INSPIRATION: Highlights from our travels
Most memorable Mr & Mrs Smith moments
We know we're very lucky visiting so many wonderful hotels but indulge us a little and let us share our favourite memories... the printable ones at any rate.
James Lohan
Hitting the private heated chamber and naked mud rubbing with Mrs Smith in the spa at Whatley Manor – we may have looked like Mr & Mrs Stig of the Dump but boy did my skin feel good afterwards.
Being picked up by a brand-spanking-new Bentley at Belfast Airport when visiting the Merchant Hotel and thinking ‘I like my job. A lot.’
Getting married at Ca's Xorc in Mallorca and watching the faces of our guests when they saw that view across the mountains to the sea for the first time.
Tamara Heber-Percy
Seeing a baby leopard and his mother watching over a recent kill in the Kruger National Park while we were staying at the Royal Malewane.
Tea and biscuits on the lawn at Kilgraney House at the start to a great weekend of food and banter as only the Irish can offer.
The view from the penthouse suite at Hotel on Rivington, New York
Andrew Grahame
Standing, nose pressed to the window of the penthouse suite in Hotel on Rivington, looking north across the night time New York skyline, champagne in one hand, our new US book in the other as the launch party raged behind me, and wondering how we had managed to publish in America only two years after the first Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection had come out.
Aline Keuroghlian
Cocktails at Murano Urban Resort, where we had hundreds of vodkas to choose from, followed by a wonderfully crazy meal of strange flavour and texture combinations.
Jumping off the hillside below Vigilius Mountain Resort with a parachute on my back, and floating over the mountains. Watching my Mr Smith being ‘Watsu’ed’ in the spa was pretty unforgettable, too.
Sampling the €40-a-glass claret in St Emillion, ‘for research purposes’ on a visit to Château les Merles in the Dordogne.
Sophie Dening
Reading lazily on our private terrace at Caravanserai in Marrakech, with birdsong and honeysuckle pleasing the senses.
The first drink of the evening on the Terrasse de Ventoux at L'Hostellerie de Crillon le Brave, after a hard day at the market in Carpentras.
Bathtime at the Bell at Skenfrith, with absolutely nothing to hurry for or worry about, and nothing more dramatic going on for miles around than the Wagner on BBC Radio 3.
Juliet Kinsman
Mealtimes at Dar Ahlam in Ouarzazate were the most delicious surprise at this desert fantasyland – breakfast, lunch and supper were in a different location, always private and each with a new theatrical theme.
Violet jam or jasmine conserve with my freshly baked croissant? Breakfasting in the lush gardens of Jardins Secrets in Nîmes was a perfect start to the day that would be very hard to beat.
Eating so much wonderful food at Pool House – waddling form one incredible meal to another. The only hotel I have had breakfast, elevenses, lunch afternoon tea, pre dinner canapés and a five-course dinner in one day.
Katy McCann
Discovering what lay behind the walls of Hotel Particulier and thinking this is why we go the lengths we do, to put this collection together.
Laura Mizon
Relaxing on the roof terrace under a full moon at Hotel Raya in the Aeolian Islands eating a candlelit dinner of just-caught fish, and watching the yachts bobbing on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Sitting outside our room drinking an early-morning coffee at Ivory Lodge, Lion Sands in the Kruger, and having the life scared out of us when four monkeys jumped out of a tree and tried to steal our breakfast.
Edward Orr
Walking along the Ruta de las Aguas on Tibidabo in Barcelona at dusk and looking across the lights of the whole city with a huge full moon reflecting on the still Mediterranean beyond.
The Star Rider carousel at the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen
Amber Spencer-Holmes
Seeing a fashion shoot taking place in the hotel as we checked out of Straf in Milan made the perfect ending to our stylish stay.
We loved the hotel cats coming to visit us on our otherwise very private terrace at Cases de Son Barbassa in Mallorca. I also fondly remember that the hotel manager dropped what he was doing to give us an unasked-for lift up to Capdepera – simple, genuine kindness.
Tasting a few of the excellent local wines in the city's Maison du Vin when we stayed at Maison Bord'eaux: an absolutely essential activity when you find yourself in the wine capital of the world.
Jim Whyte
Sitting on the lawn at Hotel J in Stockholm and watching the sunset over the Saltsjön waterway at quarter past midnight was pretty unforgettable. (It's the picture at the top of the page.)
Spinning high above the rooftops in the world’s highest carousel at the Tivoli Gardens in beautiful Copenhagen. Mrs Smith and I were too busy screaming to notice if we could see the Hotel Skt Petri from up there.
Rob Wood
Hearing the CD that I’d compiled for The Forbury in Reading playing in their restaurant, Cerise. It worked a treat – though I say so myself.
Drinking Provençal rosé and eating an amazing dinner with my wife at sunset on the terrace at Toile Blanche in St Paul de Vence on the Côte d’Azur.
Mary Garvin
Eating divine Italian food a few feet from my bedroom on the terrace at Hotel Signum in the Aeolian Islands and then strolling down to the beach in a hidden cove below.
Steaming away stress Turkish style in the modern marble hammam at The Sofa hotel in the heart of Istanbul.
Wrapped up in a cosy blanket and being whisked on an intercontinental boat ride across the Bosphorus in Istanbul. First we feasted on fish at Korfez just north of the Ajia on the Asian bank and then we were taken back to Europe by private motor launch.
