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Lita Luuse
58 posts
About Lita
My earliest travel memory is standing in front of Sagrada Família at the age of eight, entirely overwhelmed. I’ve been chasing that feeling of overwhelm ever since – the good kind, the kind a truly exceptional hotel or destination can produce in the first sixty seconds of arrival.
I’ve been writing about travel for over eight years, and in that time I’ve developed a particular eye for the properties that earn their stars rather than simply displaying them. My coverage at PrivateUpgrades spans luxury hotels in Central European cities – Prague, Vienna, Budapest – through to beach resorts in Portugal, and destination hotels in South Africa and the Americas.
Family travel is an area I approach with specific care. Finding a resort that works for parents who want genuine relaxation while also keeping children properly entertained (not just parked) is harder than it sounds. I’ve vetted properties in Miami, Greece and the Caribbean with this question at the forefront, and I never recommend a family stay I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking myself.
I’m drawn to hotels with a sense of place – properties where the architecture, the menu, and the spa treatments all tell you unambiguously where you are. The Four Seasons Prague, housed in a cluster of baroque and Renaissance buildings, does this beautifully. So does the Mandarin Oriental in the same city. I write about hotels like these not because they’re famous but because they’ve earned the visit.
Beyond hotels, I’m interested in the destination itself: the food markets, the neighbourhoods worth walking, the cultural context that makes a city worth returning to. My articles try to give readers a full picture rather than just a room recommendation.
I believe that transparency is the foundation of useful travel writing. If something didn’t work during a stay, I say so. If a property is undergoing renovation, I include that. The readers of PrivateUpgrades are sophisticated travellers making real booking decisions, and they deserve accurate information rather than marketing copy.
