14 May 29, 2022The Sunday Times
Travel
Her Majesty doesn’t
really do Premier
Inns. To celebrate 70
globetrotting years,
Andrew Eames picks
out some of the most
lavish digs that have
hosted the monarch
decorated with the artwork of the
indigenous Mapuche. Apparently, a
new mattress was shipped in for them,
but it got caught in rain and it had to be
dried out over a fire.
Details Room-only doubles from £154
(antumalal.com). Fly to Pucon via
Santiago6 HOTEL BRITANNIA
TRONDHEIM, NORWAY
In 1969 the Queen and her family boarded
the Royal Yacht Britannia for a holiday to
Norway. In Bergen, the heart of the fjords,
they attended a banquet hosted by King
Olav V. Further north, in Trondheim, they
came ashore to stay in the opulent Hotel
Britannia, put on the map by aristocratic
British fishermen who were lured here by
rivers rich in salmon. Records show that
the royals ate oxtail soup, trout, lamb and
Britannia cheesecake in Palmehaven, the
hotel restaurant, which continues its
tradition of British afternoon tea.
Details B&B doubles from £292
(britannia.no). Fly to Trondheim7 HOTEL IMPERIAL VIENNA, AUSTRIA
The Queen has made only one royal visit
to Austria, in 1969, but she did everything
properly. That meant going to the state
opera, visiting the Spanish Riding School
in Vienna and staying in the hotel that was
once the city palace of Archduchess Maria
Theresa. The Imperial still looks the part —
with stucco ceilings, parquet flooring and
precious fabrics throughout — but it isn’t
exactly as it was then: for the Queen, the
Habsburg royal family temporarily
furnished one of the suites with royal
antiques, including an 18th-century bed.
Details Room-only doubles from £269
(marriott.com). Fly to Vienna8 HOTEL EXCELSIOR DUBROVNIK,
CROATIA
A historic villa dating from 1913 in the
Unesco-registered old town district of
Dubrovnik has evolved into one of the
most lavish hotels on the Adriatic. So it is
not surprising that the Excelsior was theI
n her 70 years on the throne,
Queen Elizabeth II has visited an
astonishing array of more than 120
countries. Usually her stays have
been in official residences or on
the Royal Yacht Britannia, but not always.
Here’s our pick of 20 non-official
properties she’s stayed at on
her travels.1 TREETOPS LODGE
ABERDARE NATIONAL PARK, KENYA
When news of the death of her father,
King George VI, reached her in 1952, the
Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) was
staying at the rustic Treetops safari hotel.
It closed permanently in October 2021
after a chequered history — the original
lodge in which the Queen stayed burnt
down in 1954 and the hotel was rebuilt on
the other side of the watering hole there.
However, it is still possible to get a flavour
of that royal trip at the Ark, a sister
property 30 minutes’ drive west in
Aberdare National Park, noted for
sightings of elephants, leopards and
black rhinos.
Details Room-only doubles from £212
(thearkkenya.com). Fly to Nairobi2 THE WALDORF ASTORIA
NEW YORK, USA
The Queen was always going to make the
Big Apple one of her first stops after her
Coronation. So it was only natural for the
glamorous Waldorf Astoria, whose art
deco interiors feature in many classic
films, to host a gala dinner in her honour
in 1957. The hotel is undergoing an
£800 million makeover, crunching down
its original 1,400 rooms to just 375, with
its reopening scheduled for next year
(hilton.com). In the meantime check
in to the Chatwal, another art deco
masterpiece in Midtown Manhattan.
Details Room-only doubles from £530
(thechatwalny.com). Fly to New York3 RAJMAHAL PALACE JAIPUR, INDIA
Commonwealth countries were a high
priority for the Queen and her first trip to
India, in 1961, went down well, with more
than a million people lining the road from
Delhi airport. In Jaipur she stayed in the
maharajah’s palace. Now a hotel — and
still home to the matriarch of the Jaipur
royal family — it is an enclosed oasis with
just 13 meticulously designed rooms,
including the Queen Elizabeth suite. In
1961 the Queen rode into Jaipur on an
elephant; The Guardian reported that
when she left it was with the maharajah,
who was heading for a tiger shoot.
Details Room-only doubles from £171
(raashotels.com). Fly to Jaipur4 INTERCONTINENTAL AMSTEL
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
The Queen’s travels have not all been state
visits. In 1962, for example, she hopped
over the Channel with the Duke of
Edinburgh to Amsterdam, to celebrate
the silver wedding anniversary of Queen
Juliana and Prince Bernhard. All the royals
were accommodated in the palatial
Amstel, which had long been the city’s
five-star grande dame. It’s a classic hotel
in the same league as the Ritz in London
— its imposing lobby, historic staircase,
cut-glass chandeliers and stuccoed
ceilings complementing a perfect position
on the Amstel River.
Details Room-only doubles from £385
(amstelhotel.com). Fly to Amsterdam5 ANTUMALAL PUCON, CHILE
In 1968 Her Majesty set out on a tour
of Brazil and Chile, ending up at the
adventure-sports resort of Pucon, in
the Chilean lake district. Here, she and
Prince Philip rested at the Bauhaus-style
Antumalal, built on the shores of Lake
Villarrica in a vast private park andQUEE
address of choice for the Queen at the end
of a 1972 tour of what was then Yugoslavia,
her first experience of a communist
country. The royal party started in
Belgrade then headed to Zagreb, Pula
and the little-known Brijuni Islands,
before finding sanctuary in the
Presidential suite, with panoramic
views from its wraparound balcony.
Details B&B doubles from £223
(adriaticluxuryhotels.com). Fly to
Dubrovnik9 L’OUSTAU DE BAUMANIÈRE
PROVENCE, FRANCE
The Queen has been to France at least a
dozen times, and on the occasion of herSTAYS
FOR A