The best hotels I've stayed at this year so far

As we draw close to the end of summer, and I've settled back into a few weeks on home turf in London, I've been reflecting on my favourite stays of the year so far. I feel incredibly lucky to travel as part of my work (it’s a huge privilege that I’ll never take for granted), and the first half of the year has already seen me checking into some serious bucket list stays.

Below, I've rounded up my favourite 8 hotels of the year so far: an eclectic mix, from slick city pads to remote safari lodges, spanning South Africa, Sweden, Scotland and more. A running theme throughout: almost all are boutique in size (some with as few as 7 bedrooms), and every single one is design-led, without sacrificing substance for style.

Ett Hem, Stockholm - Sweden

This hotel is somewhere that had been on my radar for years. The stuff of Swedish legend, Ett Hem has long earned its stripes as one of the most covetable places to bed down in Stockholm. A clutch of 20th-century townhouses, all centred around a tranquil inner courtyard, have been transformed into an impossibly chic sleepover that feels more like a private home than hotel. There are cosy living rooms to sprawl across, chock full of design kudos (think statement light fittings, architectural furnishings, and artworks by a slew of Scandi names) plus honesty bars where you can pour yourself a drink, and homemade cake to help yourself to. 22 individually designed bedrooms feature marble-draped bathrooms (all come stocked with skincare) and complimentary minibars loaded with artisan snacks. Our room was tucked up in the eaves yet still had high ceilings, featured a gorgeous four-poster and private terrace, and was flooded with natural light. Whenever you’re feeling peckish, simply pop into the kitchen and ask the chefs to whip up something for you (guaranteed to be comforting and delicious). There's a second restaurant too, open to non-residents, and known as one of Stockholm's most talked-about tables thanks to its hyper-seasonal, daily-changing menu.

Singita Boulders Lodge, Sabi Sands - South Africa

There’s simply no greater feeling than being on an African safari; for me, no other travel experience tops seeing so many kinds of wildlife up close in their natural habitat. When it comes to safari brands, Singita sets the ultimate gold standard, with its portfolio of lodges in unrivalled locations across Africa, each offering some of the most up-close-and-personal game viewing imaginable. I’d been wanting to travel with them for a while, so when the opportunity came up to visit two of their properties in South Africa’s private Sabi Sands game reserve, I was giddy with excitement. I stayed at Boulders Lodge and Ebony Lodge, both special in their own way - but the standout for me was Boulders, thanks to its spacious, secreted-away villas and contemporary, Afro-chic interiors. There are just 12 suites in total here, and the intimate scale of the lodge means you’ll get to know most of the team on a first-name basis. Aside from the spectacular, twice-daily game drives (we spotted all of the Big Five in high density and frequency), what struck me most about our time here was the intense level of personalisation: think minibars stocked with oat milk and chocolate chip cookies as per my request, and personal butlers and safari guides who followed us from one property to the next.

Lundies House, Sutherland - Scotland

At the start of the year, I headed to the far-flung edges of Scotland for a road trip through the Highlands. The rugged mountains were blanketed in a thick layer of snow, and it was quite the journey to get there from Inverness Airport: we skidded a few times during the three-hour drive and questioned whether we'd made the right call to visit at all. It was well worth the trek, though. Our destination: Lundies House, part of the WildLand portfolio, and a former church manse lovingly reimagined as a Scandi-meets-Scot boutique hotel with just 7 bedrooms. Perched along the windswept coastline of Sutherland (pretty much the last stretch of Scottish mainland before the Orkney Islands) the house functions more like a private home than a hotel. Interiors are cosy yet pared-back, blending Scandinavian sensibility with Scottish craftsmanship: we’d wake up to dramatic views over the Kyle of Tongue, before gathering in the mural-wrapped dining room for leisurely breakfasts (all meals are included in your stay, and the menu depends on the season and whatever's been sourced locally that morning). Days are spent roaming the Highlands, before returning to Lundies to curl up by the fire with hot chocolate, cake, and a board game or two. Remote, restorative, and unfussy in all the right ways, this is the kind of place where you can switch off completely, surrounded on all sides by the wild beauty of the far north.

Babylonstoren, Franschhoek - South Africa

This Winelands farm stay is something of South African legend, and is also the sister property of - and blueprint for - The Newt in Somerset (my all-time favourite hotel in the UK), meaning that I knew I was going to love it before I’d even arrived. Sprawling across 500 acres near Franschhoek and wrapped by purple-hazed mountains on every side, this self-contained adults’ Disneyland offers an almost dizzying number of things to do: feed the water buffalo, wander the perfectly pruned fruit and vegetable gardens, taste your way through the onsite winery, olive oil mill and coffee roastery, and try every workshop under the sun from bread-baking to soap-making…the list goes on.. And that’s before you even get to the serene spa (where you’ll most definitely want to carve out an afternoon) and the stripped-back, Scandi-chic lodgings. It’s the kind of place where you could simply never get bored: you could easily spend a week here and still not exhaust everything the estate has to offer.

Beyond the wall: four more bucket list-worthy hotels, spanning Peru, Mallorca, and Italy