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When some hotels are getting smaller and less conspicuous, there’s opportunity at the high end. The new St. Regis Mexico City isn’t about to be mistaken for a humble little boutique — it stands atop architect Cesar Pelli’s Torre Libertad, a shining glass skyscraper on the Paseo de la Reforma, towering over the Fountain of Diana.

While some of the brand’s other exemplars tend toward the traditional, the St. Regis Mexico City is quite contemporary — not modernist, by a long shot, but simply up to date, its rooms filled with contemporary-luxe comforts and elegant, if unassuming, furnishings. Views range far over the sprawling city, and tactile pleasures include 350-thread linens, deep soaking tubs and plush bathrobes. And the service is a special point of pride: the St. Regis has as many butlers as some hotels have rooms, and there’ll be one on duty for you 24 hours a day.

Expect the full complement of five-star hotel services. There’s a spa and an indoor pool, both with views, and the third-floor Diana restaurant frames a view of the fountain just outside. They’re due an upgrade, though — a steakhouse by Jean-Georges Vongerichten is set to open some time in 2010.

Le Taha’a Island Resort & Spa is the kind of place that needs very little selling. What could be more self-evident than the appeal of a private island on a lagoon in the Tahitian archipelago, surrounded by 48 overwater bungalows? You could probably just about wade there from the main island of Taha’a, but it’s just a five-minute boat ride around the lagoon. And once you’re there it feels more like a private world than just your ordinary everyday private island.

There are twelve beach villas with private plunge pools, in case you’re the sort for whom ultimate walled-in privacy trumps overwater romance. But the bulk of the accommodations are of the on-stilts variety, such that the first order of business upon waking could quite reasonably be a little dip in the South Pacific. Some have views of the main island of Taha’a, others the distant Bora Bora, and still others are ideally positioned to watch the sun set — but when that’s the extent of the choice you have to make, it’s a sign that things in general are going pretty well.

The name mentions the spa, although it should rightly go without saying at a resort of this caliber. So if for some reason you’re stressed here, they’ll help you relax. It’s not cheap, but it’s hard to see how it wouldn’t be worth it — Le Taha’a is about as far as you can go in the Robinson Crusoe direction without actually getting yourself shipwrecked.

How to get there:

Le Taha’a is a 5 minute boat ride from the main island of Taha’a and 35 minutes by boat from Raiatea Island. To reach Raiatea, guests can fly to Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, and then board one of the daily 30-minute Air Tahiti flights to Raiatea.

Cambodia’s fast-growing luxury-tourist destination witnessed the defeat of the Thai Empire, the French colonists and the Khmer Rouge. But the Victoria Angkor betrays nothing of the region’s former struggles. Instead the hotel reflects the best of the past, including the peaked roofs and heavy wooden frames signifying the French influence on Asian architecture.

Management keeps a few vintage Citroën cars out front, to heighten the 1930s vibe (and they’re available for use with one of the hotel’s drivers). Off open-air corridors, the rooms and suites have wooden floors and framed Cambodian prints; each has a balcony too. Le Bistrot de Siem Reap serves “cuisine du marché,” whatever’s local and fresh prepared in a classically French style, while another in-house restaurant, Le Jardin de l’Apsara, features Khmer specialties.

At night the hotel’s own dance troupe performs Aspara (Angkorian) classics in the garden, whose palm trees and indigenous foliage heighten the feeling of seclusion and relaxation. There’s also a large saltwater swimming pool as well as a separate, smaller crocodile pool (emphasis on separate). For other types of entertainment, guests may enjoy an open-air massage at the Le Lotus Blanc Spa, walk across the street to the precisely landscaped Royal Gardens, or take a motorized tuk-tuk to a little-known local landmark known as Angkor Wat.

Consider it a “business boutique,” for lack of a better phrase. The Hotel Charleston dates back to the 1980s, which means it anticipated by some years the boutique hotel boom. And yet with its modest size (64 rooms) and its emphasis on style and design, a boutique hotel it most certainly is.

The audience, though, skews a bit toward the business-oriented, which makes some difference to the Charleston’s atmosphere. Distinctions between business and leisure guests are to some extent artificial, but there’s a sense here that there’s more going on than just a cocktail-bar scene. Business clearly doesn’t mean boredom, though, at least in Bogotá — the rooms are stylish, minimalist yet never dull, and the restaurant and bar are lively and well-designed.

In terms of services and amenities the Charleston is up there with more traditional luxury hotels. There’s wi-fi everywhere, and iPod docking stereos in the rooms. Space is plentiful, and the suites are particularly expansive. And if the look is a bit on the sober side, it’s no less attractive for it, in cool-toned neutrals and dark wood. There’s plenty of meeting space, if you need it, and the location couldn’t get much better — here in the northern zone the financial and commercial destinations are close at hand.

It’s often said that Pennsylvania is a microcosm of all of America — one big city on each end, and three hundred miles of farms, mountains and small towns in between. To look at the exterior of the Hotel Fauchère, in Milford, which looks straight out of American Gothic, you’d think you’d found the Platonic form of the rustic Pennsylvania farmhouse. But venture in and you’ll find a boutique hotel that’s a lot more contemporary and cosmopolitan than you’d expect, defying any concept of rural America as a somehow backwards “flyover country.”

This is a part of Pennsylvania perhaps best known for affordable family fun, but the Fauchère has a decidedly upscale vibe. The renovation halved the number of rooms, thereby doubling their average size, and most of the change is in the bathrooms, which are lavish and spa-like, stocked with Kiehl’s toiletries. The look is conservative contemporary-luxe, but the fixtures are modern, right down to the massive feather-topped beds and the radiant underfloor heating.

The artwork is largely local, much of it from the Hudson River school, which is a massive step up from the usual hotel décor. And though you don’t often think of Pennsylvania as a culinary hotbed, the Fauchère’s restaurant and patisserie (that’s right) are first-rate. Behind the cocktail bar is a massive photo of John Lennon and Andy Warhol, which should give you some idea of exactly how urbane this rural getaway is — traffic permitting, you’re well under two hours from New York, making the Fauchère a surprisingly apt choice for an escape from the city.

How to get there:

Reaching Hotel by Car:

From New York City through New Jersey, 75 Miles - Approximately 1hr 35mins.

Reaching Hotel by Train:

From New York City to Port Jervis:
Metro-North Railroad

* Penn Station in NYC to Port Jervis

* Coordinated change at Secaucus

* Approximately 2-3 hrs

Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

Back when it was called the Empire, this downtown San Francisco classic played a role in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Now, after a very thorough renovation and re-branding, the film plays on a loop in the lobby. Recently, as the York, it was showing its age — but that was before the reins were handed to the Californian designer Thomas Schoos, whose baroque-modern sensibility is perfectly suited to the Vertigo’s dizzying mix of old and new.

The location places you midway up Nob Hill, a couple blocks west of Union Square, perfectly situated for shopping and sightseeing, yet integrated into the neighborhood and off the main tourist drag. The rooms aren’t huge, but none in San Francisco are, and what they lack in sheer acreage they make up for in personality, with modern fixtures alongside antique-style chairs and some charmingly oddball objets d’art.

There’s no restaurant just yet, but in this town you’re never more than fifty yards from good food. Anyway, they’re working on it. It doesn’t change the fact that the Vertigo has come out of nowhere, and is suddenly one of the most stylish in town — and if you know San Francisco you know how uncommon that is.

Italy, in general, is no stranger to contemporary design, to say the least, but Naples has always been a different story. Never the most forward-looking city, it’s nevertheless now developing a bit of a modern streak — and a hotel like the Romeo couldn’t have existed any sooner.

With a location between the harbor and the old town the Romeo certainly isn’t hiding itself away. And with a design by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and a graphics and branding concept by the London-based Pentagram it’s out to make an impression. The artworks and photographs are by contemporary Italian artists, and the furniture and fittings come from the likes of Philippe Starck and Antonio Citterio.

You certainly can’t fault the Romeo’s comforts, from king-sized beds swaddled in silk to Bang & Olufsen electronics and high-tech modern bathrooms. They’re more stylish than is strictly necessary for business travelers, and far too well-equipped for the average tourist — a couple of suites even feature in-room exercise equipment, and there’s even a four-room spa — which sounds to us like a winning combination. And in Naples you’d expect the culinary experience to come front and center: Il Comandante is the rooftop restaurant, serving regional dishes with views of Vesuvius and Capri, and the lobby, charmingly, features a remarkably authentic sushi bar.

By now you’re probably prepared to see a W cropping up just about anywhere, but Doha? How, quite frankly, is the high-design luxury chain’s whole nightlife-centric, anything-goes approach supposed to work in buttoned-up Qatar? The answer: pretty well indeed. For foreigners the W Doha provides a fine introduction to a city that’s working hard to become a world capital — and for locals the W offers a much-needed excuse to kick up the old heels, metaphorically at least.

The style may tempt you to call it a boutique, but with 445 rooms this is definitely the big time. That’s an asset actually, when you consider the W’s big and bold approach — 445 rooms means up to 800-some guests roaming about the place, only adding to the general air of chic sophistication.

Everyone comes together in the bar, itself something of a rarity in this country, even now. And upstairs, whether you’re a sheik or a financier or simply a nomad on a budget, there’s a room for you — they start, in typically understated W style, at “Spectacular,” before passing up through “Extreme WOW” and into the realm of the residences, with all the comfort and service of a W room and the added benefit that it’s yours alone.

If your idea of fun in Vegas is an irony-drenched Fear and Loathing experience, then Palms Place just might not be weird enough. It’s a subset of the office-park-sized Palms complex, and its suites are among the most stylish in town, extravagant though they may be; if you’ve ever wanted a cantilevered infinity-edge hot tub suspended twenty-odd floors above the strip, then this is your place. And if a simple rotating bed is what your evening plans require, they’ve got that too.

Normally all this lurid, tickling opulence that we’ve come to know and love about Vegas usually comes with a near-fatal dose of kitsch. Rooms of all sizes at Palms Place are taut and modern but not short on flash. Brilliant white marble bathrooms, stainless-steel kitchenettes and wood-paneled living spaces with killer light fixtures — rather than ancient Rome or medieval Venice it looks a bit like a modern-luxe take on Hong Kong or Shanghai. The pool, complete with fire pits and waterfalls, is similarly mod.

There’s a spa and a Turkish hammam for purging toxins, useful indeed in Sin City. And once one starts investigating nightlife and dining options it become apparent how vast the Palms complex really is. Palms Place is just the newest (and by a mile the most stylish) tower in what’s already a well-established hotel. You’ve got ten restaurants to choose from, as well as eight bars and clubs, and the Playboy Club casino — and that’s without ever leaving the grounds.

The original Exedra, on the Piazza della Reppublica in Rome, sounds like a strange proposition for Nice — how would its monumental colonnaded grandeur translate to this sunny seaside town? It’s a question that’ll never be answered, as the actual Exedra Nice turns out to be a very different animal. For while the exterior is certainly grand — though Belle Époque grand rather than Italian Republic grand — the interiors, thoroughly renovated, present a face that’s quite a bit more contemporary.

The rooms still show the occasional rococo flourish, as in the ornate headboards, but the overriding atmosphere is one of spare and sunny Mediterranean minimalism. In the public spaces things get even a bit more modern, with organic rounded forms, and the restaurant contrasts crisp clean lines with rustic weathered floorboards. The spa is almost futuristic, especially the wet room, which looks like a film set from an unmade Drowned World adaptation.

Classic luxury-hotel pleasures are of course not overlooked; there’s a pool and fitness center, and events space as well. The main restaurant specializes in fresh Mediterranean seafood, and the hotel’s location, on Nice’s main boulevard, means you’re centrally placed — the Exedra’s bar is a Nice nightlife mainstay, and the old town is a short walk away.

Leuven is a land of superlatives. It boasts the oldest Catholic university in the world, which also happens to be the largest university in the country. Then there’s the longest bar in Europe, which is within staggering distance of the smallest bar in Belgium. Martin’s Klooster is a bit harder to quantify—but by our metrics it’s the top hotel in town.

Leuven is inherently a pretty mellow place, and the Klooster is nothing if not relaxed. Individually decorated but generally sharing the same calming brown-and-beige palate, the bedrooms tend to whisper rather than shout. There are 40 rooms in all, including two fashioned from the original sixteenth-century towers. Some even feature fireplaces, latticed windows, and stained glass, which echo the building’s past lives as a convent and private residence for a member of the royal court. Common spaces are cozy, full of cushiony chairs and conversation nooks.

An interior courtyard heightens the sense of peacefulness, as does the car-free cobbled street that borders the Klooster’s exterior. Most of Leuven’s noteworthy sites are within walking distance, from the lively Old Market to the extremely ornate City Hall. And for those who simply can’t get enough, tours of the Stella Artois brewery, in operation since 1366, and the tiny, artisanal, and much, much younger Domus brewery are available as well.

It’s not exactly topping any magazines’ lists of the season’s hot destinations. And its time as a regional capital is centuries past. This lack of attention, however, might make La Antigua more rather than less appealing — and the fact that development essentially halted after an 18th-century earthquake renders the city uniquely pleasing to the eye. It’s in these historic environs that we find the Posada Del Angel, a tiny gem of a hotel in the old town center, in the shadow of the volcano that looms above La Antigua.

The seven suites are well-maintained and modern in function if not in style — the comforts may be contemporary but the look is decidedly old-world. Such luxuries as 600-thread linens and a courtyard lap pool are welcome, of course, but a place like this is less about amenities and more about atmosphere. If you’re in La Antigua at all it’s to soak in the spirit of 1773. To that end there’s a lavishly decorated dining room, as well as an open-air living room and a rooftop terrace. It’s an intimate and insular place, and there’s little chance you’ll mistake the Posada Del Angel for a typical luxury-hotel experience; that, of course, is exactly what’s special about it.

Since the Fifties this splendid, sprawling palace has been at the top of Jaipur’s luxury hotel market. Rambagh Palace began its life as a guest house for Rajasthan’s royals, and the more things change, the more they stay the same — it’s a part of the Taj hotel group now, and is more or less a guest house for the modern version of royalty: the well-heeled high-end travelers who keep the world’s five-star hotels in business.

As far as the experience goes, it’s more or less what you’d want it to be. Rather than design-hotel surprises, the Rambagh Palace aims for an old-world aristocratic fantasy — and, for the most part, it succeeds quite admirably. Many of the basic rooms have been renovated and are nothing if not comfortable — but if you’re really after the full effect then you’d be well advised to move up to the suites. Not just for the space and the added comforts but for the design as well; this is where you’ll find antique style to match the Palace’s public spaces, plus views of the gardens, and butler service as well, which you don’t need us to tell you is a good thing.

You may know the Viceroy hotels from Miami or Santa Monica or Palm Springs. We wouldn’t have bet money that their next expansion would be into the tonier end of the British West Indies, but that’s exactly what the Viceroy Anguilla is — and on 35 acres of land, alongside a private beach that spans the better part of a mile, it’s a decidedly upscale experience.

The design is by the same Kelly Wearstler whose maximalist sensibility has attracted so much attention for the stateside Viceroys, but here the look is a much more sedate one — still eclectic as ever, from driftwood-inspired furnishings to eye-catching objets d’art, but it’s a style that’s as much soothing as it is stimulating. And there’s plenty for the other senses as well: this is a luxury experience, make no mistake, with full kitchens, private sundecks, and private pools in many of the villas.

It’s boutique style with the full resort experience: pools, spa, endless beach, restaurants, water sports, the whole package. And while Anguilla may not yet be on the same short list of first-choice holiday destinations with Miami and LA, the way things are going it won’t be long before it is.

Eighty-five minutes outside of New York and you could still be in North Jersey, or partway across Long Island; eighty-five minutes from central London and you’re lucky (in a manner of speaking) to be in Luton. But somehow, just eighty-five minutes outside Tokyo you could be at Gora-Kadan, a one-time imperial family retreat, now a first-class ryokan inn in the middle of the Hakone national park, a rural idyll in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Forget carbon footprints and all that — if Gora-Kadan doesn’t make you a believer in high-speed rail then nothing will.

The construction is contemporary, but the style, of course, is traditional, and everywhere you turn there’s a magnificently framed view of the Hakone countryside. Rooms come in semi-Western as well as typical tatami styles, and some have open-air wooden or stone baths. The spa goes beyond the classic onsen and dips into international treatments such as thalassotherapy and Dead Sea Salts; most impressive, however, is again the natural setting, a mineral pool ringed with enormous rocks. Dine on seasonal, local classics, expertly curated by Gora-Kadan’s chef, and enjoy the utter silence of the Hakone national park — it feels a long, long way from Tokyo.

The Kempinski Hotel Moika 22 St. Petersburg is a throwback to an earlier era, the days a century and a half ago when St. Petersburg was still very much part of Europe; its neoclassical exterior, in fact, was designed by a Dutch architect. These days, as Russia re-assimilates itself, this sort of thing is very much in demand — to this day the restaurants are French, and the tea room serves a traditional English service.

From within the rooms, though, it’s unmistakably St. Petersburg. The views take in the skyline and the Moika river, as well as the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace. Interiors pay homage to St. Petersburg’s history as a port city, in rich maritime blues and reds, and the comforts are about as luxe as you’d expect from a five-star hotel in 21st-century Russia — which is to say, very luxe indeed.

Old meets new, perhaps, is the theme, Tsarist Russia re-imagined for the post-Soviet era. There are more modern hotels in town, but few with as much character as the Kempinski Moika 22. The ninth-floor spa has an extraordinary city view, as does the top-floor restaurant — there’s no chance, in this hotel, of forgetting what city you’re in.

The flip side of the insular, sequestered charm of the typical Marrakech riad hotel is that, at times, they can feel a bit claustrophobic — one man’s cozy is another man’s cramped, and what to one designer looks like a classic Arabesque fantasia looks to another overstuffed and overdecorated. Of course, with so many excellent riad hotels, there’s room for all kinds, and the relatively expansive and uncluttered end of the scale is where you’ll find Zaouia 44.

Its courtyard feels wide open, airy, sunny, an impression that’s only helped along by the white walls. And the rooms carry on in a similar vein — though hardly minimalist, they are a bit spare, relying on contrast between white walls, dark wood and red carpets to create their strong visual impression. It’s a compromise between contemporary clean lines and traditional riad interiors, and it sacrifices no comfort in pursuit of optical impact.

Where Zaouia 44 is utterly traditional is in the areas where tradition is unambiguously best: the courtyard pool, the hammam, the rooftop terrace, and the location, right at the heart of the old medina. No one riad can be all things to all people, but there’s a sizable contingent for whom Zaouia 44 will be just right.

If you went by what the travel press says you’d think Marrakech and Morocco were different names for the same place. But there are other cities in Morocco — one of them, Rabat, even happens to be the capital. It’s less a pure holiday spot than Marrakech or Essaouira, of course, but its seaside location is charming enough, and like any capital, it’s got a need for some decent hotels: quite a bit more than decent, in fact, judging by the Sofitel Rabat Jardin des Roses.

Sofitel can typically be counted on to raise the stakes wherever they go; their Parisian-influenced style is sexier than the typical luxury hotel, and they’ll match up to many a boutique in the looks department. This one is suitably North African–influenced as well, with mashrabiya-style wooden screens and ornately carved headboards. Underneath it all, however, it’s an utterly contemporary luxury hotel, with all the bells and whistles that entails.

Plus a few extras. A pool is probably to be expected, but an Andalusian garden, an orange grove, and a driving range are a bit above and beyond. As for the location, it’s anything but standard business-district fare — here you’re in the heart of the historic city, near both the Royal Palace and the Mausoleum.

Algodon Wine Estates, in the Argentinean province of Mendoza, brings together two of the favorite pastimes of civilized gentlemen (and ladies): fine wine and golf. Those with a predilection for spending half a day swinging clubs and putting on the green, and the other half swirling and sipping glasses of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, will be right at home.

A family of golfers developed the 18-hole golf course and purchased the original Algodon villa in the mid-‘90s. Their dramatic transformation of the rustic adobe house resulted in a contemporary villa-style hotel complete with spacious suites, wireless internet, satellite TV, and a range of stylish amenities. There are throwbacks to the villa’s history in the antique structure, and some welcome modern additions — a fireplace in every room, for example.

A second, recently constructed lodge feels fresher and more modern, but offers a little less antique character — though who’s complaining when every room has a private patio and the stone-tiled bathrooms come with “wine therapy” bath products? An indoor wet bar and two public fireplaces are inviting locales for a nightcap; during the day, chaises around the pool beckon sunbathers, and the courtyard fills with the aroma of grilled meats during the lunchtime asado. Around the villa, olive groves invite an evening stroll.

As one would expect of a resort in a world-famous wine region, the cuisine is a major focus here. The restaurant, featuring a shaded brick patio and rustic pine tables, draws a nightly crowd of guests and non-guests alike with its organic regional Argentinian menu and bottles of Malbec and Bonarda produced onsite at the Algodon vineyards.

How to get there:

Algodon Wine Estates is approximately a 3 hour drive from the city of Mendoza.