The Ritz-Carlton

Thailand

With the bulk of winter still to come, now is precisely the time to start considering a fully fledged escape to the tropics. Our top pick for this month is a luxurious, coconut-shaded, orchid-scented haven of decadence on one of Thailand’s most flawless islands. Laugh in the face of the...read more

LFahrenheit Seven

Let’s be honest: Val Thorens in France’s Three Valleys isn’t going to win too many prizes in the ‘cute mountain village’ beauty pageant. But, for once, this brutalist kind of architecture works. Sitting at 2,300m, it is well above the tree line and promises a snow-sure experience and an elongated...read more

Anantara: The Palm Resort

Where do you stay in a place that puts up five-star hotels at the rate most cities put up parking restrictions? Somewhere where you can recline on a sun lounger and watch the frenetic pace of it all from afar, as you enjoy the serenity of your own, quiet patch...read more

Cobblers Cove

There are no shortage of beautiful properties on Barbados’ west coast. The most upmarket region of the island plays host to Rihanna and Lewis Hamilton’s neighbouring houses, and luxury is very much the deal, with glitz, glamour and some of the world’s finest hotels. Family-owned Cobblers Cove in Speightstown was...read more

Adare Manor

Surrounded by 341-hectare estate with winding woodland paths, medieval ruins and the magical River Maigue, sits the grand Adare Manor. It’s nothing short of an Irish fairy tale. The restored building houses 104 bedrooms, each individually decorated with Georgian-inspired mahogany furniture, fireplaces and roll-top bathtubs. Head chef Michael Tweedie creates...read more

The Village Pub

Barnsley

The Calcot Collection runs a cool little string of boutique hotels in the Cotswolds, offering innovative, open-necked luxury aimed at recharging urban creatives. Of them, The Village Pub feels like the group’s pied-à-terre: it’s conceptually simple and unfussy, and all the better for it. The six reasonably priced rooms are...read more

Grand Hotel Continental

Siena

Siena’s colourful contrade, or neighbourhoods, still inspire loyalty as deep as when the town’s Palio – the infamous bare-backed horse race – was inaugurated in medieval times. For a slice of Tuscan life, rest your head at Grand Hotel Continental. Originally a Renaissance palazzo, the restored building boasts 51 individually...read more

Stoke Park

Berkshire

When Auric Goldfinger’s Korean manservant Oddjob whipped off a statue’s head with a toss of his steel-rimmed Sandringham hat, Stoke Park became immortalised in movie legend for eternity. Connery’s Bond’s round of golf here is arguably the most famous representation of the sport on the silver screen and it couldn’t...read more

The Ludlow

New York

Manhattan’s gritty Lower East Side has long been dressed in European sentiment – the Dutch boweries of the 1600s, the Irish tenement rogues and Italian rapscallions of 19th-century novels, the famous Jewish delis and the avant-garde artists of the Seventies are just a few examples. Today, The Ludlow stands as...read more