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To say that the culture of the north of Italy is the cool-headed yin to the south’s hyper-dramatic yang would be to indulge in stereotyping of the broadest and most insensitive sort. But we’re going to say it anyway. Where else but the north (Moncalieri to be exact, an ancient resort town a few miles south of Turin, in the rolling hills of the Piedmont countryside) could you find a contemporary country boutique as subtle and quietly charming as the Country Residence Le Serre?

It must have been tempting to reconstruct this old house in a 19th-century style (or 12th-century, for that matter, to match the town’s famous old castle) and leave it dripping with antiques like some kind of museum or theme park — one need only look to the faux-antique farmhouses of picture-book Tuscany for inspiration. Or if you’re going to go modern, why not fly in Zaha Hadid and set the whole architectural world on fire?

But no. Le Serre’s proprietors took the almost-unthinkable third way, outfitting these fifteen suites in a conservative yet obviously contemporary style, keeping the original lines and timbered ceilings of the old house and filling it with new furnishings and modern fixtures. The colors are classic, but bold, the brick reds and olive greens a welcome change from the sponge-painted pre-faded pastels you might expect. Modern amenities like satellite television and wireless internet cheerfully shatter any 19th-century illusions — today’s Piedmont is as appealing as that of the 19th century, but with better bathrooms.

Thailand is, to most, something of a Wild West of holiday destinations, a place whose hedonistic spirit is at least as big a draw as its natural beauty. Chiva-Som Luxury Health Resort, then, is a slight departure from the conventional travel wisdom about Thailand.

As you might suspect from the name, Chiva-Som is anything but a debauched pleasure palace. Guests check in here to clean up and dry out, to relax and de-stress, to make major lifestyle adjustments. Here the spa treatments and the health programs are the main attractions, with the beaches and restaurants playing second fiddle, and your fellow travelers out by the pool are more likely sipping carrot juice than cocktails.

Despite the difference in purpose, however, Chiva-Som is every bit as stunning as the traditional resorts. The location is the seaside town of Hua Hin, traditional getaway of Thai royalty, two hours south of the capital on the mainland—not as removed from Bangkok’s bustle as Phuket, for example, but still anything but urban. The resort sprawls over the rolling hills between the town and the coast, a collection of bungalows and pavilions nestled amid landscaped gardens.

Guest rooms are handsomely minimal, with a heavy traditional Thai influence, and all the expected charms, like hardwood floors, hefty modern beds and spacious showers, separate from the slightly incongruous marble baths. Guest rooms in the main building have private balconies or terraces, and the pavilions scattered across the grounds offer an added measure of privacy.

As for the treatments, they range widely, from the encyclopedic menu of traditional spa and wellness treatments to the holistic and Ayurvedic programs to the medical or pseudo-scientific. Have your irises examined, if that’s your bag, but it doesn’t take a wellness specialist to point out that eating well, sleeping well and the occasional massage are bound to do some good.

Room descriptions:
Ocean View Room:
Ocean View rooms in the main building all face the Gulf of Thailand and Chiva-Som’s outside pool. They offer private balconies or terraces for drinking in the fresh air and relaxing atmosphere, and listening to the softly lapping sea. All ocean view rooms were renovated in 2005.
Thai Pavilion:
Built around the lake, the Thai Pavilion rooms offer a calm, peaceful atmosphere close to beautifully kept gardens. Watch carp glide in the lake from your sala and enjoy that sense of peace that comes from being close to nature. Larger than the ocean view rooms these are ideal if you prefer more space.
Herbal Suite:
The Herbal and Fragrance Suites, each with separate living rooms, feature much larger outdoor terraces overlooking the sea. The suites were renovated in 2005 and offer a larger lounge area, larger outdoor terrace, and feature a bathroom with two basin areas, ideal for couples traveling together. The bathroom also features separate bath and shower areas, which allows guests to take advantage of Chiva-Som bath treatments in their room. Included in these suites is an adjoining dressing and changing area. These suites can be made into two bedroom suites by combining them with an Ocean View Room.
Fragrance Suite:
The Herbal and Fragrance Suites, each with separate living rooms, feature much larger outdoor terraces overlooking the sea. The suites were renovated in 2005 and offer a larger lounge area, larger outdoor terrace, and feature a bathroom with two basin areas, ideal for couples traveling together. The bathroom also features separate bath and shower areas, which allows guests to take advantage of Chiva-Som bath treatments in their room. Included in these suites is an adjoining dressing and changing area. These suites can be made into two bedroom suites by combining them with an Ocean View Room.
Golden Bo:
Located in the main building, the Golden Bo suite has views of the Gulf of Thailand from both the bedroom and living areas. The suite has an extensive entrance lobby which features Thai artifacts and materials. This leads into the lounge area which features an ample sitting area for 4 people, a state of the art stereo system, DVD and television. Double doors lead into the master bedroom where all walls are covered with traditional Thai Silk giving a truly luxurious feel to the furnishings and bedroom. A private bathroom including a Jacuzzi, changing area and dressing table is located off the main bedroom area.

How to get there:

Chiva-Som is a 3 hour drive from Bangkok Airport. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

Please note: Naoura Barrière will be closed July 19 - August 23, 2009.

If ever there’s a hotel scene that could stand some shaking up, it’s Marrakech. Here your choices are pretty strictly limited: a tiny riad in the medina, a sprawling resort in the Palmeraïe, or the very rare luxury hotel that’s neither one nor the other. In this town a city-center luxury boutique, however classic, comes off as something almost revolutionary. Which goes some way towards explaining the appeal of Naoura Barrière.

This is the medina, the scenic old town, but accessible — you can entirely bypass the “lost down an endless warren of alleyways” portion of your holiday, and pull up straight to the hotel. And once inside you’ll find it’s a very palatable blend of the familiar and the foreign, roughly one part contemporary Parisian chic and one part history-steeped Moroccan romance.

The suites (they’re all at least juniors) are stylish and contemporary, no comforts spared, with charms from the high-tech to the low: from plasma televisions to good old-fashioned private balconies. Unlike the riad hotels it’s more about luxury and less about theater; and unlike the out-of-town resorts it’s still packed with Marrakech medina personality.

Add a full-service spa, a full complement of business services, and the Marrakech branch of the famous Fouquet’s restaurant, and you’ve got yourself an experience that’s confidently world-class, and yet shot through with local color — if there’s a better definition of what a good luxury hotel ought to be, we haven’t heard it yet.

It’s related to the Tablet favorite Remota, in Puerto Natales, and while it may lack the windswept edge-of-the-world theatrics of its country cousin, the Hotel Fundador shares a common approach, a dedication to innovative and unconventional interior design. You can thank the architect Germán del Sol; he was responsible for Remota as well, and it’s from his mind that the Fundador’s decidedly modern yet recognizably local style springs.

There’s a European thread running throughout, most noticeably in the furnishings. In the lobby canary-yellow Louis XV armchairs are posed delicately alongside the local Andean textiles. Up in the guest rooms you’ll find a continuation of the same lively palette, the spaces simple and low-key but saved from minimalism by color and by well-chosen details, some of them antique.

It’s certainly not white-glove luxury, but they don’t really do luxury here, not in the traditional sense — and it’s certainly not what Mr. del Sol is about. What it is is the simple pleasure of a well-designed — and uniquely designed — city-center boutique hotel, as fine an introduction to the Chilean capital as you’re likely to get from any of its hotels.

For anyone who’s ever wished they could combine the architecture and atmospherics of Morocco with the self-explanatory pleasures of a beach town, Oualidia is the answer. This fishing village turned vacation spot is where Marrakchis go when the tourist season hits, and it’s where you’ll find La Sultana, the Atlantic-coast franchise of the Marrakech-based boutique hotel.

It’s less than half the size of the Marrakech original, which suits this sleepy town just fine. And while that one lies in the bustling medina, this one is at the edge of Oualidia’s famous lagoon, and at first glance it’s not at all easy to tell where the lagoon ends and the infinity pool begins. The style is, in a way, exactly what you’d expect from a classic Moroccan seaside resort — stone, tadelakt, antique furnishings and original artworks. Colors are soft and sunny, and sunlight and space are both in plentiful supply.

Even with just eleven bedrooms La Sultana doesn’t skimp on the luxuries. There’s a full-service spa, complete with indoor pool, jacuzzi, and a variety of treatments. And the restaurant is a fine one, focusing on local Atlantic seafood — handy given your location, tucked away at the end of a dirt track at the edge of town.

Please note: The Veranda House cannot accommodate guests under the age of 10 years old.

Though it’s been here for ages, the Veranda House is anything but starchy. This 19th-century house, long known as the Overlook, has been in the family forever, but the new generation of owners have put it through a bit of a renovation — today’s Veranda House is retro rather than simply antique, and it’s the best of both worlds, sparkling new but still classic Nantucket in style.

A look at this place and you’ll see where it got its name; wraparound verandas on three levels look out over the gardens and Nantucket Harbor. It’s smaller than a luxury hotel, more stylish (and just plain more than a bed and breakfast — there’s definitely a niche in the market for this place. The eighteen rooms stop short of ostentatious luxury, but they’re not missing much in the way of comfort, from the plush Frette-clad beds to the subway-tiled rain showers to the flat-panel TV/DVD combos.

If you want organized activities and three-meal catering, then you’re probably staying at one of the big hotels down the road. Here they serve something called an “epicure-style” breakfast, which is essentially continental, but for foodies — like everything here, it’s smallish, modest in its ambitions, but just about perfectly executed.

The brand-new Park Hyatt Zurich may be a new addition, but it’s already indispensable. It’s got an absolutely central location, just off the Bahnhofstrasse, and given the kind of hypermodern efficiency and grown-up modernism the Park Hyatt chain is known for, it’s a wonder this town’s high-flying financiers survived so long in its absence.

Like all the best chain hotels the Park Hyatts are consistent, but only as consistent as they have to be. This one is decorated in soothing muted earth tones, in a way that seems to make beige somehow oddly relevant again, setting it off with rich hardwoods and crisp white linens. Space is plentiful, bathrooms are indulgent, and they don’t skimp on the details either, from Bang & Olufsen entertainment centers to Blaise Mautin bath products.

The Club Olympus is a spa and fitness center to rival any big-city athletic club, and the business services surely beat whatever you’ve got at your office. Two upmarket restaurants cater largely to business travelers on expense accounts, and you’re not hard up for choices outside the Park Hyatt’s doors — the Bahnhofstrasse is as close to a main drag as you’ll find in Zurich, and features a solid mile of high-end shops and boutiques.

The Eurostars group operates several successful luxury hotels in Barcelona; their latest additions, notably the new BCN Design, have been attracting more and more style-conscious travelers. BCN Design enjoys a prime location on the Passeig de Gràcia, and occupies an antique building that was gutted and redesigned as an ultra-contemporary boutique.

The 70-room hotel is anything but minimalist — with eye-popping colors, futuristic furniture, and asymmetrical shapes, BCN Design is like a microcosm of Barcelona itself. Artistic flair (think abstract wall murals, decorative chrome fixtures, and retro-Japanese lanterns) adds personality to the bold black and red palette. The public spaces, in particular, are a feast for the eyes, including a lounge with space-age chairs, like giant cushioned eggshells, and a gracefully illuminated terrace dotted with immaculate white umbrellas shading tables for four.

Guest rooms, though standard in proportion, are stylish, equipped with gleaming hardwood floors, large LCD televisions, and décor in inviting shades of white, charcoal, burgundy and black. Nine of the rooms also feature balconies; an additional suite comes with a private terrace overlooking the city’s premiere shopping district. Downstairs, the plush BCN Design Bar serves (what else?) tapas and Spanish wines. A brand-new fitness center and an outdoor jacuzzi are thoughtful touches, but it’s the style and the neighborhood that appeal — few guests will be tempted to shut themselves in, luxury-resort style.

The idea of the airport hotel has certainly changed. Of course it needed to: just the phrase “airport hotel” has become a sort of punchline, a phrase we use to describe the worst kind of hotel. But CitizenM has its own Facebook page. The other airport hotels just want you to check out on time, without stealing anything. This one would like you to be its friend.

It would be hard not to. From the outside at first it’s not much to look at, until you see that the perfect grid of square windows is slightly wonky, like a child’s blocks. Each one is a pre-fabricated unit, slotted into the structure, and one can’t help but be grateful that they’re good old-fashioned glass and concrete, and not steel shipping containers.

Inside they’re well-equipped, and all absolutely identical. The idea is “affordable luxury for the people,” and it seems the people agree on plasma televisions, rain showers, futuristic glass-walled bathroom pods, and above all on the Philips-designed “mood pad,” the kind of touch-screen master control panel you see in high-end Asian luxury hotels, only slightly friendlier. They also agree, crucially, on the importance of extra-large king-sized beds — many of the people are Dutch, after all.

A stylish canteen serves diverse fare 24 hours a day, and a twenty-minute train ride gets you into central Amsterdam, whose canal-house charm feels like a different world to the modern-utopian CitizenM. And if you’re coming back for a repeat stay, hang on to that room key. Not only will it speed the semi-automated check-in process, but it’ll also store your mood pad settings — here computers make the whole experience that much more personal, if that’s not too strange a thing to say.

It’s never easy to let go of a comfortable old idea. We’ve gone on and on in these pages over the years about what a conservative lot Paris’s hotels are. The point was beginning to stretch a bit already, but now, on the occasion of the opening of the Five Hotel, it’s time to retire that old line for good. Because if enough new places like the Five open up, we’ll have to start droning on about how surprising, how whimsical, how visually modern the hotels in Paris always are, and couldn’t someone just put in a Louis XV chair or a crystal chandelier or something, to give us a break from all this design?

We’re not quite to that point yet. Which is a good thing, as it just means there’s still good reason to be excited about the Five. It’s still not every day you see a hotel painted in solid vivid colors like this, walls gleaming with the texture of Chinese lacquer, tiny pinhole stars floating up the walls and onto the ceiling. Fixtures and furnishings are simple and contemporary, some rooms featuring platform-style beds suspended from the ceiling — watch those hanging wires. And all of the rooms, though minimal, come with the basics, like satellite LCD televisions and high-speed wireless internet access. Beyond breakfast, you’re on your own, but this being Paris, you know the drill — if you can’t find something to eat around the Latin Quarter then there’s no hope for you.