, high on the mountainside, is one of Spain’s most celebrated 18-hole golf courses, and a set of championship quality tennis courts.

The facilities of one of the world’s greatest hotels with the seclusion of a villa? The best, as Voltaire’s Candide would say, of all worlds.

Book your stay: ritzcarlton.com

is new high-end delivery service provided by private-jet catering company On Air Dining

With restaurants still closed across the UK, One Fine Dine offers an easy and creative alternative to enjoying a fine dining experience at home

One Fine Dine is a new high-end food delivery service provided by On Air Dining, but don’t let the name put you off. Headed up by Daniel Hulme (who has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants across London and catered for superyachts), On Air Dining provides luxury dining experiences for private jets. This latest initiative aims to bring the same level of quality and finesse into UK residents’ homes.

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The menus span breakfast, lunch, dinner and canapés along with options for wine pairings and dietary requirements. Different from a traditional recipe delivery box, the separate elements of each dish are cooked and prepared by expert chefs, and then boxed up and delivered with instructions for heating up (if required) and plating. It’s not exactly ‘cooking’, but it still provides some level of creative satisfaction as you carefully arrange edible flowers, delicate dollops of purée and zig-zags of balsamic glaze to create the perfect-looking dish. It doesn’t really feel like cheating as the dishes are complex and would be difficult to make unless you’re highly-skilled in the kitchen.

Read more: Four of our favourite historic country hotels to visit post-lockdown

Our favourite picks from include the vegetarian scotch egg served with truffle, seaweed wrapped cured salmon with pickled radish, North Atlantic blackened miso cod with a rich and earthy shiitake broth, and for dessert, granny smith apple pie with crème anglaise followed by the chef’s handmade petit fours.

For more information visit: onefinedine.com