Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby

Monica Galetti and Giles Coren visit ION Adventure Hotel in Iceland, a design hotel levitating out from a dormant volcano. Guests visit here expecting the adventure of a lifetime, exploring lava flows and glaciers. Taking guests snorkelling in near-icy water reveals secret and stunning rock chasms between the earth's tectonic plates, and learning how to keep guests safe on an erupting volcano is a trip of a lifetime.

Monica Galetti and Giles Coren visit Reid’s Palace on Madeira, which first welcomed the world's glamorous elite 130 years ago and is working to keep its silver service traditions alive in the modern world. Giles irons bedspreads in a suite once loved by Winston Churchill, and Monica cleans crabs out of the historic tidal swimming pool. Madeiran food is celebrated with line-fished tuna and fruity ice cream treats called lambayecas for the sunbathers.

Monica and Giles work in an ultra-modern, glass-fronted hotel overlooking the historic Croatian town of Rovinj on the Istrian coastline. This new hotel is seeking to work in harmony with the people and culture it has come from. Giles explores a hidden art gallery deep inside the structure and prunes the thousands of plants that frame the view of the old town. Meanwhile, Monica cleans Europe’s biggest single glass window, and together they go truffle hunting with dogs in the Istrian landscape.

Monica and Giles travel to Copenhagen to work at Nimb Hotel in the historic Tivoli Gardens. Giles learns to be the brake man on one of the world’s oldest wooden rollercoasters, while Monica changes lightbulbs on the ornate Moroccan inspired facade and dives to clean an vast tropical aquarium. Giles learns how to get a table at one of the city's most avant-garde restaurants, and Monica dresses in horror makeup to give Giles the pleasure of being terrified.

Giles Coren and Monica Galetti visit Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort, an extraordinary hotel built where people usually struggle to survive - deep in a Middle East desert. Surrounded as far as they eye can see by vast sand dunes and scorching heat, guests relax in palatial comfort with swimming pools, huge baths and lush gardens. Giles and Monica explore how all this water use is made possible and meet the staff who are coping with living and providing hotel service in such an extreme environment.

Monica Galetti and Giles Coren visit London's most expensive and exclusive hotel, the Lanesborough. It's the first time the hotel has allowed anyone behind the scenes. The hotel is set discreetly in a grand and historic building on London’s Hyde Park Corner. It's suites, costing up to £27,000 a night, are often rented for months at a time, and even the cheapest rooms come with a dedicated butler. Giles and Monica discover a friendly staff that makes staying here feel like home, and no request is too big.