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I've been on the road pretty much non-stop since mid-April and have written some very brief summaries/ratings of my stays and meals, which will hopefully be helpful for people doing searches for these properties in the future.

Fusion Da Nang, Vietnam (9/10)
For the price this is great value; think of it as getting 3 treatments per day per person and having a room for free. Ours was a private pool villa, which was very nice (no views though). The ladies doing the treatments speak zero English and many of them did not know how to smile at customers but mostly the treatments were good. Breakfasts were excellent. Danang holds little appeal to us but the day trip to Hoi An was fun (an easy ride by scooter).

Gagnaire at Maison 1881 at the Intercontinental, Vietnam (7.5/10)
Beautiful property - would recommend the hotel based on looks alone - and beautiful restaurant. Great service and quite good food, but really not at Gagnaire level. Still a wonderful meal though, just don't expect Paris-level cuisine.

Amanoi, Vietnam 9.5/10
Really fabulous property - we had a gorgeous villa, very private, with its own boardwalk and a private terrace overlooking the ocean. The infinity pool is amazing and there are lots of watersports and other activities to do. A wonderful property.

Le Meridien Chiang Rai, Thailand 9-/10
Stayed here about 12 nights (for work) on three occasions, and as before, it was great (for the price). The pool is really nice and the riverfront location is lovely. We had the largest room category (bar some suites) it was very nicely appointed with a good view and pleasant balcony.

Manee Dheva Resort, Chiang Rai
At $ this was one of the cheapest hotels we stayed in. It's a smaller resort with about 10 villas. They're quite spacious but not up to luxury standards inside. Having said that, the rooms have mod cons and are comfortable. What is really nice here is the location of the villas in the middle of active rice fields, and the views over the beautiful vegetation. There is a nice pool with great views in the main building where meals are served. Restaurant staff should really learn some English, and learn to smile more. For the price, this is excellent value.

Anantara Golden Triangle (Chiang Rai, Thailand) 9-/10
wonderful property. We had a great experience with the elephants and a gorgeous room with a very large balcony. The pool here is fabulous and meals are very good too. Highly recommended.

Lancaster Hotel, Houston. 8.5/10
A quick layover stay - no complaints. The free wine tasting in the lobby is a nice idea.

Quinta Real, Guadalajara, Mexico 8/10
Service is not great here but the property is lovely. The restaurant is nice, sitting in the garden in this busy city is a real joy. The pool is freezing unfortunately. Our room was spacious and nice, in a quaint sort of way. We had a small balcony.

Krystal Guadalajara 9/10
We stayed here for a night before an early flight - cheap and excellent.

Galapagos Safari Camp 8.5/10
An interesting one to rate. I don't like boats so for me a multi-day cruise was not an option. The property is beautiful and the views are stunning - it's quite remote, which is wonderful. There is even a nice pool. Food and service were excellent. So why only 8.5/10? Because the day trips were mixed in the sense that they were rather tame (it's the luck of the draw in terms of the guide you get) and the boat trip we had to an island was just a mixed tourist boat, which we got added to (not bad, just nothing great either). If you don't like staying on a boat for several nights, this is a good option and you'll have a wonderful stay. If you want the all-out Galapagos experience, I think a boat may be better. If money is no concern, you could combine a few days on a boat with a couple of days here.

A really nice perk is the use of the VIP arrivals terminal with lounge - the main terminal had hundreds of people lining up, waiting for their stamps, while we were relaxing with some snacks and had our passports brought to us.

Casa Cangotena, Quito, Ecuador 8+/10
A lovely property in a superb location (there is even a nice rooftop terrace). The only reason it doesn't score higher is that it really is expensive - a matter of supply-and-demand I guess. If you decide to pay, you won't regret staying here.

Panama airport
This was my third time through this airport and I find it a dump. The Copa lounge here is disgusting - incredibly busy, dirty, unfriendly staff and terrible food. A disgrace.

Soho Hotel, Toronto 8+/10
No complaints, a bit on the pricey side but overall a good stay. We chose this as a cheaper alternative for our one-night stay compared with the FS.

Loews Hotel, Minneapolis 8/10
No complaints. A bit pricey but overall a good stay.
Did not like Minneapolis at all (was only here to visit Prince's Paisley Park).
Enjoyed our meal at the Butcher and Boar.

Chateau Cratequina Bordeaux 8/10
Nice property - pity about the huge power poles nearby and the less than smiley service but to be honest we were only there for a very short time so I'm happy to give this a pass. The hotel looks well-looked-after and the pool is lovely. As it's not very expensive I can recommend this.

La Grande Maison, Pierre Gagnaire restaurant Bordeaux 8.5/10
Beautiful property - great terrace and indoor dining room. The food was very good (as you would expect) but not at the level of Gagnaire Paris for example. Service was excellent.

Amanjena, Morocco 9.5/10
Woaw...yes, Amans are expensive but this is the kind of place that makes you understand why you spend that kind of cash. We had a wonderful upgrade to a private pool villa (these are more like large plunge pools). Superb all the way. There was a major strike and lots of problems not long before our stay but apart from some clearly new and inexperienced (junior) staff (especially in the restaurant) there was no evidence of this. We had a great time. The Moroccan food was great. The rice used for the sushi resembled porridge more than proper sushi rice but the flavours were good. It is wonderful that they have a shisha menu (apparently they had a shisha - waterpipe - expert flown in to develop the Amanjena flavours).

Belmond Reid's, Madeira
Nice hotel. Room was small but then again I had booked an entry level room. The pools are nice (there are two, not really sure why). Food was surprisingly expensive so we ate outside. Madeira was lovely - a really beautiful island and as someone who works in wine, it was particularly interesting to visit d'Oliveiras for a tasting of madeira fortified wines that went all the way back to 1850 (!).

Prinsenhof hotel, Groningen, Netherlands (9-/10)
Great hotel. We had the loft room first, which I do not really recommend as its very dark, but on the second stay we had one overlooking Martinikerkhof and the Kerk, which was great. Lighting in the rooms is terrible. We had a very unfortunate incident with the restaurant (called 'a la carte', not the cafe) where we were ripped off with a 30 euros corkage charge (when implying there would be just a 'small charge' for our 25 euro bottle of wine). There is no direct connection between the restaurant and hotel so I don't want this to distract from what was an excellent experience accommodation-wise.

Baglioni Venice 8.5/10
I was apprehensive - Venice is famous for poor value, but the Baglioni was quite good - we were lucky to get an upgrade to a nicer room. Not sure what entry level rooms would be like. The location is excellent. Overall a good stay.

Aman Venice 10-/10
Wow, wow, wow. Times like this make you appreciate how lucky you are to be alive. We had a fabulous room (upgraded) with a view of the Grand Canal and a complimentary sunset cruise, which was great. It really is a magical place. One of my favourite hotel stays anywhere in the world, ever.
Lunch was absolutely excellent (if very expensive!).
Minibar (complimentary) was the best I've ever seen.
At 1500 euros for entry level this was the most expensive room I've ever stayed in but it was worth it.

Quadri restaurant, Venice 8/10
Food was good at this one michelin star restaurant but, like most things in Venice, rather overpriced, hence the somewhat lower score.

Cubo Hotel Ljubljana, Slovenia 8/10
A bit expensive and no real reception area/lounge, no pool or other facilities, but friendly service and good location.

Strelec restaurant Ljubljana, Slovenia 9.5/10
one of the highlights of our trip. Superb food, great prices and a fabulous wine list, all atop a castle with amazing views. Really strongly recommended.

Explanade Hotel Zagreb, Croatia 8/10
Not the friendliest staff, but to be honest Zagreb was a bit disappointing to us so maybe we were affected by this. We had a suite which was spacious (if a bit dated) with a balcony.

Esplanade restaurant, Croatia 7+/10
Mixed service, some friendly some definitely not. Food a bit pretentious and would be much better if they used more local ingredients. Instead we got (poor) Parmesan cheese and (poor) Gorgonzola instead of some of the excellent local cheeses that are out there, for example. Quite a nice wine list with plenty of options by the glass. There is a smallish gym.

Cipriani Villa Asolo, Italy 9-/10
For the price (about 250 euros including breakfast) this was very good on both occasions in July and August - a really lovely town and a beautiful restaurant setting in the garden (food was good, if rather expensive 8/10). Lovely pool, great views, our room was small but I had booked the entry level room. Park your own car (easy) and save 25 euros! Service was Italian style (i.e. not superb) but for Italy not bad. At this price point, this is good value and recommended.

Schloss Bensberg, Koln, Germany, 9-/10
Excellent stay. Unfortunately pool and spa were closed (again - second time we stayed here!) so can't comment on that but room (suite) was excellent and the building is glorious. Food in the garden was fine (but no more) but a lovely spot. Service was friendly.

Brenners Park Hotel, Baden, Germany 9/10
Fabulous stay. Great service throughout, beautiful property, great facilities. We stayed at Villa Stephanie, which I would highly recommend.

Brenners Park restaurant, Germany 7.5/10
A good meal but not quite at two michelin star level. Don't choose the menu here but pick a la carte and choose the more local dishes/ingredients as those were excellent.

Bareiss 3* restaurant, Germany
This was superb - properly 3 star cooking. A must when in the area.

Hotel Furstenberg, Mosel area, Germany, 7/10
This gets good reviews and it is quite affordable, but this really wasn't for me. The thermal baths are nice but the hotel is very dated.

Belmond Copacabana, Rio, Brazil 7/10
Nice building, friendly service but rooms are ageing and just not up to scratch (I could literally hear the toilet flush in the neighbouring room and the sound of the shower was so loud it woke me up - and this was while staying in a suite). To be fair, I have no experience in Brazil so I can only compare with properties internationally.

Grand Hyatt Rio, Brazil 8.5/10
This is a new hotel and despite some teething problems (one day I got home after a conference after 16:00 and housekeeping still hadn't been done, some staff have zero English), this was a very good stay. I got upsold to a corner suite which had both ocean and lagoon views and which was superb, with a great 180 degree view, nice balcony and lots of space. It also came with club access (breakfast 7.5/10 and evening snacks 7.5/10) and was worth the premium.

Amazon eco lodge, Brazil (6.5/10)
Very impressive location but as a hotel this just falls far short. Too many staff with zero English and zero smiles. Guides a mixed bunch - some quite friendly (but nowhere near what you would get on a good African safari in terms of enthusiasm etc) but some really looked like they didn't want to be there. Food was quite good - it was nice to see there were many local options. Tours were quite varied but disappointing because of the guides. There really is no focus on a deeper understanding of the Amazon (let alone its cultures) here. Compare this with Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador or lodges in the Galapagos or Africa (our recent experiences) where there are lectures in the evening and far more focus on respect for the awesome environment you're in.

Rooms were small, with a useless balcony, with no views. Siting was just stupid - all in a row, two per house, which meant zero privacy. Basically, imagine a bunch of cabins in a straight row.

The most egregious point about this property is its price. It really is FAR too expensive for what it offers. Apparently though it is the only property offering some luxury in the Amazon in Brazil.

Belmond Iguassu Falls, Brazil 9/10
We had VIP status here for reasons I won't go into, which I am sure contributed to a superb experience. Regardless of status, this is a fabulous property. The location is of course perfect, but the service, rooms and the look of the overall hotel were fabulous. I'd gladly stay here even if there were no Falls nearby!

Sao Paulo airport
do NOT buy duty free here. $75 for a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, for example ($35 at other airports). ...?
*alliance lounge was comfortable but only spent a bit of time there so can't comment more.

Matuete Travel
For my travel in Brazil I used Matuete. I found the company great; friendly, polite, professional. Excellent support throughout.

Zurich airport
I really like the design of this airport. Lounge was comfortable for a short stay (*alliance).

Sheraton Airport, Amsterdam 8/10
Too expensive like almost all airport hotels. Otherwise fine.

JW Marriott, Cairo 8.5/10
Disney in the desert. This is a family resort with 3 pools, great for kids. There's even a beach with waves in the pool! Lots of playgrounds etc. Good: amazing gym facilities, nice indoor pool, very good Lebanese restaurant. Bad: in places it really is showing its age. Room (pool cabana) very plain. Service: interestingly some global influences mean that the hotel succeeds at the unlikely - pretty good service overall. Of course there are exceptions where Egyptian service resurfaces (for example, I waited 25 minutes for a cup of tea while seven wait staff were milling about doing nothing). For the price (about US$150 incl taxes and breakfast, and of course they provide a free airport pickup/drop-off) I think this is good value.

Atmosphere restaurant, Dubai (8.5/10)
World's highest restaurant (442 metres). Surprisingly the food was very good here (not just the view).

Kenya Airways, business class, Bangkok-Nairobi
I was apprehensive and was contemplating Etihad but KQ offers a direct flight on a new 787. The KLM/AF lounge in BKK was very nice (and great to see a lounge with enough powerpoints!). Unfortunately the flight was delayed by 1:30, for which we were never given a reason. Champagne was offered before take-off (Exelium - never heard of it but it was nice). The seats were fabulous and a far cry from my TG AKL-BKK flight the day before. Fully-lie flat, very comfortable and wide. A snack was offered after take-off but I went to sleep and woke up nearly six hours later, quite refreshed. At this point a good hot breakfast was served. Service was fine overall. I had a similar experience on the return flight.

&Beyond Kichwa Tembo, Kenya 9/10
Great resort. There were a lot of vehicles in the area so on shorter game drives it could feel quite busy.
There is a small but nice pool.

&Beyond Under Canvas Tanzania, 9+/10
Still as excellent as it was 5 years ago. Seeing the migration is incredible.

&Beyond Lake Ngorongoro, Tanzania, 9+/10
Second visit and still superb. Buildings on the outside will need sprucing up soon but not yet noticeable to most people's eyes. An amazing property with amazing views.

&Beyond Lake Manyara, Tanzania, 9+/10
Remote, awesome, with a pool that had elephants bathing in the adjacent watering holes!

A note on &Beyond
This was our fourth trip with &Beyond, the last one was 5 years ago, and again they delivered. It's expensive but excellent.

Gaa, Bangkok
Sister restaurant to Gaggan - not much cheaper actually and still only full degustation menus so not sure what's different about it. Having said that, food was superb as were the non-alcoholic paired drinks.

Esquisse 2*, Tokyo
Very good meal, 15K yen for lunch. Service was very good.

l'Osier 3* Tokyo
competent but ummemorable meal. At 30K yen for dinner in hindsight I would have rather not gone here.

le Sputnik 1* Tokyo
Definitely cooking at 2* level and one to watch. Most exciting meal I've had in a good while and at 6000 yen for lunch for 8 courses a steal.

This is kind of amazing.

Wow. You've been all over the world! No luxury hotels in Tokyo to mention?

NOTE FROM MODERATOR: Thanks to Fliar
for writing such a detailed account of his travels over the several months. If you want to comment on Fliar's post, it is not necessary to quote the entire post. Therefore, Nizar, I have deleted the original quoted post and have left your reply.

What a life, my friend.
WHAT A LIFE

You've almost literally been all over the world! Thanks for the run down!

Color me impressed!

Thanks for the write-up - quite helpful!

Fabulous. What a year for you! Thanks so much for sharing with us.

LOL, that was only April 10-October 10...You should see next year's itinerary (just kidding)

Tokyo: Aman is my favourite. I also stayed at the Oriental (did I not include it?) and thought it was very good (we got a nice upgrade) but the absence of a pool was a drawback.

Thanks for sharing , good overview
Lots of travelling for such a short span !

Loved being at Belmond Hotel das Cataratas too , hearing the falls & viewing any time
We really appreciated our suite , & like you shall not go into details of the whys ..

Will be interesting to see where you cover next , continents

Possibly in Tokyo next autumn , so helpful to know that MO has no pool .
Waiting to hear about the Aman GM
Will try to stay at both & .. ??