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In the postwar years the Tresanton was one of Britain’s favorite seaside hotels, before falling on hard times from the Seventies on. Lately it’s again become one of Cornwall’s hottest spots, rescued from the ravages of time by Olga Polizzi, perhaps best known as the keen decorator behind her brother Rocco Forte’s global brand of big-city luxury hotels.

Here in the seaside village of St. Mawes, the feeling is anything but big-city. The Forties construction is all still in place, looking unassuming enough from the outside, just a collection of small seaside houses scattered up the hillside. It’s the interiors, though, that attract attention, as you might expect; not at all Forte-style luxury chic, the style is something a little more homegrown, with period touches like authentic antiques, bathroom-floor mosaics and tongue-and-groove construction.

The bedrooms also offer something few city hotels can match: every one features stunning panoramic views of Cornwall’s south coast and St. Anthony’s lighthouse. The restaurant is a fine one, with a menu that changes daily, emphasizing local seafood and produce. Weather permitting, dinner can be served on the terrace, offering a close-up view of the harbor. And if the unpredictable Cornish climate isn’t cooperating, there are worse places to be stuck than in one of England’s most comfortable lodgings.

Le Cap Est Lagoon Resort and Spa is on the Atlantic side of Martinique, 18 Creole cottages containing 50 suites, nestled against a sparkling crystal blue lagoon. This place is French through and through — its owner is descended from Martinique’s first French settlers, who arrived in the 17th century.

The feeling is equal parts island castaway and Parisian luxury hotel, with impeccable service and every modern convenience. Some tropical resorts tout their lack of technology as some kind of character-building exercise, but Cap Est trusts you to decide for yourself whether to use the plasma-screen television or the DVD player. 31 suites have outdoor showers and even plunge pools, and all have views of the lagoon.

The service seems imported from Paris as well, and in some cases, this is literally true — many of the restaurant staffers are veterans of Michelin three-star establishments. La Bélem is the award-winning fine dining restaurant, classically French, with an absurdly large selection of wines and obscure rums. The other, Campêche, is open for lunch, serving fresh lobster and fish by the beach.

Any beachfront or aquatic activity one would desire is available here, in addition to helicopter tours and 4×4 excursions into the tropical forest. The prime focus, though, is on unwinding in the most decadent manner — complete inactivity at the Euro Spa is by far the most popular activity.

Aimé Césaire Martinique International Airport is just 25 kilometers away, on the west side of the island. From there, Cap Est is 35 minutes away by car, between the villages of Francois and Vauclin. Those traveling by helicopter will be pleased to find that the hotel has its own heliport.

Some high-design boutique hotels come on like your “cool” uncle, the one who’s wearing a lampshade for a hat by the end of Christmas dinner; so determined are they to be fun that it’s almost enough to put you off the very idea of fun for life. So it’s a relief when a hotel can be confident and visually striking without continually cracking jokes and trying hard to impress.

The Cortiina’s rather serious approach has proved to be eminently suited to Munich, and it’s managed to be awfully hip (witness the crowd in the lobby bar, always the measure of a hotel’s social success) and at the same time completely dignified, even grown-up.

It’s minimal and austere throughout, and not in a cheap way either — the materials are rich and smartly selected, from the unfinished flagstone walls of the lobby to the oak floors and paneling in the bedrooms and the Jura stone in the bathrooms. The slightly beige linens on the bed do more than just accentuate the cream-and-brown palette — they’re unbleached, environmentally friendly, and just closer to the pure Platonic cotton-ness of cotton. The idea is a bit “urban resort” — calm and restful, almost secluded once you’re in your room, though in reality you’re in the heart of Munich, just off the Marienplatz, a location that comes in handy, since here, without whimsical design gestures to amuse you, you’re responsible for your own entertainment.

This close to Koh Samui’s bustling Chaweng Beach, the greatest service a hotel can provide is a break from the crowd. Enter the Library, a stunning modern minimalist hotel, set on an acre and a half of protected land. It’s so named not just for the hush that falls over you upon entry — though that part is nice too — but for the collection of books and videos that line the walls of the all-white reading room down by the beach.

Accommodations are spacious and bright, and look even more so, by dint of the sparse décor: platform beds, black lacquered furniture, spare modern furnishings, and plenty of soothing stark white. Ground-floor suites come with open-air living rooms and Jacuzzis, while upper-level studios make do with balconies and eye-catching square bathtubs.

In the end the Library’s calling card might be not the library itself, but the striking red-tiled swimming pool, to match the red deck umbrellas and the red upholstery in the otherwise monochrome guest rooms. Or, less literally, it might just be the air of exclusivity about the place — all the action you could want is just minutes away, but the Library affords a rare tranquility.

The thing about China is that it’s just really massively big. Yes, that’s the kind of insight that makes Tablet Hotels such an authoritative source. But be honest: when you think of a Chinese holiday, the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan is probably not the first place that comes to mind.

But like we said, China is vast, and contains multitudes. Lijiang, for example, the home of this particular Banyan Tree resort, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, an ancient town surrounded by endless rice fields with a spectacular view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (which needs little additional description) and just generally about as scenic as a place can be.

As for the resort itself, it more than lives up to the promise of its location — its 55 villas are in the no-holds-barred luxury vein, scattered amidst tranquil gardens and pools. Within them you’ll find just the necessities — sprawling bedrooms, palatial bathrooms, and yet more pools: jet pools, plunge pools, or even full-fledged swimming pools. And should anyone need to unwind a bit after all that plunging and pooling, there’s a spa to end all spas, and a dizzying array of treks and tours for the restless, conducted on foot, bike or horseback, through the rugged Yunnan countryside.

Closed until February 11.

Add another to the rolls of places in Tuscany that seem almost too amazing to be true. Here, a couple of miles outside the ancient walled city of Lucca, you’ll find the Hotel Albergo Villa Marta, a 19th-century hunting lodge lovingly restored by its husband-and-wife owners into an intimate 11-room guest house, surrounded by so many of the classic trappings of rural Tuscany that it almost seems like a put-on: rolling hills, sprawling vineyards, landscaped gardens and even a view of the San Cerbone convent.

Guest rooms are traditional in style, some with exposed beams, others with frescoed ceilings, and all furnished in a restrained antique style, not precious but just elegant. And these rooms are all new: beneath the classic veneer you’ll find modern fixtures and conveniences, including, on the ground floor, disabled-access rooms.

The views from the bedrooms take in the property’s gardens and the surrounding countryside, but a little walking reveals more, including an outdoor swimming pool and a tiny private chapel, perfect for a storybook wedding (or just for dropping hints to your spouse-to-be). A lavish breakfast is one of the Albergo Villa Marta’s particular strengths, and if you’re in a gourmet mood, wine tastings and cooking classes can be arranged. Ask for recommendations from among Lucca’s finest restaurants.

How to get there:

Exit the Firenze-mare motorway (the A12) at LUCCA OVEST. Follow the signs for PISA onto the SS12, and from there, follow the signs for the Hotel Albergo Villa Marta. After 3/4 km, in the village of San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, turn left into the Via del ponte Guasperini. After about 500 meters you will see the Albergo Villa Marta on the left.

Time was, travelers to Patagonia were faced with a pretty stark choice: rough it in a tent or a hostel, or splash out five-star–style at Explora. But it seems the market has found a third way, as markets will: Puerto Natales, increasingly, is home to more than a few sub-luxury, supra-hostel options. The most stylish of which is, in our judgment, the Indigo Hotel & Spa.

Puerto Natales sits right on the Last Hope Fjord, and the hotel, a pair of rugged and charmingly mismatched buildings, stands at the edge of the water. From here it’s a modest drive to Torres del Paine park, which is what most people are talking about when they talk about Chilean Patagonia; and the town is accessible by plane and ferry, which the more remote reaches of the park are not.

Which makes this an ideal jumping-off point. As a hotel, Indigo is architecturally daring and stylistically very modern — from the interiors you’d think you were in one of the world’s great style capitals, not a remote Chilean outpost town. Rooms are comfortable enough, and vary according to price — the cheapest, for example, feature only showers, while the Indigo Suite has a deep soaking tub. A restaurant and lounge keep you fed and watered for your adventures, and the spa takes the edge off any end-of-journey fatigue; the three outdoor jacuzzis with views of the fjord and the Balmaceda glacier are Indigo’s little corner of heaven.

It’s stylish, it’s plush, it beckons you off the street with its cheery yellow exterior. But perhaps the best thing about the Bairro Alto is the hotel’s choice location on Lisbon’s main square, Praça Luís de Camões. This central spot would make its poet namesake proud: serene by day, the square is home to a number of Baroque churches and historic cafés, with easy access to the nearby fashion district. At night, it becomes a hub for exploring the local clubs and watering holes that overflow onto the side streets through the wee hours of the morning.

But rest assured – returning to a room at the Bairro Alto after a late night of red wine and fado music is quite a treat. The hotel’s designers worked hard to preserve some of the charming details of the original 18th-century mansion while incorporating the work of contemporary Portuguese artists, such as the sculptor Rui Chafes, who created the two cast iron works in the main lobby. Private rooms, as well, feature original photography and paintings. A modern sensibility has also been applied to the more practical elements of this revamped mansion: all of the rooms have Brazilian hardwood floors, marble bathrooms, DVD players, and wireless internet capability. If money’s no object and you can’t survive a vacation without a lion-claw bathtub, you might consider upgrading to a suite. But no matter which room you book, don’t forget to crack open that complimentary bottle of port to kick off your holiday right.

Don’t miss the welcoming public spaces of the Bairro Alto. The Café Bar, which opens onto the street, is decked out with festive Cubist furnishings, while the Terrace serves up fresh salads and panoramic views of the Tagus river.

With Phuket filling up as fast as it has been, many prefer a hotel where they can get some privacy and shut out the outside world. To make this happen anymore takes someplace small, someplace like the twenty-room Bundarika Villas, set against a backdrop of coconut palms, facing out over the small and secluded Layan Bay.

This is the sort of hotel where you don’t have to venture off the grounds (or even outside of your accommodations) if you don’t want to. Each of the twenty villas opens up onto a private courtyard complete with a pool, a lotus pond, and either an open-air sala or, in the case of the larger suite villas, a spacious enclosed living room.

Interiors are pretty much what you’d expect, which is not a criticism — clean lines and simple yet luxurious furnishings (yes, in dark wood) go well with the meditative atmosphere of a place like Bundarika.

The spa is one attraction that just might tempt you out of your shell, offering a full complement of treatments as well as some athletic pursuits like yoga and tai chi. The Bussabann restaurant aids in your fitness regimen by publishing exact calorie counts for every dish — or alternatively, for couch potatoes or privacy freaks, offers an extensive in-villa dining menu.

For a luxury hotel it’s an awfully imposing structure — they’re not typically rough-hewn granite monuments. But this is is no ordinary luxury hotel. The Liberty is imposing and monumental because, in a previous life, it was a jail — the 1851-vintage Charles Street Jail, with a riverside Beacon Hill location that was presumably lost on the original inmates.

If you stop to consider all the implications it’s a strange comment on the state of modern hospitality that a jail can be so successfully converted into a luxury hotel. But it’s not a puzzle you’ll feel like dwelling on once you’re comfortably ensconced in one of the Liberty’s rooms. To be fair, most of them are in the modern addition behind the old jail — but even the 18 converted cells in the historic building are swanky, with flat panel HD-LCD televisions and Molton Brown bath products. At this point the old cell windows have been expanded, floor-to-ceiling, and the exposed brickwork just adds to the atmosphere.

One restaurant is called Clink, and one of the bars (set in the old drunk tank) Alibi; they’re joined by a rustic Italian restaurant and a Veuve Clicquot champagne bar. And there’s plenty to do beyond the Liberty’s walls: Beacon Hill is one of Boston’s hottest neighborhoods, and a luxury hotel fits the location perfectly.

It’s easy to forget (especially when traveling by train, or heaven forbid, driving) just how civilized a place Italy is. But the fact that even a city like Turin is supplied with top-flight luxury hotels like the Principi di Piemonte should tell you something.

One of the first things it tells you is actually that this is a culture that’s very fond of marble and gold. But where this hotel could have lapsed into excess — and, prior to its 2006 renovation, probably did — the Principi di Piemonte atones with a healthy dose of purifying contemporary design, tempering its baroque flourishes with a bit of neutral-toned minimalism.

This is primarily a business hotel, Turin being one of Italy’s industrial northern cities; the rooms come with desks, ergonomic chairs, and wireless internet access. A full-service spa ensures that nobody leaves unrelaxed, and the restaurant and bar provide hurried travelers with in-house dining and nightlife options. The Principi di Piemonte’s central location, three hundred meters from the train station, makes it convenient for all sorts of errands: plentiful transport links make traveling relatively easy, and the Via Roma, with its wealth of stores and boutiques, is a short walk away.

We’re often partial to cutting-edge design around here, it’s true — but a hotel like this one, in the postcard-perfect Italian countryside, proves that the classics never go out of style. Here, in inland northern Tuscany, roughly between Florence and Lucca, stands the century-and-a-half-old Grotta Giusti Natural Spa Resort, a 64-room luxury retreat that’s straight from the old school.

The rooms and suites have just enough modern technology to get by; you won’t be mistaking these pastel-toned interiors for “design hotel” rooms anytime soon. This is a hotel from the days before there was such a thing as a design statement — before a spa needed a “concept” beyond “soak in some hot baths for a while.”

In fact you’ll find little of the modern boutique about the place at all, aside from the modest size; what you will find is old-fashioned luxury, classic Tuscan-villa atmosphere, and a spa that’s got as much in common with Roman baths as with modern medicine — holistic medicine and beauty treatments abound, but it’s the simpler pleasures, like the cavernous underground grotto, or the 750-square-meter outdoor thermal pool (complete with waterfall and underwater hydromassage), that really shine.