Whitebridge Off The Wall
Phil's Travels - Dawlish, England (05.19)
08/06/2019
Phil's Travels - Dawlish, England (05.19) The morning of our departure I visited a project we have been cooking for some years now with the in-house architect of a luxury hotel brand. Let...
Phil's Travels - Milan, Italy (06.19)
08/06/2019
Phil's Travels - Milan, Italy (06.19) They were still digging in Luton this week. What are they digging for? Gold? It is taking them long enough to discover that there is no gold in them there...
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.19)
12/03/2019
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.19) Despite the latent puffs of Storm Freya our flights were showing as leaving on time as at 05.00 on Monday morning. After a week when temperatures ...
Phil's Travels - Venice, Italy (02.19)
25/02/2019
Phil's Travels - Venice, Italy (02.19) BA, T5 and European air traffic controllers came together in perfect harmony for our morning flight to Venice. We flew over still white-capped Alps ...
Phil's Travels - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (02.19)
18/02/2019
Phil's Travels - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (02.19) No matter how wonderful the Emirates A380 may be as a feat of engineering and a flying sofa, when your TV does not work properly, you forget all a...
Phil's Travels - Courmayeur, Italy (01.19)
26/01/2019
Phil's Travels - Courmayeur, Italy (01.19) First trip of the new year. My early morning taxi to Gatwick was driven by the most cautious, most ponderous, most deliberate (every motion was ...
Phil's Travels - Sicily, Italy (10.18)
28/10/2018
Phil's Travels - Sicily, Italy (10-18) Our long weekend away to celebrate a landmark anniversary began with a bag of nuts in a sun-trapped corner of the BA lounge at Gatwick Airport. What...
Phil's Travels - Piedmont, Italy (10.18)
28/10/2018
Phil's Travels - Piedmont, Italy (10.18) To kick-off, an interesting recent London observation. Last week a mains waterpipe broke beneath the road in front of our office, meaning building...
Phil's Travels - Lisbon Region, Portugal (9.18)
05/10/2018
Phil's Travels - Lisbon Region, Portugal (9.18) Early taxi to the building site that is Luton Airport. Some new retail areas have opened since my last passage through easyJet HQ, but the ...
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.18)
09/09/2018
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.18) It's official, my lovely wife and I are allergic to Cyprus in the summer time. But more of that later. En route to the best terminal, in the world...
Phil's Travels - Torquay, England (07.18)
28/07/2018
Phil's Travels - Torquay, England (07.18) July 2018 is likely to be the hottest July on record in the UK, with temperatures already averaging 26°C in London and a couple of super-hot days...
Phil's Travels - Pisa, Italy (06.18)
04/07/2018
Phil's Travels - Pisa, Italy (06.18) In the five days prior to Italy I spent much of my time in the company of my lovely wife in her temporary overnight accommodation in Central London. I...
Phil's Travels - St Lucia (06.18)
22/06/2018
Phil's Travels - St Lucia (06.18) Purpose of visit? To visit a resort site on St Lucia that we were to market for sale, meet key local contacts, update our intel on the local market and p...
Phil's Travels - Nosy Be, Madagascar (04.18)
19/04/2018
Phil's Travels - Nosy Be, Madagascar (04.18) Good job I arrived at the world's most boring airport terminal (Heathrow T2) three hours early. At 18.00, I tried to check-in using a machine....
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.18)
11/03/2018
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.18) Last week Emma met the Beast from the East in the climatic clash of the decade on British soil. It was so cold and windy and snowy that much of th...
Phil's Travels - 12 Days of Xmas, Cyprus
20/01/2018
Phil's Travels - 12 Days of Xmas, Cyprus (12.17) I blame my man-flu-addled brain for the incident of the missing suitcase. On the Monday I had taken my first sick day for 15 years and on ...
Phil's Travels - Sardinia, Italy (11.15)
18/11/2017
Phil's Travels - Sardinia, Italy (11.17) My role as rain-maker to sun-parched lands in 2017 continued this week. The first leg of my journey (taxi to Luton and easyJet to Rome) was a smoo...
Phil's Travels - Manchester, England (10.17)
20/10/2017
Phil's Travels - Manchester, England (10.17) The day before my first trip to the north of England in many a year I had been invited to play golf at Centurion Club by its Club House interi...
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.17)
11/09/2017
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.17) British Airways have surely lost the plot altogether now. We all know about the well-publicised crashing computers, failing luggage, striking staff and out...
Phil's Travels - Dawlish, Devon (07.17)
15/07/2017
Phil's Travels - Dawlish, Devon (07.17) Last Thursday evening I had Pimm's in a legal eagle's nest in the City (great views) and mojitos on the roof terrace of the Michelin Building. 'Twa...
Phil's Travels - Borkop, Denmark (06.17)
03/07/2017
Phil's Travels - Børkop, Denmark (06.17) Our one-night trip to the land of the Vikings started very early on Saturday morning, my lovely wife's third pre-dawn start of the week. Looming l...
Phil's Travels - Maldives (05.17)
14/06/2017
Phil's Travels - Maldives (05.17) This was a first for me. I had never been to the world-famous and highly desirous Maldives before. No one wanted to believe me that this was a business t...
Phil's Travels - Perpignan, France (04.17)
04/05/2017
Phil's Travels - Perpignan, France (04.17) Where else on this marvellous earth can one ski in the morning, sun bathe on a sandy beach in the afternoon, drink great value wine, see Colonel...
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (03.17)
05/04/2017
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (03.17) My flight from Zanzibar to Dubai, via Dar Es Salaam, was delayed over an hour, which meant I had time to work on my Zanzibar blog in the small, but hig...
Phil's Travels - Zanzibar, Tanzania (03.17)
05/04/2017
Phil's Travels - Zanzibar, Tanzania (03.17) Karibu sana! Every journey begins with a single step, and my initial steps were not auspicious. I left home at 06.00 on Sunday morning and real...
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.17)
12/03/2017
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.17) Gatwick at 06.30 on Monday morning was packed. All the security stations were open and facing long, snaking queues of impatient travellers grumbli...
Phil's Travels - Somewhere Impeccable, England (02.17)
17/02/2017
Phil's Travels - Somewhere Impeccable, England (02.17) Recently The Sunday Times claimed that this place "is done with impeccable taste and tastes impeccable". My lovely wife and I ...
Phil's Travels - Zagreb, Croatia (02.17)
17/02/2017
Phil's Travels - Zagreb, Croatia (02.17) On Monday 3 October 2016, one of the greats of our wonderful industry passed away during a business trip to Ireland. On Tuesday 7 February 2017, o...
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (01.17)
23/01/2017
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (01.17) Cyprus had a relatively tough time of it during the GFC ('global financial crisis'), but some signs of recovery are now evident, with stronger GDP growth a...
Phil's Travels - Hamburg, Germany (12.16)
31/12/2016
Phil's Travels - Hamburg, Germany (12.16) My outbound day of travel started with a very Jules Vernesque breakfast at The Reform Club on London's Pall Mall. Although times have changed a l...
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.16)
11/09/2016
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.16) This year the first week of our annual holiday coincided with the second week of Rio 2016, and, being in the Olympic spirit, I set out on a program of my o...
Phil's Travels - The Oval, London (08.16)
13/08/2016
Phil's Travels - The Oval, London (08.16) My first experience with cricket was a little like waiting for a bus. You wait forever and then two come along at once. Last week I was invited t...
Phil's Travels - St Petersburg, Russia (07.16)
14/07/2016
Phil's Travels - St Petersburg, Russia (07.16) I had the unusual pleasure of walking to Paddington under an unusually clear and sunny sky (the English summer has been appalling this year)...
Phil’s Travels – Henley Royal Regatta, England (07.16)
02/07/2016
Phil's Travels - Henley Royal Regatta, England (07.16) 'Tis the Season! The original Season first evolved in the 17th century when the British gentry had their primary homes in t...
Phil's Travels - RMS St Helena in London, England (06.16)
12/06/2016
RMS St Helena in London, England (06.16) Nearly three years to the day I was back on RMS St Helena, only this time not in the South Atlantic. The RMS was in London this week for its farew...
Phil's Travels - Lisbon, Portugal (06.16)
05/06/2016
Phil's Travels - Lisbon, Portugal (06.16) My day trip to Lisbon started at the silly hour of 03.00 when my alarm clock beeped. The taxi arrived at the silly hour of 03.40 and I arrived at...
Phil's Travels - Lisbon, Portugal (05.16)
20/05/2016
Phil's Travels - Lisbon, Portugal (05.16) My 04.00 taxi flew up Kilburn High Road and the M1 to Luton Airport in 30 minutes. We spent more time negotiating the chaotic works around the ai...
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (05.16)
12/05/2016
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (05.16) Knowing that the Bakerloo line does not stop at Paddington these days due to Crossrail works, I left home a little earlier than normal and walked to th...
Phil's Travels - Madeira, Portugal (04.16)
03/05/2016
Phil's Travels - Madeira, Portugal (04.16) Union strike action in the UK is a relatively rare occurrence, especially compared to our EU cousins across La Manche. However, my trip to Madei...
Phil's Travels - Nice, France (03.16)
21/03/2016
Phil's Travels - Nice, France (03.16) Compared to last week's trip to Gatwick, this week's Gatwick jaunt was much more relaxed (it helps when you use the right boarding pass). Although th...
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.16)
12/03/2016
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (03.16) My flight to Berlin was cut pretty close as the first two tube trains of the day at 05.15 passed through my station as "Not In Service" ghost trai...
Phil's Travels - Athens, Greece (02.16)
24/02/2016
Phil's Travels - Athens, Greece (02.16) Recently I read that the ECB and US Federal Reserve are on the verge of terminating "Bin Laden" and "Ben Franklin" respectively (aka the €500 and U...
Phil's Travels - Zagreb, Croatia (02.16)
15/02/2016
Phil's Travels - Zagreb, Croatia (02.16) Last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday (the day preceding the first day of Lent, the Christian fasting period before Easter), aka Pancake Day in the UK a...
Phil's Travels - Cannes, France (01.16)
31/01/2016
Phil's Travels - Cannes, France (01.16) The evening before my pre-crack of dawn journey to Cannes, I partied like a networker possessed. First, I attended a very classy affair at the Law ...
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (01.16)
24/01/2016
Phil's Travels - Dubai, UAE (01.16) This week I had the privilege of chairing the Global Hospitality Summit for the fourth year running and this year the organisers were hosting in Dubai....
Phil's Travels - Hamburg, Germany (12.15)
22/12/2015
Phil's Blog - Hamburg, Germany (12.15) Within 24 hours of landing in London after a whistle-stop tour of Jamaica and Atlanta Airport, I was in the air again with my lovely family winging ...
Phil's Travels - Jamaica (12.15)
11/12/2015
Phil's Travels - Jamaica (12.15) Jamaica! "No mon, she went of her own accord!" One of the very few jokes I can remember. This week I flew to the largest English speaking island ...
Phil's Travels - Milan, Italy (11.15)
29/11/2015
Phil's Travels - Milan, Italy (11.15) Another week, another 05.30 at Gatwick, only this week the airport was much quieter and I breezed through. Malpensa, Milan's second airport, Terminal...
Phil's Travels - Côte d'Azur, France (11.15)
23/11/2015
Phil's Travels - Côte d'Azur, France (11.15) Despite IS's terrifying attacks in Paris (killing 129) and a gun-toting Frenchman being arrested in Gatwick's North Terminal and recent catast...
Phil's Travels - Olympic Stadium + Dead, London (10.15)
07/11/2015
Phil's Travels - Olympic Stadium & Day of the Dead Weekend, London (10.15) For the last six weeks, the world's toughest lads have been beating six-bells out of each other i...
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.15)
04/09/2015
Phil's Travels - Cyprus (08.15) It was that time of year again, when our family spends the hottest two weeks of the year on the wonderful island of Cyprus. We have been travelling to Aphr...
Phil's Travels - Teignmouth, England (07.15)
12/08/2015
Phil's Travels - Teignmouth, England (07.15) For three weeks this summer my son went Interrailing, visiting Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Hvar and Split. I was paternally i...
Phil's Travels - Blue Moon in Lichtenstein (07.15)
08/08/2015
Phil's Travels - Blue Moon in Lichtenstein (07.15) Without knowing it in advance, our overnight visit to Lichtenstein coincided with a Blue Moon (aka an intercalary month), which seemed m...
Phil's Travels - Zurich (07.15)
08/08/2015
Phil's Travels - Zurich, Switzerland (07.15) When my lovely wife suggested we escape London for a long weekend whilst the kids are away, of course the first destination I could think of w...
Phil's Travels - Legoland Windsor, England (07.15)
08/07/2015
Phil's Travels - Legoland Windsor, England (07.15) My nephew chose to celebrate his sixth birthday at Legoland last Saturday and invited my daughter. As her chaperone and guide, I collect...
Phil's Travels - Athens, Greece (06.15)
20/06/2015
Phil's Travels - Athens, Greece (06.15) I visited Athens this week, home of the long running Greek tragedy without end. As a child, Greece was always on my short list of three must-visit ...
Phil's Travels - Galway, Ireland (0615)
13/06/2015
Phil's Travels - Galway, Ireland (06.15) I started my journey to the Emerald Isle from the City of London. Thinking it would save time, I took the Tube all the way to Heathrow T2, rather ...
Phil's Travels - Rugby v Soccer (03-0415)
07/04/2015
Phil's Travels - Rugby v Soccer (03-0415) In the space of 14 days I was fortunate enough to be invited to two major sporting events: England v France in the final and championship decidin...
Phil's Travels - Barcelona, Spain (0315)
20/03/2015
Phil's Travels - Barcelona, Spain (0315) This was my first trip to the awesome city of Barcelona in five years, a trip long overdue. I love the place - food, people, weather, architecture...
Phil's Travels - St Lucia (0315)
20/03/2015
Phil's Travels - St Lucia (0315) The Caribbean - islands of great beauty, easy living and delicious rum. Last week I flew to St Lucia on a belly full of Jamie's Full Monty breakfast from ...
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (0315)
04/03/2015
Phil's Travels - Berlin, Germany (Mar 2015) I was in Berlin for the 18th International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF), which meant an early start Monday morning. Flight boarding was smooth...
Phil's Travels - Valentine's in London (0215)
18/02/2015
Phil's Travels - Valentine's in London (Feb 2015) Love knows no bounds (or is that bonds?). In my case, when my lovely wife asked me to read all three volumes of Fifty Shades of Grey ...
Phil's Travels - Aberdeen, Scotland (0215)
17/02/2015
Phil's Travels - Aberdeen, Scotland (Feb 2015) Immediately after landing at Heathrow T5 from Brussels, we transferred to the departures area for a flight to Aberdeen. Who knows if it is b...
Phil's Travels - Brussels, Belgium (0215)
17/02/2015
Phil's Travels - Brussels, Belgium (Feb 2015) This was my first overseas trip of 2015 and I had forgotten just how wonderful London and Heathrow are. It took me just 1.5 hours from my des...
Phil's Travels - Design Hotel, London (Dec 2014)
09/01/2015
Phil's Travels - Design Hotel, London (Dec 2014) One of my Christmas presents this year was a night at a design hotel in London (what an American would call a 'bowtique' hotel, but certai...
Phil's Travels - Montreux, Switzerland
29/11/2014
Phil's Travels - Montreux, Switzerland This year I flew to Montreux with BA from the beauty of Heathrow T5, albeit slightly disfigured at the moment as they develop more super luxury reta...
Phil's Travels - Tower of London #2 (1114)
11/11/2014
Phil's Travels - Tower of London #2 (Nov 14) Back in early August, I went to see the first poppies being planted at the Tower of London. Today is the 11th of November 2014 and this mornin...
Phil's Travels - Chiltern Firehouse, London (1114)
07/11/2014
Phil's Travels - Chiltern Firehouse, London (Nov 14) As I am sure many of you have had an equally unfulfilled desire to my own, and I thought I would share my enthusiasm for a trip to the...
Phil's Travels - Madrid#2 (1014)
29/10/2014
Phil's Travels - Madrid (Oct 2014) Earlier this week I made a whistle-stop trip to Madrid, this time to show the founder of a London-based technology company the NH Living Lab concept we ...
Phil's Travels - Bristol, England
13/10/2014
Phil's Travel Blog - Bristol, UK (Oct 14) This has been a busy week. Last Friday I flew to Cyprus with the family for a wedding on Saturday and we flew back Sunday; Wednesday and Thursday...
Phil's Travels - Madrid (1014)
13/10/2014
Phil's Travel Blog - Madrid, Spain (October 2014) For the last few months I have been working with NH Hotel Group on some inspirational new concepts that will disrupt our very fuddy-duddy...
Phil's Travels - Nicosia, Cyprus (1014)
06/10/2014
Phil's Travels Blog - Nicosia, Cyprus (Oct 2014) On a foggy Friday morning in early October, we set out for Heathrow and a flight to Cyprus. The moody skies yielded a two-hour delay, mean...
Phil's Travels - Bath, England
16/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Bath, UK (Sep 2014) My son and I travelled to Bath today for our second university open day tour. It was my first train journey since coming back from hols and it feels l...
Phil's Travels - Erbil, Kurdistan
16/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Erbil, Kurdistan (Sep 2014) In all, I spent six days in Kurdistan, of which two in Erbil. Erbil is the political capital of Kurdistan and currently its economic centre (a...
Phil's Travels - Sulaymaniah, Kurdistan
16/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Sulaymaniah, Kurdistan (Sep 2014) Sulaymaniah (affectionately referred to as Suli by the Kurds) is Kurdistan's second city by population, the region's industrial and manufacturin...
Phil's Travels - Kurdistan, The Journey
16/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Kurdistan, The Journey (Sep 2014) When I told people where I was going, they told me I was mad, especially as Islamic State (IS, Daesh in Arabic) had just invaded and occupied la...
Phil's Travels - Paphos, Cyprus
04/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Paphos, Cyprus (Aug 2014) During our two-week vacation in Cyprus this summer, we returned to the seaside town of Paphos and booked into my family's favourite hotel for th...
Phil's Travels - Nicosia, Cyprus
04/09/2014
Phil's Travels - Nicosia, Cyprus (Aug 2014) It has been 12 months since I visited the birth place of Aphrodite and my lovely wife. Last summer the effects of the infamous banking "haircut...
Phil's Travels - Tower of London
18/08/2014
BLOG - Phil's Travels - Tower of London This is a two-part quickie for those who are not aware of some of the amazing events that take place in this amazing city. The first is a befor...
Phil's Travels - Wentworth
07/08/2014
BLOG - Phil's Travels - Wentworth (August 2014) Golf is a quiet interest of mine and something I will pick up more seriously in later life. My golf experience is very limited, having learnt to...
Phil's Travels - Didcot
04/08/2014
BLOG - Phil's Travels - Didcot, UK (July 2014) I had lunch with a friend last week and the topic of my recent visit to Didcot, near Oxford, came up. He asked why there was not a blog for ...
Phil's Travels - Tbilisi
18/07/2014
Phil's Travels Blog - Tbilisi, Georgia (July 2014) It is nearly 20 years since I last visited the wonderful city of Tbilisi and completed an operational review of the Metechi Palace,...
Phil's Travels - Nottingham
07/07/2014
Phil's Travels Blog Nottingham (June 2014) It is a Saturday and I have travelled by train again! I think I have been on a train more often in June 2014 than in the previous five years...
Phil's Travels - Oxford
07/07/2014
Phil's Travels Blog Oxford (June 2014) One of our current projects is so exciting, highly confidential and cutting edge that it required a visit to Brasenose College at Oxford University. ...
Phil's Travels - Amsterdam (again)
23/06/2014
Amsterdam (June 2014) For my fourth trip in seven days (after Dawlish, Malpensa and Paris), we flew to Amsterdam from the best terminal building in the world, Heathrow Terminal 5. Compared to ...
Phil's Travels - Paris
23/06/2014
Paris (June 2014) Back to back with Malpensa, the following morning I caught an early Eurostar train from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord. It is such a pleasure to travel this way, muc...
Phil's Travels - Malpensa
23/06/2014
Malpensa (June 2014) We are working on an exciting deal at the moment, which necessitated a visit to the relatively new airport of Malpensa (opened in 1997), 40km outside Milan. The airport wa...
Phil's Travels - Dawlish
23/06/2014
Phil's Travels Blog Dawlish (June 2014) Last weekend I took the family to see my parents, who live in the quaint seaside resort of Dawlish in Devon, England. For the first time in decades we ...
Phil's Travels - Amsterdam
20/06/2014
Blog - Amsterdam (May 2014) London was not the only city in Europe this week to enjoy persistent damp, never ending drizzle and miserably grey skies. I was in Amsterdam yesterday and the weath...
Phil's Travels - Ethiopia
19/05/2014
Ethiopia (May 2014) On the way back from Malawi, I stopped off for a day in the dynamic city of Addis Ababa. As with the outbound on Ethiopian Airlines, the flight to Addis was faultless....
Phil's Travels - Malawi
19/05/2014
Malawi (May 2014) Last week I travelled to Malawi for the first time. We were working for an American institution considering the funding possibilities for a new hotel to be developed in ...
Phil's Travels - Madrid
19/05/2014
Madrid, Spain (April/May 2014) During April and May 2014 I have made quite a few visits to Madrid on a very confidential, but extremely exciting new project. More on that in September hop...
Phil's Travels - Tripoli
19/12/2013
Tripoli, Libya (10-13 December 2013) I was supposed to visit Tripoli a couple of weeks ago, but my friends on the ground advised I should delay due to fighting at the time. I finally made it t...
Phil's Travels - Gothenburg
19/12/2013
Gothenburg, Sweden (9 December 2013) Early start from Heathrow to visit Gothenburg for the first time. Although I have not had a BA card higher than Bronze for some years now, my travelling co...
Phil's Travels - St Helena
19/12/2013
St Helena, South Atlantic (22 July - 12 August 2013) I have just come back from an amazing trip to an island in the South Atlantic, St Helena, a beautiful jewel of a place that lies between An...
London and the rest of Europe
05/12/2011
In terms of hotel markets, people often refer to London as a country within a country - there is London and then the rest of the UK. In the current climate it could be said that London is even mor...
Is the next big opportunity outside of London?
05/12/2011
On Thursday, 23 May 2011, Nick Pattie gave a presentation to an audience at the Henry Stewart Conference on the subject of future opportunities in the hotel sector outside of the London. A brief o...
Bridging Vision and Reality
05/12/2011
We are very excited to announce the launch of Whitebridge Hospitality, a specialist advisory and brokerage service to anyone with an interest in the hotel and hospitality industry. Whitebridge was...
