Located between the north Shropshire towns of Wem and Market Drayton, just a short hop from the Welsh border, is a corner of the English countryside that has been drawing visitors since the 18th Century.

Today, the name Hawkstone survives in three local attractions and landmarks - Hawkstone Hall, Hawkstone Park Follies, and the adjoining Hawkstone Park Golf Club. But back in the reign of Henry VIII, all of this was simply the manor of Hawkstone - a vast rural estate that included a ridge of rugged, wild sandstone bluffs

The hub's swept me away one rainy Thursday evening from the UK for a Valentines surprise ! Somewhere i'd never been before but was high on my to visit list! Berlin was ours to discover for a long weekend.

For my birthday this year, despite my efforts to stay home and nurse a cold I picked up in India... The Hubs took me to my favourite hotel for Cocktails and Dinner.

Just a stones throw away, The Marbella Club hotel on the famous golden mile is really quite gorgeous and dripping in old school riviera glamour. An invitation too fabulous to miss so I threw on my louboutin's and headed out for the evening. 

You know I love a resort ALOT when it ends up in two blog posts! Six senses Con dao is so beautiful that I just couldn't put my camera down, meaning hundreds of photos to sift through and edit to find the best ones to share with you. When I say there were literally hundreds of beautiful images that didn't make the cut, you it was something special.  

If you follow my Instagram, you'll know that last New Year The Hub's and I travelled to Vietnam to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We have been to Vietnam before but to the centre of the country (as you know Vietnam is huge)
On a side note, I know I haven't posted the previous Vietnam trip yet but I will!

Waking up at Ritz Paris has got to be way up there in my incredible moments in life memory's. If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that i'm a bit obsessed with hotels. Well, I only become obsessed with the incredible ones!

We arrived in Paris on a glorious Friday lunch time for a weekend of wedding anniversary celebrations . It was the perfect late summer afternoon, that you couldn't plan if you tried.

Sadly the last day of our little weekend break in the Spanish countryside arrived and it was time to leave the beautiful Hacienda de San Rafael.

So I mentioned in my previous post that there was a hotel - The Hacienda de San Raael  iv been dying to stay at, not far from Vejar de La Frontier. Its been on my radar ever since reading about it on one of my favourite blog's Gal meets Glam. 
When I saw it pop up on Julia's Instagram account I actually could not believe that there was such a cute hotel so close to us that I hadn't even heard of, let alone been to. That's why following good, like minded accounts on Instagram (You can find mine here) is so beneficial for finding fabulous places around the world  

I have always wanted to stay at The Grand hotel, but never quite had the opportunity. When we recently spent the weekend in Brighton I knew the place to stay immediately 

I'm a big fan of Victorian seaside architecture so i'm sure you can see why The Grand was on my list.   

Its a Iconic hotel has truly beautiful architecture, the kind they don't build anymore... you could say its very grand (sorry)

We didn't have time on this visit for afternoon tea, but its served in the super pretty Victorian terrace and i fully intend to check it out on my next visit. 

The workman ship is everywhere here. Such pretty detail to be found on everything. 

I especially loved the blue and white detailing as you make your way up the atrium 

Speaking of which, doesn't it remind you of intricate crochet work? Atrium's are such an amazing feature of those hotels lucky enough to have one, and I don't recall seeing a finer example although it did remind me a little of The Beekman hotel in NYC

We had a lovely time at The Grande Hotel Brighton... I would truely go back in heartbeat

Belle
Xx