If you want to book a luxury beach holiday for a very special occasion like a honeymoon, a milestone birthday or anniversary, or even to celebrate a big success at work, then you want it to be worth the thousands of pounds you’re spending on it.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid booking something you expect will provide a magical travel experience and then finding out it’s not quite up to the standard and level of luxury you were hoping for.

Location

Is the hotel crammed in with other hotels on the same beach or does it have it’s own beach? If the hotel is located on a beach with other hotels, then is there adequate spacing and are the surrounding hotels also of a good standard? You don’t want to be located next to a party hostel!

Use Google Earth to have a good look at how crowded the area around the hotel is. Definitely use “street view” if it’s available (obviously won’t be on very remote islands).

Ask yourself, are you looking for a hotel that’s located in a bay by itself/on it’s own beach, or do you prefer other hotels around?

Beach and water quality

You need to make sure that the hotel’s beach has the type of lovely water for swimming that you’re hoping for, in the month you plan to travel. For example, maybe the water is rough some months of the year and calm others? Does the beach disappear at high tide?

Touts

Touts are most definitely not part of the luxury travel experience. Do you have any indication that people hassling you to buy things while you’re trying to relax on the beach could be a problem?

Food

Very remote hotels may have problems with their food supply. No matter what the hotel does to try to ensure good food quality if their deliveries of ingredients are limited or not reliable, then you could have a problem.

To what extent does the hotel have access to good fruits and vegetables locally vs. these need to arrive by boat.

Look for specific mentions of the food offered in the marketing materials and see if it’s what you’re looking for. A really great idea would be to ask any property you are seriously considering to email or fax you their restaurant menus BEFORE you book. Food is such a big part of what makes a trip special.

It sounds like a little thing but do they use fresh milk or UHT? Do you care? Little clues like this will give you hints as to the real quality of the property. When you’re trying to find a hotel that will give you the type of very special experience you’re looking for you, you need to ask yourself these types of questions to try to get behind the marketing materials and get a real sense of it’s luxury property or not.

If food is your top focus, check out this list.

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