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Meet the gurus

We Find & Review THE best places to stay around the world. You can rest easy - what you book from our site will not disappoint.

We only include independent reviews of hotels that we are happy to recommend. To do this, we have commissioned over 100 travel writers (the Gurus) to find the best places to stay in countries, cities and regions they know well. Not just hotels but luxury B&Bs, gastropubs, hip hideaways, charming inns, farms and other wonderful places. They are the places that when you ask your friends where they’ve been and what would they recommend, they would say "Stay here because it’s got the best position, the best view, in the heart, so romantic, not the smartest but everybody is so kind etc" It’s the inside track and it’s our passion. We want you to trust our choices and come back time and time again because we got it spot on.

You can see live availability and prices on the site and in most cases go on to book online with our good value booking partners like booking.com. If you want help you can submit an enquiry or even call us during UK working hours on +44 203 137 0694.

Do share any of your own recommendations, be it hotel, B&B or other wonderful place you think we should include and let us know why. We will check it out and put it through our rigorous testing and hopefully concur.

Happy Hunting

Hugh Graham-Watson
hugh@thehotelguru.com
Head Guru

The Gurus

Hugh Graham-Watson
Hugh Graham-Watson
Good food, in fact haute cuisine, used to be the driving force behind forays away from home; hotels...
James Dunford Wood
James Dunford Wood
Founder of Europe's first boutique hotel booking website, Travelintelligence.com, in 2000 (bought b...
Sarah Empson
Sarah Empson
Sarah has been Editor in chief at The Hotel Guru since 2010, and has the pleasure of commissioning,...
Lulu Townsend
Lulu Townsend
Marketing Director Lulu's love of hotels started when she was young; her first job was making break...
Saskia Walker
Saskia Walker
Born in Hong Kong and raised across five continents, Saskia has long felt the pull of places new. S...
Kat Parr Mackintosh
Kat Parr Mackintosh
Kat has been lucky enough to work across a range of fields - including the performing arts, broadca...
Mary Lussiana
Mary Lussiana
Mary Lussiana has loved hotels for as long as she can remember - and written about them for more th...
Fiona Duncan
Fiona Duncan
Fiona's expertise on hotels began In 1986 when she and her husband Andrew Duncan launched the Char...
Leonie Glass
Leonie Glass
Leonie has been a travel writer and editor for more than 25 years. After three years at Hutchinson,...
Pip Usher
Pip Usher
After living in London, New York and Beirut, Pip has made Bangkok her home - for now. A writer by t...
Heidi Fuller-Love
Heidi Fuller-Love
From food reviewer for Asia Life in Cambodia, to trainee gaucho on a farm in Argentina, food, trave...
Laura Griffith-Jones
Laura Griffith-Jones
Travel editor and writer Laura Griffith-Jones has been hooked on travel since her first major adven...
Megan Lambert
Megan Lambert
Born in Cape Town before moving to the UK, Megan's passion for travel developed at an early age. Si...
MacKenzie Kassab
MacKenzie Kassab
After leaving New York and a career in public relations, MacKenzie set off to see the world. She go...
Helen Pickles
Helen Pickles
A travel writer and feature writer, Helen lives in the north (of England) which makes her properly ...
Caroline Townsend
Caroline Townsend
Twenty years living and travelling in the Far East and a career in design journalism gives Caroline...
Matthew Brace
Matthew Brace
Matt is a British award-winning travel writer and hotel reviewer, the author of five travel books (...
Nicky Swallow
Nicky Swallow
Nicky Swallow has lived in Florence since 1981 and has been writing about Florence, Tuscany and oth...
Louise Brealey
Louise Brealey
Louise divides her time between writing (about travel, film, art, music, theatre, fashion, literatu...
Louise Tickle
Louise Tickle
Louise Tickle is a Gloucestershire-based freelance journalist whose activity and wildlife travel wr...
Robin Gauldie
Robin Gauldie
Robin Gauldie has been a compulsive traveller all his life. As a hairy student, he hitch-hiked all ...
Marc Harris, Tanzania Odyssey
Marc Harris, Tanzania Odyssey
MD of Tanzania Odyssey is also a Director of ATTA, (The African Travel and Tourism Association), an...
Helena Hamlyn
Helena Hamlyn
Travel has always played an important part in Helena’s life – from sailing in Suffolk to an ove...
Meredith Santonelli
Meredith Santonelli
Meredith is a lifelong traveler with a passion for great small hotels - city, tent, or yurt and eve...
Adam Jacot de Boinod
Adam Jacot de Boinod
Adam Jacot de Boinod is a British author, most famous for his works about unusual words. He has wri...
Marcus Waring
Marcus Waring
After reading English at Worcester University, Marcus travelled through Asia and Australia before c...
Colin Donald
Colin Donald
Colin Donald is a business and arts journalist who has travelled and worked widely in the US and th...
Clare Mann
Clare Mann
Clare spent her childhood in Nigeria, Switzerland and Germany and ever since has had an incurable w...
Charles Marsden-Smedley
Charles Marsden-Smedley
Charles Marsden-Smedley has 30 years experience designing museums and exhibitions from his studio i...
Clemmie Vandeleur
Clemmie Vandeleur
Clemmie spent her teenage years living in Serbia, which provided a springboard to the adventures of...
Vicki Power
Vicki Power
London-based journalist Vicki Power has interviewed hundreds of actors and written about television...
Colette Bett
Colette Bett
Born in Singapore to parents who have lived in Africa, Europe and Asia, Colette is always looking f...
George Pownall
George Pownall
George Pownall was a film-maker and freelance writer for many years. Shooting his award-winning doc...
Maud Sampson
Maud Sampson
Maud's passion for travelling has led her to live in various places across the world, including Mel...
Laura Campbell
Laura Campbell
Laura has been writing about style and interiors for over 20 years. She worked at Vogue in the e...
Antonia Windsor
Antonia Windsor
Antonia is a prolific travel writer for national and international publications, including the Time...
Daisy Finer
Daisy Finer
"I was lucky to grow up with parents who adored traveling and wanted to share their experiences wit...
Leon Beckenham
Leon Beckenham
After an extended stint in Mexico and various other corners of Latin America, Leon returned to Lond...
Gabriele Civiliene
Gabriele Civiliene
Gabriele Civiliene worked for eight years in Lithuania for UK publisher Pearson Education in their ...
Libbla Kelly
Libbla Kelly
Libbla has been travelling the globe for a fair few decades and is delighted to be able to share he...
Simone Topolski
Simone Topolski
Simone Topolski has been travel-writing since 2002, when she started writing city features for inde...
Tristam Templer
Tristam Templer
Tristram's passion for foreign cultures was sparked by a trip around the world at the age of 19. He...
Milly Graham-Watson
Milly Graham-Watson
Milly trained at the Grange Cooking School near Frome and has always had a passion for good food an...
Louise Farquhar
Louise Farquhar
Travel writer Louise Farquhar has hiked, biked, skied and horse-ridden her way through some stunnin...
Sonja McGinn
Sonja McGinn
Sonja began her career in the mid 90’s as a secondary school teacher in London teaching Science a...
Lincoln Seligman
Lincoln Seligman
Lincoln read law at Oxford, then worked as a shipping lawyer for seven years before becoming a full...
Michael Osborne
Michael Osborne
With degrees in Economics and Classics, Michael Osborne has been an accountant, bath resurfacer and...
Lucy Simon
Lucy Simon
Lucy’s passion for travel and hotels began on a six-month backpacking trip to South and Central A...
Alexander Duncan
Alexander Duncan
The older son of Fiona Duncan and her husband Andrew (publisher of the Charming Small Hotel Guides)...
Geraldine Keith
Geraldine Keith
Geraldine Keith has written extensively on both travel and interiors, having worked in the past on ...
Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard
Sarah likes to combine roughing it with mountain hikes, followed by a hot bath and a bit of luxury,...
Stephen Brown
Stephen Brown
Stephen Brown lives between Edinburgh and Mallorca. He was born in Hong Kong and spent the first 6 ...
Rachel Mills
Rachel Mills
Rachel runs the translation division of leading literary agency Peters Fraser and Dunlop, represent...
Peter Lloyd-Jones
Peter Lloyd-Jones
The delight, and sense of purpose I experience when visiting museums and interesting cultural sites...
James Patterson
James Patterson
Canadian born, James Patterson is a writer, musician and extensive traveler who has been long liste...
Richard Balls
Richard Balls
Richard spent 30 years running his family’s chain of bars and restaurants in London, and has a ve...
Charlotte Luxford
Charlotte Luxford
Charlotte has a keen passion for the arts and all things cultural, in particular, hunting out undis...
Michelle Tchea
Michelle Tchea
Michelle is is the founder of Chefs Collective and PopINtel Luxury Group. A bestselling author on l...
Tine Gregory
Tine Gregory
Born Danish but grew up in Ghana, Pakistan, Singapore, the US and Germany. Managed to continue her ...
Julia Pearson
Julia Pearson
Jules has her fingers in many pies. For the past 10 years she’s worked in travel industry ...
Florian Watson
Florian Watson
Florian’s thirst for travelling started when he was 18 when he ventured around South America for ...
Alasdair Glass
Alasdair Glass
A keen traveller from a young age, Alasdair has explored various parts of continental Europe, North...
Gavin Don
Gavin Don
A career in finance, energy and entrepreneurship, along with an eccentric love of slow travel, has ...
Jenny Fowler
Jenny Fowler
Jenny has travelled the world in search of diverse natural environments and cultural experiences, a...
Charles Braithwaite
Charles Braithwaite
Charlie is an avid traveller whose itchy feet and nomadic nature has led him to spend time busking ...
James Henderson
James Henderson
Caribbean expert James Henderson is an independent travel journalist writing for the Telegraph and ...
Jane Egginton
Jane Egginton
Jane Egginton is the author of over 40 travel guide books for publishers such as Michelin, Thomas C...
Minna Sharpe
Minna Sharpe
...
John Sampson
John Sampson
A recent history graduate from Trinity College Dublin, John has spent time living in cities such as...
Anna Hextall
Anna Hextall
...
Madeleine Harper
Madeleine Harper
Mad has a thirst for travel, inspired first by childhood holidays in Mallorca and then her first fo...
Malcolm Orr-Ewing
Malcolm Orr-Ewing
Malcolm has been involved in travel guidebook publishing for 45 years and was until recently Publis...
Stephanie Reed
Stephanie Reed
Steph is a trained journalist and has worked in PR and social media marketing for over ten years. T...
Honi Loudon
Honi Loudon
Trained as a Social Anthropologist and Geographer, seeing and understanding the world around us has...
Iain Morrison
Iain Morrison
Following an illustrious rubgy career, both at International and club level, Iain has spent the las...
Alexander Dessain
Alexander Dessain
From a young age, Alexander has lived to travel, so far his endeavours have led him to throughout m...
Ailsa Anderson
Ailsa Anderson
Ailsa acquired a taste for travel from an early age, growing up in New Zealand and frequently trave...
Hannah Nicholson
Hannah Nicholson
Hannah has loved to travel since a young age. Since leaving university she has worked and lived in ...
Gabriel Power
Gabriel Power
London-based journalist Gabriel Power has long had a deep fascination for all things travel, taking...
Rachel Roberts
Rachel Roberts
Childhood holidays spent in the UK’s Costa del Bucket and Spade left Rachel with a deep longing t...
Penelope Anstice
Penelope Anstice
Penelope is an artist and painting tutor with a rich history of solo travel, particularly to India,...
Stretch Graham
Stretch Graham
Stretch Graham is a semi retired consultant who has lived in Japan, Australia, Switzerland and Hong...
John Ovans
John Ovans
John is a writer and editor based in Hong Kong – formerly Shanghai and Beirut, where he worked fo...
Andrew Graham-Watson
Andrew Graham-Watson
Andrew’s main business activity is advising discerning central Asian families on strategies to en...
Philly Malicka
Philly Malicka
Philly read English at Oxford University, then gained a Masters in Prose Fiction at the University ...
Rachel Everett
Rachel Everett
Rachel travelled and worked around the globe for two decades, as a journalist and hotel reviewer. A...
Tom Fleming
Tom Fleming
An aspiring travel writer/ hotel reviewer with a first-class degree in English Literature and Journ...
Ellie Boulstridge
Ellie Boulstridge
Born to French & British parents in the Middle East, Ellie was brought up in Oman, Turkey, Siberia,...
Ben West
Ben West
Ben West is a freelance writer specialising in travel, though has written on numerous other subject...
Ellie Seymour
Ellie Seymour
Ellie Seymour is a Brighton-based travel journalist published in The Guardian, The Independent, The...
Nadia Walford
Nadia Walford
Nadia is a PR specialist and founder of Nadia Walford PR, with over 10 years’ experience serving ...
Orla Thomas
Orla Thomas
Orla Thomas is a freelance journalist specialising in travel. She contributes regularly to The Time...
Isabelle Kliger
Isabelle Kliger
Isabelle Kliger is a Barcelona-based freelance writer specialising in luxury travel, food and cultu...
Poppy Empson
Poppy Empson
Poppy was born in London and brought up in Scotland, and has had a thirst for travel and other cult...
Gilly Pickup
Gilly Pickup
Gilly, a London living Scot, one-time senior political researcher and parliamentary aide at Westmin...
Amy Rose Everett
Amy Rose Everett
Amy Rose spent her twenties in London, travelling often to write for various titles including Red m...
Fi Troughton
Fi Troughton
With a mix of family life in Scotland and expat life in Asia and Middle East since 1987 I have trav...
Mick Empson
Mick Empson
Mick has travelled extensively both in a personal and business capacity. He worked at British Airwa...
Sophie Barling
Sophie Barling
Sophie Barling caught the travelling bug aged 18 in Ecuador, where she spent five months teaching a...
Emily Townsend
Emily Townsend
Emily was brought up in the Far East and educated in Scotland and the United States. She has recent...
Anna Townsend
Anna Townsend
Anna was born in Hong Kong, her childhood was spent in a variety of countries throughout South East...
Iain Perkins
Iain Perkins
Iain has lived in 9 different countries, including North Africa, Malta, England, Germany, Belgium, ...
Darren Taffinder
Darren Taffinder
Darren Taffinder is a British writer. He writes regularly on parenting and travel for publications ...
Richard Webber
Richard Webber
Living on the edge of Exmoor, Richard is a journalist who writes for many national papers and magaz...
James Jayasundera
James Jayasundera
James Jayasundera is Founder and Managing Director of Ampersand Travel in London. Of Sri Lankan and...
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