Let’s be honest, 2021 was a bit of an anti-climax. I’m not sure about you but I am looking ahead to the New Year and 2022 with gusto. 2021 is a distant and altogether miserable memory.
There’s lots of reasons to look forward to the New Year and for me it is all about planning and achieving. For most of 2021 I have felt like I have been stuck on the start line, anyone else? So without further ado it’s time to explode out of the starting blocks.
Here’s what I have in mind, a sort of cosmic ordering for the New Year. 2022, here is my wish list.
Travel in 2022
Travel was really difficult in 2021 but I feel more hopeful for 2022. I am making plans, not necessarily too far afield ( just to be on the safe side), to have a few trips away and enrich my soul this New Year. I absolutely love the saying that travel is one of the few things you spend money on that makes you richer. It’s so true.
On my list this New Year are a few staycations and a few trips off the isle of Blighty ( lovely as she is)
First up a glorious weekend in Gloucestershire. This little slice of heaven has been on my to visit list for the past 2 years, of course Covid had other ideas and so I haven’t managed to get here, yet.
Thyme is located in Southrop in Gloucestershire and is little tricky to define, it’s a place that has to be experienced to be understood. A beautiful hotel and lifestyle location which describes itself as a village within a village.
“Thyme is a restored Cotswold manor and farm. It is a family story where a passion for the land, food and entertaining merges with a love of local heritage, beauty and conservation.
We took time to make Thyme. Working with the historic buildings and the land that surrounds them, we have created a thoughtful place with love and attention lavished on every detail.
We hope you will experience a real connection to the land, the seasons and to nature, and we invite you to rest, relax and enjoy this English country idyll that our family call home.”
– Caryn Hibbert, Founder & Creative Director.
I plan on visiting in the spring to restore and recharge the soul after a very miserable and sickly Christmas and New Year.
A little further south and to the left, is the next stop on my 2022 to do list. A trip to the beautiful Newt in Somerset. An elegant hotel housed in a stately home and nestled in a large estate boasting cider orchards, woodland and some of the most beautiful gardens in Somerset.
I’ve been trying to book a stay here for months but it is proving to be so popular, you really do need to book in advance. A long summer weekend would be idyllic so as soon as booking opens up in the New Year, i’ll be reserving my spot.
There will of course be the annual festive pilgrimage to London in December, a trip we make every year and no doubt we will stay at our favourite little hotel The Bloomsbury. On reflection I realise I haven’t written about The Bloomsbury here on the blog before, but it’s somewhere we have been going for quite few years now. It is perfectly located within walking distance of Seven Dials, Covent Garden and Regent Street. Perfect for Christmas shopping and taking in all the major sights at Christmas time. The hotel is elegant, comfortable and has one of the best dinning terraces and lounge bars in the city. The beautiful Dalloway Terrace and the Coral Room are destinations you must visit at Christmas.
We have enjoyed many short stays at The Bloomsbury and have sampled their afternoon tea on Dalloway Terrace as well as cocktails in the stunning and elegant Coral Room bar. ON our most recent rip we were very spoilt and received a free upgrade to one of their suites. A bless or a curse, I still can’t decide as now I feel I will only ever want to book a suite on return visits!
France
Hotel pelicano
Dinning out in 2022
I’m not sure how you felt about it, but for me dinning out on the occasions we were allowed to just didn’t hold the same appeal. I think like most people there was a sense of uncertainty around how safe it was and so it lost some of its sparkle. We certainly didn’t make any special effort to visit restaurants and eateries further afield and kept any dinning out local.
This New year I really want to make more of an effort and go to places I feel inspired to visit. As long as the situation around the pandemic is stable I plan to make up for lost time.
For starters (no pun intended) I’ve had Circolo Popolare on my to visit list for too long. By this point I have worked up a rapacious appetite for their door wedge sized portions of dessert and I am longing to languish away a warm evening in this beautiful tuscan inspired trattoria. There are a number of restaurants around the globe but we are blessed with one in Fitzrovia. I can’t wait to say ciao to one of the pizza’s a and a slice of their epic and aptly titled “incomparable lemon meringue pie”
Another dinning experience I am looking forward to this year is the Nomadic Dinning experience. This is an immersive dinner in a woodland setting with locally foraged foods. It looks and sounds absolutely magical.
They host different events including their feast over fire which boasts using humble ingredients cooked using ancient methods with taste that will envelope your sense. It sounds divine.
If you are quick they are hosting a number of valentine events too. More information and tickets can be found on their site here.
I’m waiting for the weather to warm up a little and I hope to go to their feast over fire in the bluebell wood. This even is based in a secret woodland carpeted by bluebells. I can’t imagine anything more lovely.
From one extreme to the other, next on my dinning menu is somewhere I have passed on countless visits to London, but never had the good fortune to visit, Scotts Mayfair.
Quintessentially elegant, this beautiful restaurant oozes luxury and romance. In fact with Valentines day looming this would be a beautiful place to tell someone just how much you love them over a tray of oysters and champagne.
Whilst we are in Mayfair, I should add to the list a brunch spot I have been wanting to go to for an age. In fact, I had brunch booked when we were last in London before Christmas. Alas, remember the upgrade I told you about? Well, I had to cancel our booking because the bed and the bathtub were too delicious for an early check out.
Nevertheless I hope to visit Ceconni’s on a future trip and enjoy the delights of the menu.
From the city to the coast I’ve had a bar on my to visit list which serves the most delicious looking small plates, so I feel it can have a spot here in the dinning out section.
All the way down in Westgate Newquay, on the beautiful Atlantic coast is a bar called Watchful Mary. The cocktails and food are only rivalled by the breathtaking sunsets that this wild and beautiful coastline is so famous for. You could be mistaken for thinking you’d stumbled into a beach bar on Ibiza.
The views look sensational and the interiors are a massage for the eyes.
It’s a long trip to Cornwall, even for us here in Dorset so I think I would have to sneak in a couple of nights at a hotel, which would bring me nicely round to an excuse for dinner at New Yard Restaurant. Another treasure of Cornwall, Michelin starred and a feast for the senses. Again, this one has been on the list since 2019 and is long overdue a visit.
Pampering on 2022
On of the things I really want to embrace in 2022 is self care. I know that this is somewhat an abstract idea and is very personal and unique to each of us.
For me it means many things, but the more tangible amongst those are simply giving time to myself to relax and recharge. And one of my favourite was fo doing that is to spa.
I adore a spa day and truly find them restorative. I have promised myself that I will enjoy a few spa days this year as part of my self care and I won’t allow myself to feel guilty or that I am being too indulgent by doing so.
If I can, here are the spa’s I am really hoping to visit in 2022;
Bamford Spa
An organic oasis in the heart of the Cotswolds. Im manifesting a day at this temple of calm and beauty, it is the brainchild of Lady Carole Bamford who has deep roots in Indian spa and spiritual culture and is a champion of organic food, wellness and a live lived with meaning.
The aforementioned The Newt in Somerset has a heavenly spa which is firmly on my list as is the spa at Thyme hotel. I’ll pop them here on this list too as a visit to the hotel invariably means a visit to their spas. Ticking off 2 for one on the manifestation list, how efficient my dreams are.
so there they are, my hopes and dreams laid bare. What’s on your list?
