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By the time you get to Playa del Carmen it’s pretty clear you’re in Mexico — so why the big hotels insist on playing up the colonial-kitsch influence, we couldn’t begin to say. Some of the more distinguished hotels break this mold, however, like Mosquito Blue, a small, stylish and laid-back hotel, and something of an architectural statement, in its own subtle way, blending the traditional Yucatan look with distinct Polynesian and modern Mediterranean elements, resulting in a style that’s charming and unique.

Standard rooms are cozy and rather dark, in the Spanish style, on the principle that there’s more than enough sunshine outside. If you’re dying to bathe in natural light, then a Deluxe with an outdoor patio — or one of the bright and airy suites — might be more your speed. In any case, the rooms and suites are handsome, spare but not minimalist, comfortable but stopping well short of flash luxury.

The Glass Bar is not just a bar but a restaurant as well, serving Mexican and Mediterranean cuisine. Here you’re rather closer to Playa del Carmen’s nightlife than to the beach (itself just a very short walk away), which suits this adults-only getaway just fine. Diversions include two quiet and child-free pools and a fairly lavishly equipped spa, and there’s a private beach a few minutes farther down the road for when you’re after a measure of privacy.

In New York real estate circles the word “prewar” is one that holds a special significance. This is the era stretching back from the start of the Second World War to, for all practical purposes, roughly the dawn of the 20th century. When buildings were buildings, elevators had attendants, and a height of fifteen or twenty stories was enough to scrape the sky. It’s not just the solid construction, although that certainly doesn’t hurt. It’s also the aesthetic appeal of what’s for many of us the most romantic period in New York’s history. And in large part this romance is what the Mansfield Hotel is all about.

The massive year-long renovation had two aims: to restore the historical character of the building, and at the same time to bring the hotel up to current New York standards. Rooms are intimate, as vintage NYC hotel rooms tend to be, but efficiently designed, and packed with plush comforts — microfiber bathrobes, luxury linens, iPod radios, that sort of thing. The Club Room is a classic library/parlor, and the M Bar is a slightly retro nightspot, in keeping with the general tone of the Mansfield. Downstairs is a completely modern gym, but it’s not enough to break the spell — upon your exit to 44th street and the bustle of midtown Manhattan you just might feel a bit of future shock.

We’d be willing to bet that when you imagine five-star luxury hotel in the heart of Luxembourg City, the chances of your coming up with something that looks like the Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal are slim indeed. Though Luxembourg is not exactly well known as a hotbed of modern interior architecture, this is the kind of hotel that goes a long way towards changing the public’s perception of a place.

This is a chain that knows what they’re doing, taking the most agreeable elements of corporate hospitality—the consistency, the service—and marrying them with a visual sensibility that’s always at very least slightly ahead of the curve. Here at the Grand Ducal they’ve gone several steps further into the future. Rooms are anything but conservative: colors are vivid, furniture rakishly modern, yet the comforts, underneath it all, are the equal of any city-center luxury hotel.

And the public spaces are no less distinctive. The Grand Ducal trades dainty salon style for a striking, graphic look, especially in the Coco Mango bar, where the bold and distinctly Asian look threatens to overwhelm the panoramic rooftop views. Admit it: egg-shaped chairs and acres of pink neon are nobody’s idea of a Luxembourg stereotype.

Luxury hotels in India tend to fall into one of two camps: the lavish Western-style resorts, with the sobering divide between corporate travelers and locals; and the new high-design boutiques, cool and intimate but strangely ahistorical. The Taj West End transcends both categories. Opened as a ten-room boarding house by a British couple in 1887, the property, Bronson’s West End, was considered Bangalore’s first hotel. The gabled colonial house, graced with old-fashioned dormers, trelliswork, and carved fascias, changed hands a few times, first serving as a stopover for foreign officers, and later being purchased by the Taj group.

Today a massive jacaranda tree still sits in the central courtyard of the 20-acre garden property, and English-style butlers cater to the whims of guests in 117 rooms and suites. Standard rooms, housed in the 1905-vintage Heritage Wing, offer wireless internet access and private verandas over the garden. Spacious club rooms come stocked with wine and chocolates; villas scattered about the property contain luxury suites with separate living rooms. The decor throughout the guest quarters and public spaces is a mix of vibrantly hued fabrics, proper tea sets, and high thread-count sheets (read: a blend of traditional Indian, English colonial, and contemporary styles).

Dining options include the Blue Bar, situated amidst water gardens, and the Vietnamese Blue Ginger restaurant. Masala Klub, a gourmet Indian eatery, is the Taj West End’s newest culinary venue. And if two modern swimming pools and a slick fitness center clash a bit with the colonial-era vibe, there’s always a hike in the nearby Nandi Hills.

Most often when you talk about a private island hotel you’re talking about Tahiti or the Caribbean, not the western coast of Scotland. But then the Isle of Eriska isn’t your typical hotel. For one thing, there’s a bit of golf here, but not in a contemporary “golf resort” kind of way — here there are just six holes, so you’re playing for love of the game more than anything else. And while this big old house looks enough like a castle, it’s still quite small — with just seventeen rooms it’s intimate in the way a typical luxury hotel can’t be.

The lounge is classic enough, with its roaring fireplace, but the rooms are surprisingly up to date — they’ve clearly had a recent luxury-hotel makeover, and they mix a bit of antique style with contemporary clean lines and all the luxury you could need. Rooms in the old house are up to five-star standard but it’s the outlying spa suites and cottage suites that go above and beyond, in terms both of space and comfort. And while Scotland’s islands might not be known for balmy temperatures and baby-soft beaches, any effort to get out into nature will be amply rewarded — this is some of the most unspoiled landscape (and seascape) in the British Isles.

The sleek, new-on-the-scene Sè San Diego brings together an unusual mix of stylistic influences — and, considering its nearly instant popularity with the city’s fashionable young set, the results are a hit. First, the interior design, very cool and masculine, filled with rich leather and polished wood, and sensuously lit even at noon, looks like it belongs in a New York hotel. But look more closely and you’ll detect Asian inspiration in everything from potted lotus flowers to exotic cocktails and the Zen-like spa. And the social life? It’s happening, to say the least, which reminds you that you’re still in southern California, even if the San Diego scene is sometimes more reminiscent of Vegas than LA.

Yes, the lively scene around the large infinity pool, which is surrounded by cozy private cabanas and served by the Uber Lounge, is one the main reasons to stay here, but there are others. Like the personal “experience consultants” that welcome you with champagne, the hotel’s luxury SUV chauffeur dervice, hundreds of rare teas on offer alongside fresh, unusual cocktails in the lobby lounge, and the fantastic Suite & Tender, a classy steakhouse with a cool contemporary edge. Then there are the guest rooms themselves, seductively decorated spaces lined with Brazilian walnut and filled with smooth dark wood tables, high-design sofas, plasma TVs and state-of-the-art sound systems, 400 thread-count sheets, and bathrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Since Sè rises high in downtown San Diego’s skyline, many of the 161 rooms and suites offer excellent views. But unless you’re planning on partying into the wee hours, or are a very sound sleeper, make sure you’re not placed in a room near the pool — otherwise you’ll be sleeping through the popular European-style brunch in the morning.

Even the most jaded jet-setter would have to agree that Cappadocia is a magical place. Tucked deep into Turkey’s central countryside, the region is covered with sedimentary stone cliffs, eerie caves, unearthly “fairy chimney” rock formations, and antique chapels and houses carved deep into the soft volcanic rock. The Cappadocia Cave Resort, as the name suggests, is one of several upscale hotels allowing visitors to experience the unusual landscape first-hand.

The resort isn’t actually inside a cave, not quite; it’s a massive stone structure, brilliantly glowing at night, that’s built into a hill in the village of Uchisar. But the décor takes partial inspiration from the dramatic curves and textures of Cappadocia’s famous grottoes: many of the guest rooms seem perpetually candlelit, with low arched doorways and rough, cavern-like stone walls. But that’s where the stylistic nod to primitive cave dwellings ends. The ornate furnishings, from decorative rugs to painted ceramics, pay tribute to local craft tradition, and the amenities are thoroughly modern, including large LCD screen televisions, wireless internet, and hydro-massage showers. Suites also contain extras like in-room jacuzzis and fireplaces; some even have huge round beds that add to the exotic atmosphere.

At too many resorts, spas are ho-hum. Here the traditional Turkish bath and the gorgeous Leea Spa is the hotel’s crowning glory. The hammam, for the uninitiated, involves lying on a hot marble slab, various massages, and relaxing in the steam room. The ice room and salt room are also wonderfully out of the ordinary. Afterwards, go for cocktails in the Erciyes Pool Bar, where the windows open to panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, before sampling savory Turkish treats at the Padishah restaurant or sashimi at the (rather unexpected) sushi bar.

How to get there:

By Plane:

The hotel is 86 km away from Kayseri Airport and 55 km away from Nevsehir Airport. Turkish Airlines (THY) has flights both to Kayseri and Nevsehir airports, but Pegasus, Sunexpress and Onur Air have flights only to Kayseri.

By Car:

Uchisar is 730 km from Istanbul, 280 km from Ankara, 600 km from Antalya, 760 km from İzmir and 620 km away from Pamukkale (Hierapolis).

Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers or to get directions.

If you’re looking for a window into an earlier era of British hospitality you could do a lot worse than the St. James’s Hotel and Club. This gorgeous bright red Victorian house stands at the end of a cul-de-sac off St. James’s Street, and it aims to recreate some of the atmosphere of the gentlemen’s clubs of the last century.

It’s part of a German luxury chain, and essentially a re-creation rather than strictly a renovation of the original St. James’s Club, yet it’s remarkably successful all the same. Purists and historians will recognize the contemporary Continental touch, but what matters most is the air of luxury and exclusivity about the place. The sixty rooms are not massive, but they are exceedingly comfortable, and the style is both plush and posh, if not certifiably plummy.

There’s a high-end restaurant and a swanky little bar and bistro, and the St. James’s semi-public spaces seem never to end — if there’s anything about it that’s got the spirit of the best London clubs it’s the conspiratorial atmosphere that develops in the little side-rooms and antechambers. Even better, for our money, are a couple of the suites, which look out over the West End from rooftop terraces.

While seemingly everyone is perennially flocking to the Côte d’Azur, there’s a sizeable contingent that prefers a seaside getaway that’s a little less glam. Not to say the Ile de Ré is gritty, exactly, but the unpretentious little port town of Saint-Martin is a magnet for a certain set of urban sophisticates, from Paris and elsewhere, who prefer a charmingly ramshackle seaside town to the conspicuous extravagance of a Cannes or a Saint-Tropez — and if there’s one hotel that perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of Saint-Martin-de-Ré it’s the Hôtel de Toiras.

It’s run by a veteran of the Parisian high-end hospitality world, and yet it’s refreshingly low-key, classic in style but never imposingly formal or off-puttingly opulent. Her restaurant, La Table d’Olivia, is simple coastal French, and the bar is a clubby little lounge, more like a drawing room than a nightclub. Meanwhile the rooms, named for figures from the Ile de Ré’s past, are straight-faced and traditional — design is clearly beside the point here. What is entirely the point is the atmosphere, both within this classic small hotel and out and about on the harbor and in the town. Brittany’s Atlantic coast may still sound to some like an odd choice for a holiday — let’s try to keep it that way.

What was once a fading and slightly tacky seaside resort town is currently enjoying something of a renaissance, and a new hotel like the Duomo can’t help but propel the town a little further into the 21st century. The Israeli-born architect Ron Arad’s bold hypermodern redesign is aimed at a youth market that Rimini once neglected, and the Duomo is set to become an obligatory stop on the city’s burgeoning club scene.

Down a quiet side street in Rimini’s old quarter, the Duomo’s facade has been modernized; still, it can’t quite prepare the eye for the interior, the gleaming steel ring and columns of the reception, the bold colors of the public spaces, the cool tones and soft whites of the guest rooms. For all its flash, though, this is proof that modern design can be futuristic and functional at the same time — the rooms are striking but never awkward, and the bar and restaurant are successful spaces, if the bustle of constant activity is any measure.

This is certainly not your father’s Rimini, nor Fellini’s either. Time will only tell if the rest of the town evolves in this direction, but for now the Duomo works quite well as an attraction unto itself, an avant-garde outpost in a traditional town.