1,000 nights and counting: the hotel superfans that can’t stop going back for more
Jeremy and I own so much TWA Hotel merchandise that we consult before we meet. Are you wearing your tracksuit, or can I wear mine?
Between us, 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 glorious scarlet and white, adorned with the JFK Airport hotel’s 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 we have turned ourselves into walking billboards – and our friends think it’s hilarious.
Other hotel hotspots sell souvenirs to their devotees, of course. You can wrap yourself in a Soho House towel or buy checked table-linen by Summerill & Bishop, inspired by the art-deco vibe of Claridge’s. You may also have heard of “Aman junkies”. These passionate repeat visitors to the super-luxe Aman resorts constitute 50 per cent of the brand’s business, regaling their friends with tales of high-end service and a minimalist design aesthetic. Aman hotels never advertise; aficionados wear their loyalty discreetly.
The appeal of an Aman is not hard to fathom – but why exactly am I so obsessed with an airport hotel? Well. Jeremy and I first visited the hotel, which is based in the old TWA Flight Center of JFK’s Terminal 5, as post-pandemic pioneers at the end of 2021. Since then, we haven’t stopped banging on about the place. Understatement isn’t really a word you’d use anywhere near the TWA: it’s brash and bold and out-there, and we adore it.
“Welcome to 1962!” declares a banner on the wall, as you step into a Catch Me If You Can film set, where pairs of uniformed pilots wheel their suitcases up scarlet-carpeted walkways amid the jet-lagged civilians.
The immersive mid-century experience starts before you climb the staircase into the cavernous white lobby. Crossing the car park, one is accompanied by Burt Bacharach music piped into the open air. Guests check in at the original airline desks to the sound of the Beatles and Buddy Holly.
Then the fun really starts. Both residents and casual visitors can enjoy drinks at the 60-seater Connie cocktail bar, actually inside a TWA 1958 Lockheed Constellation jet. There’s a sunken red seating area in the main lobby, where you sip your drinks to the accompaniment of an old-fashioned flight departures board flicker-flacking in the background (and watch shy Haredi Jews from Queens meet each other on blind dates). The lobby boasts a life-sized Twister set and retro hairdressing salon – upstairs on the roof is a heated swimming pool, overlooking the runway, also with a bar.
But the TWA isn’t just about gimmicks: there’s tranquillity and luxury, too. Beds are big and comfortable, behind super-thick glass (you can see the planes taking off, but you don’t hear them). Each room is fitted with retro touches: rotary telephones, triangular cocktail glasses and toiletries in original Sixties containers.
For us as a couple, the pandemic probably fuelled our connection to the place – Jeremy is an American who mostly lived in New York and Covid meant we couldn’t see one another for months. When I arrived on one of the first flights allowed back into the US, Jeremy took me to the TWA. That night, the hotel was almost empty, and we scampered up and down its curved staircases in delight. For us, the hotel epitomises the resilience and triumph of our transatlantic relationship. (The Jet Fuel cocktails didn’t hurt, either.) No wonder then, we wanted to bring a bit of the TWA home with our leisurewear and home furnishings.
Two years on, our relationship is on a more permanent footing, but the TWA is still special to us, always our first port of call when we arrive in New York. And we intend to continue praising the place to anyone who will listen. To the skies!
Jeremy and I certainly aren’t alone in having a hotel we’re obsessed with. So what is it that keeps a guest going back to the same place, year after year? Let’s find out.
Book it: TWA Hotel offers doubles from $288 (£229). Read our expert review here.
‘We’ve spent more than three years at Sandals resorts’
Heather Bailey, 61, is an optometrist from Stafford. She is married to Jim, 55, who works in the family practice
In July this year, we passed our 1,000-night anniversary at all-inclusive resort behemoth Sandals – though we’ve since clocked up another 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 15 times – which probably ties with the Halcyon in St Lucia as our favourite resort (30 visits), as well as two trips to the Bahamas, and two to Jamaica. Our longest trip was for 29 nights. Every year, we get the last normal-priced flight out before Christmas, and the first normal-priced one back. Yes, it’s safe to say we love Sandals.
It was the warm water that first brought us to the Caribbean. Jim and I are both keen divers, and when our diving guide Claudy moved to Sandals in the Bahamas from another resort in 2006, we followed him. Then we stayed with the company. We love the fact that diving is free at all Sandals resorts – if you have to pay elsewhere, it can cost £200 a day. Each resort caters to a different variety of diving: small fish in Barbados and St Lucia; sharks in the Bahamas.
The famous Sandals 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’d previously visited featured canteen food 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 seats for dinner. The food is excellent, with different themed restaurants, all of which are accommodating of my gluten intolerance.
In March 2020, we were staying in Barbados when the pandemic struck. Virgin cancelled all the flights: we had no idea how we were going to get home. But staff reassured all of us 30 remaining guests, letting us stay on and eat whatever we wanted, from whichever restaurant we fancied. By the time we were scheduled on a flight home, UK supermarkets were empty, thanks to panic-buying. So the Sandals staff sent us home with boxes of crisps and loo roll.
Book it: Sandals Barbados offers a seven-night stay for two from £1,926pp, all inclusive, with return flights and transfers. Read our expert review here.
‘J.K. 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 J.K. Place Roma, on Via di Monte d’Oro. I start my day with the eastern light breaking on my beautiful balcony, where I like to work and take my breakfast. The suite itself is wonderful, it has two rooms with eclectic furniture, totally embodying the spirit of Rome.
I’m the Parisian partner in an international law firm, I travel a lot for work and I adore boutique hotels. J.K. Place has something special – it is 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 will come to J.K. Place for 10 days or two weeks.
It took a while to find J.K. Place and, since I discovered it in 2018, all other hotels feel like factories. I’ve now come back more than 15 times: the gap during the pandemic when I was unable to visit was hard. When I arrived at the hotel for the first time, I was delighted by the welcome from the staff. I had a drink in the library – it felt like a private palazzo: very charming, very private. All the rooms are very different and not “blingy”. There’s a great restaurant here, but I prefer to eat out and the staff always recommend excellent places.
The staff here fulfil all the roles – not just staying on the front desk, for example – so you get to know them very well and they look after their clients beautifully. The manager, Maria, is especially wonderful. When the concierge was ill, I told my gardener to send him 12 pots of honey from my garden in south west France.
Book it: J.K. Place Roma (00 39 06 982634; jkroma.com) offers doubles from €700 (£611), including breakfast. Read our expert review here.
‘Sugar Beach was the only place we’d consider getting married’
Bob Keating, 83, is a retired IT executive from Buckinghamshire
Between us, Anne and I have been to Sugar Beach Mauritius 37 times. So, when we decided to get married in 2012, we didn’t consider having our wedding anywhere else. I was 70: Anne was 73. We had a ceremony on the lawn by the beach, to the scent of bougainvillaea and the sound of Annie’s Song by John Denver. Nine members of our family flew out from the UK, but we were also surrounded by our Sugar Beach family: the manager and assistant manager were our witnesses. The staff are wonderful here – one year, I had a fall, and Scyam, the front-of-house manager, came to visit me in hospital.
I first visited Sugar Beach in 2001, with my late wife Babs. We were looking for winter sun in a Kuoni catalogue and were not disappointed: the resort is on the beautiful “sunset” west coast of Mauritius, all rooms facing the sea, with an idyllic beach.
By 2010, Babs was suffering with severe dementia but I was determined to take her back to her favourite place one last time. Anne – who was a close friend of the family – offered to come and help. Sugar Beach did everything they could to look after Babs, making sure she had the best spot in the dining room and always being extra attentive. Babs couldn’t remember much, but we knew by her face she was happy, listening to audiobooks by the sea in her favourite place on earth.
After Babs died, I didn’t want to travel alone to Sugar Beach and invited Anne to join me. We were still just friends at that point, but soon realised we really wanted to be together and I proposed. Since our wedding, we continue to visit every year – mostly in October. Anne particularly loves the aqua-aerobics and the gym. Sugar Beach is our home from home, and we think nothing of travelling 6,000 miles to be there.
Book it: Sugar Beach Mauritius offers doubles from £288, including breakfast. Read our expert review here.
