Giles Coren and Monica Galetti travel to South Africa - where they experience a land of contrasts through working in two very different hotels. The Silo is an industrial-chic, luxury art-themed hotel in the heart of Cape Town. It sits in the former elevator shaft of a 90-year-old, 187-foot grain silo (once dubbed the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa) and on top of the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa - the African equivalent of the Tate Modern - within the same re-purposed historic building. The redesign of the silo building was led by British star designer Thomas Heatherwick, who created 96 stunning windows which contain over 5,300 individual panes of glass overall and cost ú50,000 each to construct.

In this Christmas special, Giles and Monica travel to Kulm Hotel, St Moritz. This Swiss Alpine hotel was the birthplace of winter tourism more than 150 years ago. The Kulm's owner, Johannes Badrutt, made a bet with summer guests that if they returned in the winter and didn't enjoy themselves he would pay for their stay. The guests stayed for the season - and a new industry of winter leisure and sports was born. The current managers of the Kulm (one of whom was born there!) try to embrace the hotel's history whilst finding new ways to attract younger generations. Giles launches into the traditional grand hotel's life by being fitted up for a bellboy's uniform to work alongside veteran head concierge Silvio. Monica helps joint MD Jenny transform her office into a private dining room for the evening.