staying in upmarket hotels

Ellianne

Has anyone stayed at or had afternoon tea at Reids Palace in Madeira?
It's on my bucket list, if I can summon up the courage to do the flight/landing.

My mother used to love Reid’s. Can’t say I enjoyed the one week we spent in Madeira (not Reid’s !)

I once stayed in the Georges V. In Paris . But can’t remember much about it as I was 17....

We went to the P&O Hotel in Penang (sister hotel to Raffles in Singapore) we couldn't afford to stay but did book ourselves in for a wonderful lunch experience. Only trouble was I needed a decent pair of looking shoes as I only had a pair of walking sandals. So we went to the local market and after a lot of trouble bought a pair of shoes that fitted. We were walking to the hotel as it was only a short distance away. By the time we had walked for 15 mins on the very hot pavements and just about arrived at the hotel I found the sole of my shoe had come away with the heat from the shoe! I managed to hide it the problem and managed to get in. It was a wonderful 3 hours experience and would just love to stay there if I had the money.

Ellianne

Has anyone stayed at or had afternoon tea at Reids Palace in Madeira?
It's on my bucket list, if I can summon up the courage to do the flight/landing.

We stayed in the the Cliff Bay (also 5*)next to Reid’s, (we couldn’t get booked in on our chosen week) ate in the restaurant and had afternoon tea, both very nice.

We stayed at The Cliff Bay a few years ago.

It was lovely but their parasols were rubbish and needed replacing as I lay under one and still got burnt!!

We stayed at a mid-priced chain hotel here and the staff could not have been better. The chef came out and discussed the menu in great detail with DD who is coeliac and made sure her food was gf and cooked separately. Excellent service.

It's on my bucket list, if I can summon up the courage to do the flight/landing.

As DH said, it's like landing on an aircraft carrier at sea.

It's on my bucket list, if I can summon up the courage to do the flight/landing.

As DH said, it's like landing on an aircraft carrier at sea.

I only posted once

Back in the late 1950s, my parents were living in Malaya, My sister and (14 and 15) flew out there for the summer holidays. Unfortunately because the runway in Kuala Lumpur was on the short side and there were strong tail winds it couldn't land there and we had to fly on to Singapore and spend the night there. DS and I were discussingwhich hotel we would be in, we knew the island from when we had lived there befoe.

We were considering all the medium hotels.so imagine our amazement when the airport bus deposited us outside the Raffles Hotel. We had a suite to ourselves, bedroom, bathroom and sitting room, room service and a magnificently elegant dinner in the dining room. We were treated like adult guests and we did our best to live up to it.

Our DF rang us up to say ' Make the most of it, girls, I cannot afford to take there!

I've stayed in quite a few very lovely hotels on business or for pleasure and have never felt out of place, if you can afford to stay there then you should be treated the same as everyone else.
I second your recommendation cupcake1 of The Fullerton in Singapore, an amazing hotel with the best breakfast I have ever had in the world, eating outside next to the Singapore River. Best afternoon tea was taken in The Tiffin Room at Raffles, a wonderful experience, followed by drinks in The Long Bar.
We usually splash out for big birthdays, oh to go to a five star hotel again ..... can't wait.

Never had anything but a good experience. There have been a couple of hotels I was apprehensive about as they were very high end but absolutely no issues from any staff or other guests. May have just been lucky.

We have never had anything but positive experiences in 5* hotels, even staying with the children both here and worldwide.

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Best ever afternoon tea on the terrace at Reids in Madeira. We hope to stay at Reids next Spring. Fingers crossed.
Here's a pic of our table.

Aveline

Best ever afternoon tea on the terrace at Reids in Madeira. We hope to stay at Reids next Spring. Fingers crossed.
Here's a pic of our table.

The meal we had in Villa Cipriana at Reid’s is the best Italian food we have had outside of Italy.

Oops spelling *Cipriani

Thank you. Reids sounds like a plan for me.

Talking of Cipriani, the Hotel Cipriani in Venice is another place where service is flawless. And it comes with a charming Italian accent

if the staff make guests feel uncomfortable then whatever they charge they are NOT a high end hotel

gulligran I imagine the hotel you are talking about is one of our favourites too.

Merlot originates from the Bordeaux region of France and therefore is a French word so a silent T!

Hee, Hee kitty yes we like it there as well!

Your post reminded me of a time long ago when we visited an upmarket hotel with our daughter then aged 5 and son 2. We booked for dinner and arrived in the restaurant to a sea of grey haired, snooty faces. When everyone was busy eating our son loudly exclaimed ‘mummy I need a pooh ’!

My husband won us a stay in London at a really posh hotel - so we dressed smart casual. As it turned out, the rich people staying there were even more casual than we were (tracksuits et al). After that first experience we have never cared how we dressed when entering an upmarket hotel - we travel in clothes for comfort and we have never been treated differently.

This is an interesting post. While we have stayed in some decent hotels, I can't say we've stayed in really posh ones. I guess it's all relative really.

I have heard people go on and on about Fairmont Hotels and how wonderful they are. We have stayed at the airport Fairmont in Vancouver, and while it was indeed nice and more importantly very convenient, I don't think it was over the top.

One of our nicest hotels stays was the Ile Rousse Thalazor in Bandol France. We ended a three week trip with a stay there with four days of beach rest. It was really nice, in fact so nice that we decided we couldn't justify the cost of a dinner once we checked out the menu. A walk into Bandol gave a good variety of restaurants in a more comfortable budget for us.
That was a very fond memory, and I would love to go back.

Geekesse... Is it the savoy Hotel? That's how they usually treat their guests, I don't stay there I can't afford it, it's just what I've seen on TV.

J52

Hee, Hee kitty yes we like it there as well!

I should have guessed! We like room 207 or 307.