Howdy all! Well as 2024 starts to crank into gear (is that a phrase? Does that even make sense? I dunno I just write here lol 😊 ) I’m using this chance to reflect on my travels of 2023. And today I look back at the places I stayed and judge which ones I thought were the best and that I would recommend. There are a number of places I have not yet reviewed, and so I won’t be including these ones because of that fact – including all the stays from my November trip to South East Asia. They will be coming up in 2024 and I presume I will consider them for the 2024 retrospective.

So anyways, let’s take a look at the places I felt were the best and why!

4. Florence, Italy

This hotel makes the list because of the price more than anything else, well location too. It comes with the caveat that unless you book well in advance as I did and for the right time of the year, you won’t be able to get the room for less than 50 Euros a night, but if you can you’ve done super well.

The room is on the smallish side, and the check-in experience was a confusing mess, but the room is clean and comfortable, if small, there’s a little kitchen guests can use, you can walk to anywhere in Florence you might need to visit as a tourist (okay, but for some places it is a fair walk!) and I was super happy here. Again, the price is the big seller!

3. Park Suites, Kolkata, India

I was very happy and surprised with my stay at the Park Suites in Kolkata. Less that $70AUD a night, very big room, well located not far from action and also close to a metro station, super helpful and friendly staff, very clean, a decent shower which I’ve always found hard to find in India, and room service for when I needed to stick to my video editing and get it done where you get food from a choice of close by restaurants.

It’s on a floor of a building which you enter from, well., ‘behind’ I guess and that was a bit tricky to find, but otherwise I was super happy here.

Read my full review HERE.

2. Millenium Palace, Barsha Heights, Dubai

This one is I debated about including at all because there were a couple of things that didn’t rub me the right way about the place, and that was mostly the staff and I felt when I arrived with my backpack I was being looked down on, and generally I felt the staff could have been a bit friendlier towards guests in general.

Having said that, the price was around $130AUD per night booked in advance, including breakfast. When I went to book an extra night that was over $180AUD, so as always, booking early is the go for a good price. But I loved having a room on the 20-something th floor, I loved the bathtub, the views, location wasn’t great but you work around that, and the multiple restaurants – also nice.

The breakfast was massive with so much choice at the buffet, and the two pools side by side were the best thing overall about the hotel. Just popping on swimmers and going down to the second or third floor (whatever it was) and enjoying the outdoor pools – just what you need in Dubai! In the end I felt super comfy here and that’s why I put it so high on the list!

1. Hotel One, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

The Hotel One in Bahawalpur was a very clean, friendly place to stay, and just what I needed at the time. The staff were able to organise everything I wanted to do in my short time there, I got an UPGRADE on my room which was awesome to the suite so it was super spacious, and I couldn’t have been happier there. For this reason I stayed in some really nice places in 2023, but for those reasons and more I am giving the nod to this hotel for my best stay of 2023!

Check out the Review HERE.

And there we go folks! Thanks for joining me today I feel so lucky and privileged to have been able to travel so much in 2023 and stay at so many amazing places! Take care wherever you may be in the world, May the Journey Never End!