Cherish Finden - High tea @ the Langham Hong Kong

An usual treat in Hong Kong - a dream selection of jewel box delights including Asprey diamonds, Baccarat eclipse, Chanel pearl, Délices de Cartier and Bulgari B.zero

Cherish Finden led The Langham, London pastry team to win Tea Guild's “Top London Afternoon Tea 2010” award; often referred to as the OSCAR of the tea world. 

Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko ホテルグランティア知床斜里駅前

Mum and dad spent a total of nine nights in Hokkaido and they stayed in a different hotel every single night.  Even when they stayed in the same place, they would still move from one hotel to another. Guess there's no better ways to find out about hotels......

The room was spacious and modern with 2 single beds.

Bird's eye view from the window.

Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko must be the best value among all the places they stayed during this trip. For JPY 8,900 each, they got a room with a view of the beautiful JR station, the bird sculpture and the nearby mountains. It was also half-board, ie you get breakfast and dinner for the price. While breakfast was served in the hotel, dinner was provided by one of the nearby restaurants, which you picked prior to arriving at the hotel. They took the "red" pork shabu-shabu  サチク赤豚 しゃぶしゃぶ　option for dinner. The servings were hearty and the locally produced pork was tender. The best thing was - you pay the same JPY 8,900 for just one person, ie no single-premium, staying in the same twin bedroom.

サチク赤豚 "red" pork raised in Shiretoko

Wine Country - Madrona Manor, Healdsburg

After the light lunch in Buchon Bakery, they decided to head for Healdsburg and looked for a place to stay for the night. Hotels in downtown Healdsburg, which is a tiny area, have rack rates which are challenging for the budget conscious. A simple room in the boutique Hotel Healdsburg is displayed at a rate of US$360. And the Relais & Châteaux certified Les Mars Hotel starts at US$545 and the only room left for the night was asking for US$775. And there wasn't much of a last-minute discount. After checking at a few places and thought they were not worth the price, they went outside downtown to Madrona Manor.

Madrona Manor is an hotel with accommodation in the main building as well as some small lodges outside it. One of the lodges, Meadow Wood East, was available and they managed to negotiate a good rate for it. The lodge was divided into a sitting room and a bedroom. The decor was very Oriental. The main door opened out a small porch overlooking one of the many gardens.

The weather was so good that they managed to have a swim before dinner. But to mum and dad, the best part was picking raspberries and toybox tomatoes from the garden which supplies produce to the Michelin one star restaurant within the hotel. Mum even took and ate a bright red heirloom tomato. Her excuse was she wouldn't want the tomato to drop on the ground and get rotten. Hmm.......

Located less than one mile away from downtown Healdsburg, Madrona Manor is definitely a lovely place to stay if you are looking for a sanctuary with peace and close to mother nature.