Sometimes there’s nothing like your own bed...but then sometimes there’s nothing like someone else’s.

Nodding off in Norwegian style at Grims Grenka, Oslo

Tue, 2 Nov 2010 21:00:36 +0000

Billing itself as Oslo’s only design hotel, Grims Grenka is a classy and tasteful affair. All low lighting, statement art and Oriental screens. Admittedly it all comes at a cost, but when you’re paying such high hotel prices in the city anyway, why not treat yourself?

The “treat” here really comes with the beds. Whilst the rooms are well designed and very sleep friendly - with different light settings to ease you into sleep - it’s the Jensen beds that are the jewel in the crown.

We’d never heard of Jensen before - but we’re glad we have now. They’re a Norwegian company specialising in wonderfully comfortable and innovative beds.

Often a feature of hotel beds, the mattress topper on a Jensen bed makes a huge difference as you literally sink into the bed as soon as your back hits the mattress. But these aren’t soft beds. Not too soft, not too hard - for us they were just right. After a week, sleeping under the glare of the midnight sun, as soon as we checked in and gave the bed a tentative poke we decided a nap was in order. Plus it was raining true Norwegian rain outside so there was no rush to hit the streets.

We did eventually drag ourselves out of the room to explore the city, but couldn’t help rushing back to the room for an early night snuggled into our new favourite bed!

The Red Room at Cafe Paradiso, Cork

Sun, 4 Jul 2010 16:39:33 +0100

Most people head to Cafe Paradiso in Cork for the award winning vegetarian cuisine, but it’s also a great place to sleep. With only a handful of rooms tucked above the restaurant, this is the perfect option if you like to gorge yourself on delicately cooked vegetarian food and then stumble upstairs to bed.

The room that we stayed in was painted a deep red hue and the colour scheme undoubtedly gave the room a warm, sleep inducing glow. The Red Room is more like a little studio apartment than a hotel room and we made the most of the carefully chosen books and CDs on the shelves. The Iron & Wine album is an ideal pre-sleep soundtrack - not that we needed it, as we were asleep seconds after we made it back to the room.

The next morning we woke with the wonderful knowledge that we didn’t have to leave the room for breakfast. As we stayed at Cafe Paradiso on a Sunday we were treated to breakfast in bed. Apparently the breakfasts served in the restaurant on Saturday mornings are legendary, but the restaurant is closed on Sundays so you’re left to your own devices, along with a beautifully selected breakfast hamper.

Safe in the knowledge that we didn’t have to leave the room until before 4pm, we had the ultimate lie-in and chomped our way through home-made brioche, yoghurt with huge juicy cherries nestled amongst it, jam, coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and a lovely nutty local cheese. We almost fell straight back to sleep, but eventually we found the strength and inclination to prise ourselves from the room for the drive home.

Falling asleep everywhere at Monart Spa, Wexford

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:59:53 +0100

There are endless places to fall asleep at Monart Spa in a secluded corner of County Wexford. The bedroom is the most conventional place to drift off, but it’s quite likely that you’ll doze off outside your room as much as in it.

Obviously we couldn’t start taking photos in the relaxation rooms - so you’ll just have to trust our powers of description and check out their website for official images!

The bedroom itself is home to a luxurious large bed, with pillows that you sink into and cool, crisp sheets that are the perfect place to end an inevitably relaxing day. I’m not a huge health farm fan as it can feel a bit weird wandering around in dressing gowns all day, amongst people with dreamy expressions on their faces. But Monart is genuinely peaceful and you soon slip into the rhythm of quietly padding down the thick carpeted corridors on your way to the various thermal suites.

One of my favourite places to unwind at the Spa is the light relaxation room, where there are these fantastic circular seatbeds set into the walls. Despite being in a room with other people you feel tucked away in your own private space.

The dark relaxation room is the ultimate place to sleep at the spa, with luxurious velour blankets and day beds where you can drift off. There’s something incredibly soothing about this windowless, circular room in which you can barely see the other guests.

There are also the laconium loungers, which are soothing loungers covered in tiny little mosaic tiles which radiate heat from some sort of internal mechanism. The heat seeps through your muscles and relaxes you as you lie. You might not fall asleep here, but you certainly won’t have any trouble drifting off later.

After all this dozing you might want to give yourself a short sharp wake up shock - so for the brave there is the ice bucket outside the super hot outdoor sauna. Bliss.

The poolside beds at Esturion Lodge, Puerto Iguazu

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:05:38 +0100

It’s easy to get obsessed by water in Puerto Iguazu. After a long and awe inspiring day visiting Iguazu Falls - walking every different trail to make sure we’d seen the waterfalls from every possible angle we nearly collapsed onto these beds at Esturion Lodge.

Tucked in a little enclave of banana palms and tropical plants, the lodges are separate from the main hotel and have a far more peaceful, secluded feel. When we first saw the turquoise pool and the glowing white beds we knew that would be our destination at the end of each day.

We weren’t disappointed - although we got slightly tangled up in the drapes at first! After a dip in the pool to cool off from the intense tropical afternoon heat, we sat back, sipped our beers and gazed at the sky, as the light started to fade.

The sound of the ripples on the infinity pool, mixed with the birds overhead and the odd burst of Argentinian radio drifted over us, as we thought back over the day and dozed off.

It was only the rush to catch the sunset at the Hito Tres Fronteras just down the road that made us peel ourselves off the beds. If we’d had more time I could have lay there for days.

The sleeper class carriages on the Konkan railway, India

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 19:51:10 +0000

For a sound night's kip, try an overnight journey in sleeper class on the Konkan railway, gently trundling down India's west coast.   For starters, it's certainly the cheapest bed you're likely to find in India. To give you a sense of how heavily subsidised the Indian railways are, a trip on the Himsagar Express from Kanyakumari, on the southern-most tip of India, to Jammu, in the Himalayas, (a total of 3750 km, taking over 3 days) costs 601 rupees in sleeper class, which works out at around £8.50. Bargain!  There's something soporific about the cries of "chaikaffeeeeee!" - unintelligible in a way that only chai-wallahs and British newspaper sellers have mastered. The cuisine (rumoured by some to give you Delhi belly - don't believe them) is inexpensive and wholesome - deep-fried chilli, biryani, masala puri, idli and sweet little bananas. There's never a shortage of things to munch while you watch the rice paddies, banana plantations and bathing water buffalo drift on by.  When booking, try as hard as possible to get the top bunk - early risers might ask you to collapse the middle bunk when they want to sit rather than lie. For twenty rupees, you can rent a crisp Indian railways bed sheet and pillow, and let the soft chug-chug-chug of the engine lull you to sleep.

Sleeping Beneath the Stars in the Thar Desert, India

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:41:01 +0000

After 10 hours of sitting on a smelly, but trusty camel, venturing through the Thar desert in 40 degree-heat, the opportunity to lie flat on your back under the clear open sky was gratefully received.

Following an equally well received meal of freshly made goat curry (the goat was collected from a desert village en route) our small tour group gathered around the fire on which it was cooked.

Our beds for the night simply consisted of an under sheet and blanket. The mattress was sand and the awning, the night sky. Heat was provided for much of the night by the fire– although admittedly morning was a bit chilly.

We fell asleep to the soothing sound of the guides (who were local shepherds) singing devotional songs, whilst watching shooting stars.

A Futon at Blanca Patagonia, El Calafate, Patagonia

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:57:43 +0000

After days of walking, ice trekking and horse riding, we arrived at Blanca Patagonia without an ounce of energy left in our bodies.

All we wanted to do was sit down, drink red wine, eat and fall asleep. Although the hotel doesn’t serve dinner, the incredibly friendly concierge quickly ushered us over to the futon in front of the vast floor to ceiling windows and suggested that he could make us a burger and bring us a bottle of red wine. Never has a burger been more appreciated.

As the sun set across Lago Argentina, we collapsed onto the awaiting futon seat, stared out and watched the sky turn from crystal blue to dusky pink. Outside, the dogs of El Calafate roamed up and down the streets and the lights of the town flickered on. After a week in hostels and on buses, the seat, the setting and the view made this feel like absolute luxury and a sense of intense relaxation instantly set in.

That evening there was no one else around in the hotel - the other guests had probably gone into town for dinner, like normal people - so we had the lobby to ourselves and subsequently felt no self-consciousness about dozing off with our red wine soon abandoned.

The Mezzanine Bed in Bonito, Buenos Aires

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

For many people, Buenos Aires isn’t a city for sleeping - but whether you’re taking a siesta or crawling into bed as the sun comes up, Hotel Bonito is a gorgeous place to stay.

Whilst awake, you can revel in the flawlessly renovated Buenos Aires building, which is full of wonderfully chosen pieces of original art and classic pieces of modern design. Each room has been conceived by a different artist and genuinely feels like a completely thought-out mini-home.

We stayed in the Carmen “Raya” Alonso room, which was delicately designed by Argentinean artist Cecilia Szalkowicz. It’s a fascinating room of unexpected angles and trompe l’oeil art. The bed is situated on a mezzanine that maximises the extraordinary high ceilings of this classic Buenos Aires building.

Despite the bustle of the streets outside, this is a peaceful room, where we fell deeply to sleep and woke with the light streaming in from the towering french doors next to the bed.

The light waffle sheets, firm mattress and sturdy bed - designed especially for the room - along with the jacuzzi bath all made this an irresistible place to sleep.

As much as we loved the Buenos Aires nightlife we couldn’t help being lured back to this room each night.

A Nice Big Bed in Ballymaloe, Cork

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:28:41 +0100

Sometimes there’s nothing better than an afternoon snooze and the Blue Room at Ballymaloe House is the perfect place for it.

In a tasteful Edwardian style room, decked out in pale creams and eggshell blues, I drifted off for an hour before dinner in one of the biggest beds I’ve ever slept in.

The pic above was taken on a camera phone (excuse the lack of technology), so there was no wide angle lens to fake the size!

The room has French windows that open out onto a small patio and beyond that are the main gardens of the house. As it had just recently rained - typical for Ireland - the fresh scent of the garden drifted in as we dozed. Bliss.

The Beautiful Yellow Four Poster In Alcudia, Mallorca

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:47:56 +0100

Cas Ferrer Nou Hotelet in the peaceful, walled town of Alcudia is a sleep lover’s dream.

A friend had recommended this small hotel because of the Safo Room: this room has its own private terrace with an outdoor bed, so you can sleep under the stars. This being something of a romantic obsession of mine, I’d wanted to stay there, but understandably it’s a room that gets quickly booked.

Instead, we were offered the Botticelli Room, which was a beautiful surprise. The room is defined by two things - the bright yellow colour scheme and the stunning four poster bed. The bold use of colour gives the room a natural glow and a distinctive atmosphere. When you pull the yellow chiffon drapes around the bed it creates something equally relaxing and sensuous!

The sun didn’t always shine in Alcudia, but sitting on that bed, eating the complimentary fresh apricots was far nicer than sweltering in the Spanish heat.