There are hundreds of hotels in Dubai – including hotels within hotels – but I’ve decided to focus here on three that offer something a little bit different and more interesting than just your average huge beach hotel. Any good travel agent will be able to make recommendations according to your preferences and budget. and remember that the rates here are just rack rates – you should be able to find more competitive rates through travel agents and hotel booking sites for these properties with just a bit of looking.

The Palace – The Old Town

If the glitz of most of Dubai’s luxury hotels is a bit much for you, or if you’re looking for somewhere that better reflects the part of the world you’re in, then head for The Palace, a beautiful riad-style hotel in downtown Dubai. Think lots of arched doorways and windows, lanterns casting dusky glows, and a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees and glamourous Arabian tents.

The bedrooms continue a sumptuous Middle Eastern theme, with lots of beautifully carved wooden furniture and deep-coloured fabrics offset by cool creams and whites. The spa, with its views over the adjacent lake, is an oasis of calm that’s perfect when you want to wind down at the end of a hot day in the city – there’s a couples’ suite that’s perfect for enjoying treatments together. The six bars and restaurants include the Ewaan Lounge, where you can sample a local shisha pipe or delicious meze, overlooking the pool. From £200 a night.

Desert Palm

If you don’t want your stopover in Dubai to be a frenetic rush around town – or even if you do – and are looking for stylish surroundings, this could be the perfect spot. Run by the same company who own the superlative Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives, Desert Palm is small (with just 24 rooms), but has extensive facilities – cooking lessons, tennis and squash courts, horse-riding, a spa and…oh, a polo ground.

There’s a really cool sophistication about this place, but it doesn’t look stuffy in the slightest, which is always great news. Though the hotel is outside of the main city centre, it’s not so far away that you can’t spend your days exploring the city, and the little bit of distance will help make your honeymoon seem even more private. Trips – ranging from cruising Dubai Creek on a traditional dhow to a 4×4 desert safari and even skydiving – are available, though chances are you might just be content lounging around and soaking up the sun. From £306 a night.

Beit Al Bahar

Though it’s part of the extensive Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Beit Al Bahar provides a luxurious hideaway, with just nineteen very private villas right by the sea. There’s no denying that this is a pretty flash place to stay, and it doesn’t come cheap, but the rates do include benefits like a personal butler, daily afternoon tea, and pre-dinner canapes and cocktails (always a nice perk).

The richly decorated villas each have a plunge pool – perfect for respite from the heat – or you can relax by the side of the main swimming pool, which can only be used by villa guests. From the restaurant you can make the most of the beautiful sea views, or, for the ultimate in indulgence, you can dine in your villa. And, of course, the joy of being part of a larger resort is that, when you feel like stepping out of your private enclave, you can enjoy a whole host of further facilities right on your doorstep. With rack rates of over £1000 a night, this place is really blow-the-budget – definitely see what travel agents can offer you if you’re interested in it, and hopefully you might be able to get a much better deal.

Photos courtesy of The Address Hotels + Resorts; Desert Palm; and Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Here’s a few of my favourite bags at the moment that would be perfect for hand luggage:

I’m quite fond of quirky prints and bold colours, so this bag from Acccessorize (£65) is right up my street. Size-wise, it’s perfect, allowing you to fit plenty in, while still being comfy enough to carry around. The patterns alone will get you in the mood for a holiday long before you head off on honeymoon.

For a bit of boho chic, this gorgeous bag from Plumo (£69) is just perfect, and makes a great statement piece. Decorated in a combination of pewter, mirror and silver studwork, it has both handles and adjustable straps, which I always find really handy when I’m lugging a bag around airports. I love that it’s quirky, yet the muted colours make it a bit more sophisticated than the Accessorize option.

I’ll be absolutely honest – having jumped on the bandwagon a few years ago, I’m now a little bit underwhelmed by all things Cath Kidston, and find spending any more than a minute in their shops a bit of a twee overload. However, they do make good carry-on bags, and I was won over by this floral but not too flowery bag when I came across it on the John Lewis website (£65) – the bright red of the bag is a really gorgeous shade, and as it’s wipe-clean it’ll be easier to keep clean than a cloth bag.

Sometimes, though, you need a bag that’s a little bit more sophisticated and timeless. I’m a sucker for luggage that looks a little old-fashioned (though unfortunately my budget doesn’t usually allow for such luxuries), and this leather Barbour bag is just perfect. You can find it on the John Lewis website (£219) – it’s not cheap, but it will last you a long time, and is so classic that you don’t have to worry about it going out of style. Plus, it’s something that both of you could carry without worrying that it looks too girly/manly.

Photos by Monsoon; Plumo; and John Lewis.

Mena House Oberoi, Egypt

From £130 a night, through Kiwi Collection

Photo courtesy of Oberoi Hotels and Resorts

If you’re in or around London next week between Thursday and Sunday, and are looking for a little honeymoon (or other travel) inspiration or ideas, then it’s worth considering a trip to the Luxury Travel Fair at Olympia. The exibitors range from travel companies like Virgin Holidays + Hip Hotels and Elegant Resorts to exclusive resorts and five star hotels – all of which have been handpicked by Condé Nast Traveller.

Okay, so I work in travel and am a bit of a travel geek, but I always enjoy going to travel fairs – they’re a great way to pick up information on destinations that are of interest to you (and maybe get interested in a few you hadn’t considered) and to speak to people who are knowledgeable and passionate about their countries/regions. In addition to the stalls, there’s live entertainment, which will include Middle Eastern belly dancers and Caribbean steel drum players, speakers such as chef Marcus Wareing, a champagne bar, and (perhaps best of all) Elemis will be running a “SpaBus” where you can enjoy a complimentary treatment.

The fair is also a great place to stock up early on some Christmas presents – whether its some tasty treats from Harvey Nichols’ food department, one of Mr and Mrs Smiths‘ excellent hotel guides, or travel vouchers from Abercrombie and Kent. But, perhaps most importantly for you honeymooners, you’ll be able to take up a number of exclusive offers – such as seven nights for the price of five at the gorgeous One&Only Le Saint Geran in Mauritius, through ITC Classics. Bargain.

You can buy tickets in advance for £12.50 per person from the website or on 0871 230 1091. Otherwise, they can be bought on the door for £15 per person.

The Luxury Travel Fair
Olympia, London
4th to 7th November 2010
www.luxurytravelfair.com

One of the reasons I set up this blog is to be able to help couples with advice regarding their own honeymoons – whether it’s choosing a destination or finding the perfect hotel – and so I’m always delighted to receive emails from people looking for a little inspiration. I recently received the following email from Rosalyn:

I don’t know if you will be able to help me but I am struggling to find a honeymoon. We are getting married on the 18th December and would like to go away from the 19/20th until the 2/3rd Jan. I know this is peak travel time but as a teacher I am restricted in dates.  We have about £3500 to spend and are very open to any destination but are having trouble finding anything for our budget. Do you have any suggestions of places that might be able to help us?

Travelling over Christmas is always going to be more expensive than at other times of year – and so you will find your budget more limiting than it would be at others. Without knowing any more specifics about your requirements, I’ve put together a few options in the hope that one or two might tickle your fancy. Your best options will be to book through a tour operator – this will get you the best prices for flights and hotels, ensuring you get more for your money. I’d especially recommend contacting Travel Counsellors, Destinology and Kuoni, as well as looking at internet sites like Expedia.

If you’ve got your heart set on somewhere exotic for your honeymoon then you may well have to consider going for less than two weeks in order to be able to afford it – but it’s always worth shopping around to see what special offers different tour operators have, and you never know what they might be able to pull out of the bag for you if they know that it’s your honeymoon.

Here’s a few ideas I put together; all prices are for two people and include flights and accommodation, unless otherwise specified, from London, and were correct at the time of research.

North Africa

Exotic enough to feel like you’re definitely far from home, yet only a few hours’ flight away (and, even better, with no jet lag), North Africa makes a good choice if you fancy spending a bit of time on the beach. Winters here are mild, but you should only need a jacket or a light jumper in the evenings – during the day you should find the weather warm (and sunny) enough for some beach time. My two picks here would be Egypt and Morocco. In the former, head to Sharm el Sheikh to make the most of the excellent diving and snorkelling, plus good trips into the desert, while in Morocco, the laid-back beach town of Essaouira makes a great place to kick back and relax – you could even combine it with a few days in Marrakech to break it up a bit.

Destinology have two weeks in Sharm el Sheikh from 20th December to 3rd January for £2488, staying at the five-star Maritim Royal Peninsula Hotel and Resort. Kuoni are offering fourteen nights in a mini-suite in the small but charming Hotel Riad Les Terrasses D’Essaouira for just £2544.

Cuba

The Caribbean is by and large likely to be a bit beyond your price range, but it’s worth considering Cuba if you want a beach holiday in the region. The island’s tropical climate means that winters here are warm (even hot) and sunny – perfect for lazing by the pool or on the beach. Thomson has fourteen nights from 19th December at the three-star Brisas Guardalavaca for £3010.

Europe

I love Europe in winter – with fewer tourists around you can really get a feel for the cities, and often you’re rewarded by beautiful, clear, crisp days where the sun makes the old buildings light up magically. My choice would be to head over to Paris on the Eurostar, and from there you’ve got access to many other wonderful European cities via the excellent High Speed Rail Network. Head somewhere like Vienna to really soak up the Christmas feel at its markets, to Berlin for fantastic nightlife, or perhaps even to Venice (via night train – definitely very romantic) or Rome to discover just how beautiful the Italian cities are at this time of year. Travelling around by train and staying in four-star hotels should all fit fairly comfortably within your budget  (you may even be able to squeeze in some five-stars), though you’ll probably have to book it all yourself – use a combination of Eurostar, Rail Europe and Expedia for the best deals.

Los Angeles and the desert

For a bit of old-fashioned US glamour, head over to LA and then out towards the desert at the now hip-again resort town of Palm Springs. Expedia can do a package including flights, 14 days car hire and seven-days accommodation in the four star Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel for £2025 – all you need to do then is to book seven nights elsewhere. Try Mr and Mrs Smith, who offer seven nights in the very cool and slightly retro Ace Hotel Palm Springs for just £985. Alternatively, head properly into the desert to beautiful Joshua Tree National Park, where i-escape have seven nights at Spin and Margie’s Desert Hide-away (one of my favourite places to stay – see here) for just £570. That’ll leave a nice bit of money left over for shopping…

The UK

Though it might not be quite the honeymoon you anticipated, there’s absolutely no shame in staying in the UK for your honeymoon – you could always have a low-key honeymoon in December, and then a trip abroad during the summer holidays. You could spend a bit of time in some lovely hotels, and then hire a cottage for a week or so somewhere beautiful like Dartmoor or Northumberland, where you both will be happy to hide yourselves away even if the weather is awful. Check out HomeAway Holiday Rentals for some excellent self-catering options (or see my post here); for hotels, Mr and Mrs Smith and i-escape are always good places to start.

Alternatively, honeymoon for less time

If you want to go further afield, then your best option would be to go away for a week or ten days, rather than two weeks. This is a great time of year to visit Thailand – Destinology have seven nights at the five-star Anantara Bophut on the beautiful island of Koh Samui for £3240, travelling from 20th to 27th December.

Another option is the Caribbean: Kuoni have seven nights in the Grotto Bay Beach Resort in Bermuda, travelling from 21st to 28th December, for £2202. That would leave you with enough extra money that you could do something else – perhaps have a few nights in a B&B or hotel back in the UK, or hop across to Paris or Belgium (or further afield) on the Eurostar and spend a bit of time there.

I’m always happy to help with any honeymoon questions that you may have – large or small – so do drop me a line if you have any questions.

Photographs by Oberazzi; Svetlana Grechkina and Trey Ratcliff

From £357 a night with Kiwi Collection

Photograph courtesy of Aman Resorts

One of the greatest joys of a visit to Paris is the food – whether you want to go all out with a Michelin-starred meal, or lunch on a croque-monsieur and a glass of wine. Like any big, touristy city, you’re best off avoiding the restaurants congregated in the most touirsty areas – head instead to the quieter, more local streets (which in Paris are never too hard to find), and you’ll be rewarded with better service, better prices, and a much more authentic (and tasty) experience.

The following are just a few of our favourites, which we return to time and again.

Robert et Louise 64 rue Veille du Temple

Our absolute favourite, this rustic restaurant dishes out hearty, unpretentious food. Though there’s plenty on the menu to tempt you, come for the côte de boeuf pour deux (side of beef for two; €40), cooked over the open fire at the back of the restaurant and served with melt-in-the-mouth potatoes and a refreshing green salad. Wash it down with a half (or a whole) bottle of Côte du Rhône, and finish (if you’ve got the room) on one of their lovely desserts.

Le Duroc 88 rue de Sèvres

An unpretentious cafe that makes a great lunch stop if you’re in the area (or even if you’re not) – the fact that it’s always packed with local office workers during the week is testament to its good food, even if the decor might look as though it hasn’t been changed since the 70s. The set menu is fantastic value at €14 for two courses – the steak in particular is always beautifully cooked – and they also serve lighter meals like sandwiches and croque-monsieur.

Breizh Café 109 rue Vieille du Temple

Just up the road from Robert et Louise, this great little modern crêperie is an especially popular spot in the Marais for weekend brunch. You can’t go wrong with any of the fabulous galettes and crêpes on offer – my favourite is the complète champignon (ham, cheese, egg and mushrooms), and the salted caramel used in some of the dessert crêpes is absolutely divine. With mains hovering around €7, this is great value, and be sure to try the Breton cider.

Au Père Louis 38 rue Monsieur le Prince

The Latin Quarter and St Germain can be great to explore, but it can be hard to find less touristy places to eat. Head away from the crowds towards the Luxembourg Gardesn to find this great place, usually packed with locals (always a good sign), and it’s simple exterior betraying little of its TARDIS-like interior. Expect a decent choice of fairly typical French dishes from around the country, including a great cassoulet, and come for a lovely long leisurely meal.

L’As du Fallafel 34 rue des Rosiers

This Marais institution serves up arguably the best fallafels in Paris. Join the queues outside – buy a ticket from the guy who works the queue and then hand it over at the hatch – or eat in the unfussy dining room inside. Though they do shawarma, you should only really be ordering the fallafel – even the most devout of carnivores (my husband included) are won over by their delights. The fallafel are served in melt-in-the mouth pita bread that’s also stuffed full with cabbage, roasted aubergine, harissa and yoghurt sauce. Absolutely divine, and best eaten messily on the street.

Strohrer 51 rue Montorgueil

No trip to Paris would be complete without a trip to one of the city’s many excellent patisseries, and it’s hard to go too far in the city without falling over one. Our favourite is Strohrer, crammed so full with sweet (and savoury) treats that it can be hard to know where to start. But if you’re going to try just one, make it the rosier – a large, rose macaroon filled with rose-flavoured cream and raspberries, and topped with a sugar-frosted rose petal. It’s worth every centime of its €4.70 price tag, and even my chocolate loving husband won’t think about ordering anything else. There’s nowhere to sit here, but there’s a small park at Les Halles, practically on the doorstep, so you can buy them and enjoy them in the sun. If you want to enjoy your patisseries in opulent surroundings, head to Ladurée, where the macaroons are deservedly famous.

Photograph of Breizh Cafe by Hotels Paris Rive Gauche; photograph of L’As du Fallafel by Robyn Lee

Deposit a Gift is an excellent, flexible site that allows you to set up exactly the kind of gift list you want – so if you would like contributions to your honeymoon but still fancy a new toaster, or if you want people to have the choice between honeymoon and charity donations, then you can do. Equally, if you just want to focus on one thing, you can. It’s been set up to function pretty much in the same way as an online department store registry does – so guests choose from your list of possible gifts (e.g. an elephant ride, upgraded hotel rooms, champagne dinner…) and then pay immediately for them by credit card. You can then choose when and how to receive the money – as a free direct deposit into your account, a personal cheque or Visa gift card. Easy. Guests also have the option of a printable gift certificate, which is great for people who want to be able to give you something on the day.

Another great feature of Deposit a Gift is that you can combine a wedding website – with details on your venue, where to stay, travel information etc – with your honeymoon list, providing one simple link to all of the information relating to your wedding, and avoiding the awkwardness of feeling like you’re asking people outright for gifts. For me, this is one of the best features about Deposit a Gift, especially for less tech-savvy guests who may get a little perplexed by having more than one site to look at.

Though the money that people give is linked to specific gifts, the responsibility for actually buying the gifts (ie paying for an upgrade/balloon ride/scuba dive with that money) lies with you – so if you get to your destination and find something else you really want to do, then you have the flexibility to do so. Likewise, if there’s something expensive that you would like guests to contribute to – say the cost of your flights – you can split the cost up into more manageable parts, so that guests can then choose to contribute to as much or as little of it as they like.

You can also use the site to post your honeymoon pictures once you return – great for showing people what their money went towards. One other notable thing is that you can choose who pays the website service fee (7.5% of the total balance) – either yourselves, at the time of receiving the money your guests have given you, or your guests, when paying for your gift; the default setting is for your guests, with the thinking that most people would want to cover this rather than burden you with it, but if you’re uncomfortable with this then you can choose to pay it.

I had a little play around with the site and was really pleased by how easy it is to set up a list – everything is explained clearly, either as you go along, or in the extensive FAQs – and how customisable it is in terms of how you want your website to look. You can either set up the list entirely from scratch, or you can use the “rapid registry” function which lets you choose from a number of specific destinations and allocate things quickly and easily from there to your own list, adapting and adding things as you require. This is a really handy function, especially if you’ve already got hundreds of other things taking up your time in the run up to the wedding.

For other honeymoon gift list options, see the posts here and here.

All images courtesy of Deposit a Gift

Paris is so full of places to go and things to see that you’d struggle to fit everything into one trip – and you really shouldn’t try to do everything or you’ll end up rushing from place to place and not enjoying yourselves. For me, the greatest pleasure in visiting the city is always wandering through the streets, stumbling across interesting little places and stopping for lunch or a coffee whenever we find somewhere nice.

I’ve tried to include a mix of the obvious and less obvious sights/activities below – it’s by no means a comprehensive list (otherwise we’d be here for days), but hopefully should give you somewhere to start from if you’re going to the “City of Light”. Pick up a good guidebook before you go – my favourites are the Rough Guide to Paris and Time Out Paris – the latter has excellent maps that really make exploring the city easy.

• No matter how cliched an image of Paris it may feel, it’s hard not to marvel at the Eiffel Tower – there’s always something exciting about seeing iconic sights like this in person. Be prepared for huge queues if you want to go up the tower – or or do as we do and take pleasure in stumbling across perfect viewpoints of it as you wander around the city.
• The Louvre is as impressive as its reputation would have you believe, but there’s so much more to it than the Mona Lisa, including a beautiful sculpture gallery. Or head to the fantastic Musee d’Orsay, brilliantly located in an old railway station, with a collection that includes pieces by Monet and Renoir.
• The area immediately around the Pompidou Centre isn’t the nicest and can get rather crowded with tourists but it’s worth heading over here to check out the architecture of the building itself – pretty radical for a city like Paris – if not for its celebrated collection of modern art.
• There’s really quite a ridiculous amount of galleries and museums in the city, but other highlights include the Musée Picasso and the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, both in the Marais, the Musée National du Moyen Age, in the Latin Quarter, and, in the Tuileries, the Orangerie, home to eight of Monet’s huge waterlily paintings – which are well worth making a visit to see.

• Take a look at beautiful Notre Dame, and then head over to the adjoining island – Île St Louis – to wander its quieter streets and check out the interesting little shops. And don’t forget to get an ice-cream from Berthillon – I particularly recommend the caramel au beurre salé, which is utterly delicious.
• The Marais, the city’s old Jewish quarter, is one of our favourite areas to explore – it’s full of great one-off shops (and some designer names) and lots of lovely little restaurants and bars (definitely stop for a drink at the tiny Au Petit Fer à Cheval with it’s great horsehoe bar).
• Across the river, charming St Germain and the Latin Quarter are best known as being home to artists, writers and students. The main roads here can be very busy with tourists – especially around famous cafés like Café Flore and and Les Deux Magots – but it’s just as much fun to explore the winding side streets, crammed with beautiful old buildings.
• The area around the Grands Boulevards forms much of the city’s commercial heart – head just off them to the passages, narrow arcades that have a real shabby charm, full of book shops, restaurants that look like they haven’t changed for sixty years, and various bric-a-brac shops.

• The beautiful Paris mosque may not seem like the most obvious sight in the city, but it’s well worth a visit to marvel at the architecture (non-Muslims aren’t permitted to enter the prayer room, but can otherwise visit normally), and to use its traditional hammam, or, best of all, for a glass of mint tea in the tea room’s lovely garden.
• Most people head up to Montmartre (my favourite area of the city) to visit Sacre Coeur, sitting in a rather stately position on top of the hill. It is a beautiful building, but the area immediately around it gets very crowded and can be quite tacky. Instead, check out the streets around lovely rue des Abbesses – full of unpretentious cafes, restaurants, bars and shops, and enjoy a more local side of this part of the city.
• Paris is full of beautiful parks – if the weather’s fine, pick up a baguette and some cheese and head off for a picnic. Of the more central parks, I love the Luxembourg Gardens, but it’s also well worth heading out to the huge Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement, or, in the east, the beautiful Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, which is rather like something out of a fairy tale.
• Wander along lovely Canal St Martin, which is also a great place to head in the evenings for its popular bars and restaurants.
• Check out the markets – from streetside food markets selling everything from fresh fruit and veg to artisan cheeses, to antique and flea markets. The Sunday flea market at Porte de Vanves, right in the south of the city, is worth a trip, but do get there early (before 10am) to catch the best of  it. From there, it’s very pleasant to walk back into the city, especially if you’re not in any rush – bear in mind that much of the city closes on a Sunday, too.

My biggest recommendation would be to eat and drink your way around Paris – from hearty meals and delicious patisseries, to fresh coffee and delicious wines, this is a fantastic foodie destination. Next week I’ll be sharing my favourite restaurant recommendations – you can click the link on the right to sign up to an email subscription, and make sure you don’t miss it.