Jeremy and I own so much TWA Hotel merchandise that we consult before we meet. Will you wear your tracksuit, or can I wear mine?
Together, my boyfriend and I have two retro tracksuits, a pair of trainers, a cap, an umbrella, a dressing gown, five notebooks, a tote bag and a shopping bag – all in beautiful scarlet and white, decorated with the JFK Airport hotel logo. I even have a framed print of the Eero Saarinen-designed terminal building-turned-lobby in my kitchen. Yes, it’s safe to say: we love this hotel so much that we’ve turned ourselves into walking billboards – and our friends think it’s hilarious.
Other hotel hotspots naturally sell souvenirs to their enthusiasts. You can wrap yourself in a Soho House towel or buy checked table linen from Summerill & Bishop, inspired by the art deco vibe of Claridge’s. You may have also heard of ‘Aman junkies’. These passionate repeat visitors to Aman’s super-luxury resorts make up 50 percent of the brand’s sales and delight their friends with stories of high-end service and minimalist design. Aman hotels never advertise; enthusiasts express their loyalty discreetly.
The appeal of an Aman isn’t hard to fathom – but why exactly am I so obsessed with an airport hotel? Good. Jeremy and I first visited the hotel, which is located in the old TWA Flight Center of JFK’s Terminal 5, as post-pandemic pioneers in late 2021. We haven’t stopped talking about the place since. Understatement isn’t really a word you’d use around the TWA: it’s brash and bold and out there, and we love it.
“Welcome to 1962!” there’s a banner on the wall as you step into a Catch Me If You Can movie set, where pairs of uniformed pilots wheel their suitcases across scarlet carpets among jet-lagged citizens.
The immersive mid-century experience begins before you climb the stairs to the cavernous white lobby. As you cross the parking lot you will be accompanied by Burt Bacharach music playing in the open air. Guests check in at the original airplane counters to the sound of The Beatles and Buddy Holly.
Then the fun really begins. Both residents and casual visitors can enjoy drinks at the 60-seat Connie cocktail bar, actually inside a TWA 1958 Lockheed Constellation jet. There’s a sunken red seating area in the main lobby, where you can sip your drink accompanied by an old-fashioned sign with flight departure times flickering in the background (and how shy Haredi Jews from Queens meet on blind dates). The lobby features a life-size Twister set and a retro hair salon. Upstairs on the roof is a heated pool overlooking the runway, also with a bar.
But the TWA is not just about gimmicks: there is also peace and luxury. The beds are large and comfortable, behind super thick glass (you see the planes taking off, but you don’t hear them). Each room features retro touches: rotary telephones, triangular cocktail glasses and toiletries in original containers from the 1960s.
For us as a couple, the pandemic probably rekindled our bond with the place – Jeremy is an American who lived mainly in New York and Covid meant we couldn’t see each other for months. When I arrived on one of the first flights allowed back to the US, Jeremy took me to the TWA. That night the hotel was almost empty and we ran up and down the curved stairs in delight. For us, the hotel embodies the resilience and triumph of our transatlantic relationship. (The Jet Fuel cocktails didn’t hurt, either.) So it’s no wonder we wanted to bring a little of the TWA into our home with our casual clothes and home furnishings.
Two years later, our relationship has become more permanent, but the TWA is still special to us, always our first port of call when we arrive in New York. And we plan to continue praising the place to anyone who will listen. To heaven!
Jeremy and I are certainly not the only ones who have a hotel that we are obsessed with. So what makes a guest return to the same place year after year? Let’s find out.
Book It: TWA Hotel offers double rooms from $288 (£229). Read our expert review here.
‘We have been spending more than three years at Sandals Resorts’
Heather Bailey, 61, is an optometrist from Stafford. She is married to Christopher, 55, who works in general practice
In July this year we celebrated our 1,000-night anniversary at all-inclusive resort giant Sandals – although we’ve since racked up a further 114 paid nights, as well as 13 free ‘reward weeks’. We were in Barbados when we passed our milestone, a location we’ve stayed at fifteen times – which probably ties with the Halcyon in St. Lucia as our favorite resort (30 visits), as well as two trips to the Bahamas, and two to Jamaica. Our longest trip lasted 29 nights. Every year before Christmas we get the last regular priced flight back, and the first regular priced flight back. Yes, it’s safe to say we love sandals.
It was the warm water that first brought us to the Caribbean. Christopher and I are both avid divers, and when our dive guide Claudy moved to Sandals in the Bahamas from another resort in 2006, we followed him. After that we stayed with the company. We love that diving is free at all Sandals resorts – if you have to pay elsewhere it can cost £200 per day. Each resort offers a different variety of diving: small fish in Barbados and St. Lucia; sharks in the Bahamas.
Sandals’ famous child-free policy was also a big plus for us – but there were so many other reasons to keep coming back. Many of the Caribbean resorts we had previously visited had canteen meals or buffets: by the time we returned to our seat with the soup, someone had stolen the table. Sandals, on the other hand, has reserved seating for dinner. The food is excellent, with several themed restaurants, all taking my gluten intolerance into account.
In March 2020 we were staying in Barbados when the pandemic hit. Virgin canceled all flights: we had no idea how we would get home. But the staff reassured all of us, the thirty remaining guests, and let us stay and eat whatever we wanted from whatever restaurant we wanted. By the time we had to catch a flight home, the British supermarkets were empty, thanks to panic buying. So the Sandals staff sent us home with boxes of crisps and toilet roll.
Book It: Sandals Barbados offers a seven-night stay for two from £1,926 pp, all inclusive, with return flights and transfers. Read our expert review here.
‘JK Place has something special: it is my home away from home’
Benoit Charot, 61, is a lawyer from Paris
My Roman home is suite 31 at JK Place Roma, on Via di Monte d’Oro. I start my day with the oriental light that falls on my beautiful balcony, where I like to work and have breakfast. The suite itself is beautiful, it has two rooms with eclectic furniture, completely embodying the spirit of Rome.
I am the Parisian partner in an international law firm, I travel a lot for work and I love boutique hotels. JK Place has something special: it’s my home away from home. I come to Rome for work and also to buy art. I spend a lot of time in the city – every two months I come to JK Place for 10 days or two weeks.
It took a while to find JK Place and since I discovered it in 2018, all the other hotels feel like factories. I’ve returned over 15 times now: the gap during the pandemic when I couldn’t visit was difficult. When I arrived at the hotel for the first time, I was pleased with the welcome from the staff. I had a drink in the library – it felt like a private palazzo: very charming, very private. All rooms are very different and not “blingy”. There is a great restaurant here, but I prefer to eat out and the staff always recommend excellent places.
The staff here fulfill all roles – not just at reception for example – so you get to know them very well and they take good care of their customers. The manager, Maria, is especially wonderful. When the caretaker was ill, I told my gardener to send him twelve jars of honey from my garden in south-west France.
Book It: JK Place Roma (00 39 06 982634; jkroma.com) offers double prices from €700, including breakfast. Read our expert review here.
‘Sugar Beach was the only place we would consider getting married’
Bob Keating, 83, is a retired IT manager from Buckinghamshire
Together Anne and I have been to Sugar Beach Mauritius 37 times. So when we decided to get married in 2012, we didn’t consider celebrating our wedding anywhere else. I was 70, Anne was 73. We had a ceremony on the lawn near the beach, with the smell of bougainvilleas and the sound of Annie’s Song by John Denver. Nine members of our family flew from Britain, but we were also surrounded by our Sugar Beach family: the manager and assistant manager were our witnesses. The staff here are great – a year ago I had a fall and Scyam, the reception manager, came to see me at the hospital.
I first visited Sugar Beach in 2001, with my late wife Babs. We were looking for winter sun in a Kuoni catalog and were not disappointed: the resort is located on the beautiful sunset west coast of Mauritius, all rooms face the sea, with an idyllic beach.
In 2010, Babs was suffering from severe dementia, but I was determined to take her to her favorite place one last time. Anne – a good friend of the family – offered to come and help. Sugar Beach went above and beyond to take care of Babs, making sure she had the best seat in the dining room and always being extra attentive. Babs couldn’t remember much, but we could tell from her face that she was happy, listening to audiobooks by the sea, in her favorite place on earth.
After Babs died, I didn’t want to travel to Sugar Beach alone and invited Anne to come with me. We were just friends at the time, but soon realized that we really wanted to be together and I proposed. We have continued to visit every year since our wedding – usually in October. Anne especially likes water aerobics and the gym. Sugar Beach is our home away from home, and we wouldn’t dream of traveling 6,000 miles to be there.
Book It: Sugar Beach Mauritius offers double rooms from £288, including breakfast. Read our expert review here.