Conrad Maldives

Held in time as you watch schools of fish flit through the gin-clear waters, the feeling of being part of a living picture-postcard is hard to escape. Enveloped amid infinite blues, surrounded by rustling palms and sugar-soft sand, it all seems Photoshopped. But this is real life at Conrad Rangali...read more

Tyddyn Llan Corwen

Corwin

Stepping into the Duke of Westminster’s former shooting lodge feels like wonderful step back in time into a well-heeled friend’s country pile. Hidden at the gateway to Snowdonia National Park and the perfect staging post for a hike up Snowdon (take the Pyg Track for the best views), the countryside...read more

The Vineyard Hotel

Berkshire

Already a mecca for master oenophiles who flock to the sprawling five-star Vineyard for its neon-lit, 30,000-bottle wine cellar, novice noses should also make the pilgrimage. Put your taste buds on trial with the excellent Judgement tasting menu, which plays on the 1976 Judgement of Paris, when American New World...read more

Cotton House Hotel

Barcelona

To spend time here evokes a feeling akin to the soft embrace of a duvet day: it’s comforting, spoiling and relaxing all at once. You’ll find Cotton House in the Eixample District, poised in a 19th-century edifice on Grand Via. Run of the mill it ain’t. Its subtle motif, inspired...read more

South Seas Island Resort Captiva

Florida

For an Englishman playing golf in the Sunshine State, the sight of a 300kg alligator lazily sunning itself in the reeds next to the tee on the third hole will never get old. Though I get the impression the ‘gator in question has seen it all before. Feeling more like...read more

Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara

Oman

Something needs to be made clear from the outset and crystally so: Al Baleed Resort Salalah is absurd. The beachfront resort so epitomises the cliché of luxury that it borders on total nonsense. Yet the Anantara group’s touch is so sophisticated, its attention to detail so harmonious – from the...read more

The Wife of Bath

Kent

One of the UK’s best northern Spanish restaurants isn’t what you expect to find at a six-bedroom B&B in a sleepy Kent village. Unless you knew it were there, you’d never find it. Home to a couple of quaint riverside pubs, a haberdasher and two small restaurants, Wye hasn’t (yet)...read more

Rosewood Beijing

Beijing

Cao Xueqin’s saga Dream of the Red Chamber is considered the Chinese novel, and it is also the scarlet thread which runs through this ultra-luxe hotel in Beijing’s CBD. There is a leatherbound copy in each of the 283 bedrooms and exotic art inspired by the story throughout. As with...read more

Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace

France

September’s Ryder Cup takes place at Le Golf National, just outside Paris. It’s the first time the tournament has taken place in France and as such, they’ve chosen a course worthy of the occasion. Opened in 1990, it’s new and fresh, yet mature enough to prove a challenge when Europe...read more