#30

Ho, Ho, Ho – it's snowing presents!

Santa's big sleigh is heaped high with presents, ready to go. Just two more days, and he'll be at your doorstep! For us, an intense, eventful year is drawing to a close. We visited more than 400 hotels and restaurants across Europe, testing and evaluating them anonymously and independently. About the 325 finest venues that made a lasting impression on us we wrote detailed profiles that we present to you on pillowandpepper.com. But now the time has come to pause for a few days; a time to feel grateful, a time to make wishes, and a time to give.  

Our personal wish list this Christmas:

Joanna Peyer, publisher & co-founder of Pillow & Pepper: “Peace and joy are right on top of my list. But below these, there is plenty of space on the list for wishes that make my traveller's heart skip a beat. I cannot even remember anymore how long I spent in my dressing gown the other day, waiting for the maid to bring up my freshly ironed dress. It felt like ages to me, and I ended up being way late for the cocktail reception I was going to. This explains why I love hotel rooms that come with an iron. Sadly, these continue to be the minority. So I want a travel iron for Christmas, in turquoise, pretty please.”  

Ekaterina Ossipova Bolte, co-founder of Pillow & Pepper: “What I want for my family, myself, and all of us is good health: As banal as it may sound, health is the chief priority, the one thing without which every other joy in life is virtually meaningless. That being said, I also want more time to myself, and would like an extra hour to be added to my days. Suppose you saved them up, they would give us at Pillow & Pepper another two weeks of travelling, and the time to test 15 new hotels and 30 restaurants in 2017.”  

Daniel Ojala, Art Director: “The old Latin adage ‘Non multa, sed multum’ – not many things, but much – still rings true. It is high time we shifted our focus back to essential things, appreciated personal encounters, and savoured special times. So what I want for Christmas is to give the present moment the true significance it has. For a travel portal, this could be rephrased to say: Happiness is not a state you arrive at, but your manner of travelling. So it is this kind of focus and the joy it brings that I want for the year to come. In this sense, I wish everyone a very merry holiday season.”  

You are a member of our community of discriminating life style travellers. We would like to thank you by giving you a €15.00 voucher code. Simply enter the code the next time you download a room number or table number at your destination of choice.  

Driven by our tireless wanderlust, we will keep travelling the length and breadth of Europe in 2017, too, on our perennial quest for unique new hotels to bring back the most coveted room numbers for you. Do you already have a favourite hotel that is missing on our travel portal? If so, do share your secret with us, and we'll be happy to test it for Pillow & Pepper. E-mail us your hotel tip to: redaktion@pillowandpepper.com

We would like to wish you a magnificent, peaceful Christmas season, and an enterprising start into a felicitous and prosperous new year. Enjoy the revelry, and don't forget to kiss your sweetheart beneath the mistletoe and to make joint plans for lovely trips together in 2017.