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Phuket has lately been one of Thailand’s more popular destinations, and it was inevitable, really, that Westerners would eventually catch on to this tropical island idyll. The Royal Phuket Yacht Club predates most of the new development, and is in some sense the island’s grand dame, still one of Phuket’s most elegant and luxurious properties.

One gets the sense here that they are untroubled by the new kids on the block, and deliberately play up the old-world aspects of the resort — staffers seem to be dressed for a jungle expedition, rather than in black designer outfits, and the service is more formal than at some of the more style-conscious resorts. Rooms, though decorated in a traditional blend of Thai and Balinese styles, have all the modern appointments, such as satellite TV and internet access. And the hotel’s facilities include everything once comes to Thailand for, from the pool, tennis courts and water sports to the Royal Spa.

But what makes this place special is the sense that guests here are somehow above the fray, isolated from the circus atmosphere of the big resorts. All of the rooms have large balconies or terraces with sublime views of the Andaman Sea, and many overlook the picturesque Nai Harn Bay or Promthep Cape. All in all, the perfect place to secret yourself away; and the next time you hear someone say Phuket is getting popular, you can truthfully say “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Now with oxygen enriched rooms” - Hotel Monasterio

And at ten thousand feet above sea level, it certainly seems that piping oxygen into the guest rooms is an idea whose time has come. Cusco is the oldest living city in the Americas, and one of the highest. The city was once the capital, even the Mecca, of the Incan Empire.

The hotel itself was built as a Spanish colonial seminary more than 300 years ago - and the mix of Incan and Colonial cultures is what makes Cusco special. Not only is the landscape quite impressive, but it is surrounded by a wealth of architectural ruins, even within the city limits, and just a day trip away from Macchu Picchu. The explorer can arrange for a hiking and camping expedition along the Inca Trail.

The rooms and suites are a blend of modern and Spanish colonial style, befitting their heritage as, essentially, dormitories for Jesuit missionaries. No two are quite alike, in dimension or design, though all are rather charming and authentically “old-new world.” Most, but not all, are oxygen-enriched. No, they are not joking about that. Altitude sickness is no walk in the park, and has, apparently, been a problem in the past.

The Illary Restaurant, adjacent to the main courtyard, is the modern luxury hotel restaurant, featuring Peruvian and International Orient Express cuisine. The El Tupuay Restaurant, housed in what was once the monastery’s refectory, is the more traditional Peruvian restaurant, open for breakfast and for Saturday’s Inca Dinner.

Fitness options within the hotel are severely limited. Then again, at 3,300 meters above sea level, a brisk walk is an aerobic workout, and merely sitting up in bed might be considered exercise. However, for the truly irrepressible, there are more strenuous options available outdoors, including mountain biking and whitewater rafting.

A tip from the concierge for those who may prefer a hike outdoors - the Sacsayhuamán ruins, just north of the city, are much closer and more extensive (therefore possibly quite a bit more appealing) than those at Macchu Picchu. And the Spanish culture has of course left its mark - there are a number of fantastic churches and cathedrals scattered about town.

How to get there:

Hotel Monasterio is a 10 minute drive from Cusco-Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport. Hotel Monasterio can provide a car transfer service from the airport to the Hotel Monasterio for approx. $20-30 USD. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

The flagship Ferragamo store at the foot of the Spanish Steps would already be something of a holy place, if you’re into that sort of thing. Less well known, but possibly more exciting, is what’s upstairs, in the top floors of this 19th-century townhouse: the Portrait Suites, the newest in a string of chic city boutique hotels by Lungarno, the Ferragamo family’s hospitality concern.

As you’d expect from that kind of pedigree, the Portrait Suites have style to spare. The designer is the same Michele Bonan who’s responsible for the rest of the Lungarno hotels, and he’s in fine form here, turning out interiors that are elegant, understated, and above all richer than rich, from the silk curtains to the elevator, lined not just in leather but in ultra-luxe boarskin leather.

Simpler pleasures abound as well — many rooms come with petite balconies overlooking the action on the streets below, and the hotel’s finest detail has to be the rooftop lounge, serving cocktails by the fireplace with a view of the Spanish Steps. You can’t stay on this world-famous shopper’s boulevard without being prepared to drop some cash, but if money is truly no object then try the penthouse, with its own kitchen, sauna, and private terrace — there’s possibly no more princely lodging in all of Rome.

Our Tablet Spy program offers the chance to get early looks at the most promising new hotels. If you’re willing to take the risks associated with staying in a hotel that’s just opened — then you’ll be rewarded with the chance to help decide whether the hotel will earn a place on Tablet Hotels.

You can have your design hotels. This fifteenth-century villa, on the Fiesole hillside overlooking Florence, has undergone a thorough renovation for the purpose of converting it into a modern boutique hotel — but a look around the place will confirm that it was more a restoration than a redesign. It’s not all Renaissance splendor, though that’s a part of it — Il Salviatino’s influences are drawn from every era of its existence, including frescoes from the nineteenth century and furnishings from the early twentieth, as well as some well-chosen contemporary design pieces.

This is a town that’s sometimes a bit too backwards-looking, but Il Salviatino is proof that modern living and classic style aren’t mutually exclusive. Imagine a carefully edited minimalist take on a classic Tuscan palazzo and you’re most of the way there — one that’s highly theatrical, more romantic than baroque, and in terms of luxury, more plush than opulent.

A place like Il Salviatino is much more about atmosphere than about services and facilities, and a little goes quite a long way. Dinner on the terrace looking down at the rooftops of Florence is an experience that won’t soon be forgotten. Before long, though, the spa will be open for business — we expect to hear a few reports of travelers who never found time for a look at the Florentine galleries.

The transition from civilization to wilderness is perhaps more abrupt in Australia than most anywhere else. Just three hours’ drive from Sydney, from city traffic to rough-and-tumble dirt roads, the Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa is about as close to the outback as most of us will ever need to get.

It’s not exactly the hardscrabble ranch life, however; Wolgan Valley is part of Emirates’ new hospitality project, and the Dubai-based air carrier typically tends towards the more luxurious end of things. The resort centers around an extensively renovated 19th-century farmhouse, while the 40 villas are sparkling new, and as comfortable and luxe as any accommodations in Australia.

Of course state-of-the-art living quarters are only part of the story. You don’t drive three hours for a nice hotel room, you do it for the Wolgan Valley itself, and for the nearby Blue Mountains. The unspoiled landscape is just stark enough to cross over to sublime from merely beautiful. And there’s no guilt involved. You might not expect to hear it from a Dubai-based airline, of all things, but the Wolgan Valley Resort is a thoroughly green operation.

The end result is perhaps less a spiritually charged walkabout than a bit of high-luxury unplugging. Ownership aside, Wolgan Valley is quintessentially Australian — and as accessible as it is, this feels about as far “away from it all” as you can get without stranding yourself on a desert island. Just do yourself a favor and choose something rugged at the airport rental desk.

Queensland is often unfairly regarded as the uncultured cousin of its southerly neighbors, those edgy urban nests of Sydney and Melbourne. Put it down to the Australian competitive spirit, since any claim of The Elandra as being anything less than cosmopolitan, luxurious or refined is nonsense, evident as soon as one enters its lavish fusion of styles.

Wooden walkways connect the Elandra’s buildings, leaving the rich ecology of local flora and fauna undisturbed. Happily, the opposite isn’t always true — human guests are quite often visited by curious locals; cassowary families are known to stroll casually through back patios on their morning walks, while butterflies, frogs and various fuzzy marsupials are all part of the scenery as well.

Remodeled in 2007 by ex–stage actress Katrina Knowles, the Elandra’s inner spaces reflect Knowles’s considerable travels, and the design is a dramatic mix of global influences. Tribal totems, Moorish lamps and African artifacts give the property’s shiny white interiors an overriding exotic appeal — something that defies all Australian resort conventions; there’s not a dolphin portrait, shell sketching or dried starfish to be found on the entire premises.

The centerpiece of The Elandra — and the thing to which most guests will feel helplessly drawn — is its sizable pool. Skirted by designer loungers and Moroccan-style day beds to which gourmet food and beverages can be summoned, hours here magically turn into days, guests tuning out to the hush of the ocean and the silhouette of swaying palms against pastel skies. If only The Elandra were home.

How perfectly Granada: the Villa Oniria is one part classically Andalusian, one part historically Moorish, and one part architecturally modern. It’s right in the heart of this chaotic city, but you’d be hard pressed to feel the chaos — the Villa is designed a bit like a Moroccan riad, the whole thing turned inside-out around a central courtyard, and so from within it’s an oasis of absolute calm.

Rooms are attractively contemporary, in sedate earth tones, all the furnishings modern but somehow adding up to an impression that evokes a romantic past — no small feat, and if we knew how they did it, we’d go into interior design ourselves. The better rooms have deep soaking tubs, but for everyone else there’s always the option of the spa downstairs, which is accompanied by a small fitness room and even a little swimming pool, a much-needed refuge from Granada’s daytime heat.

The restaurant lives up to Spain’s reputation as a country that’s mad for gastronomy. For this kind of quiet, intimate atmosphere you’d be prepared to stay somewhere a bit more secluded — the fact that it’s right in the heart of the old town makes Villa Oniria all the more impressive.

Our Tablet Spy program offers the chance to get early looks at the most promising new hotels. If you’re willing to take the risks associated with staying in a hotel that’s newly opened,then you’ll be rewarded with the chance to help decide whether the finished hotel will earn a place on Tablet Hotels.

Rarely is the Colombian city of Cartagena mentioned without reference to its rich Spanish colonial history. Most of the hotels in town make as much as they can of this heritage, and the architecture it left behind. And so, in its way, does the Tcherassi Hotel + Spa — but anyone expecting a pure nostalgia trip is likely to be surprised by what they find. Not disappointed, mind — the house’s old colonial bones are still very much in place, but the owner, fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi, has made some pretty unmissable additions.

It’s rare to find a hotel whose period detailing and contemporary finishes manage to coexist in such harmony. Perhaps the key is that it’s not exactly subtle — the unfinished brick and stone walls are unapologetically rough, while the fabrics and finishes are flamboyantly luxe. And it probably helps to work with such a small canvas; with just seven rooms and suites there’s no space for Ms. Tcherassi to repeat herself.

The fact that the restaurant seats more guests than the hotel sleeps ought to give you an idea of what sort of place this is — the upper floor, where the guest rooms are, may be quiet and intimate, but the Tcherassi isn’t shy of a bit of attention. And it’ll get plenty of it — there’s nothing like it anywhere else in Cartagena, that’s for sure.

How to Get There

The hotel is 3km from Cartagena’s Rafael Nunez International airport (CTG) and 109 km from Barranquilla International Airport (BAQ).

While it’s often the Chilean side that gets the most attention, the Argentine side of Patagonia has its fair share of charms as well. Perhaps less otherworldly, Argentine Patagonia, where the plains meet the Andes, contains a mountain idyll by the side of Nahuel Huapi Lake, and the architecturally striking modern mountain lodge of Sol Arrayán.

Century-old trees partly conceal this 42-room lodge, whose modernist lines are constructed from unfinished local wood and stone. In the rooms, the interiors are contemporary-rustic, in a style somewhere between modernist luxury-boutique, pious eco-lodge, and traditional crafts and fabrics. All of them look out over the lake, which means each one has a pretty astonishing view, and the better ones have jetted tubs or outdoor verandas facing the water.

There’s a spa and an indoor-outdoor pool, both with that same stunning view of the lake, as well as a restaurant and a bar serving Patagonian cuisine and Argentinean wines with Nahuel Huapi as a backdrop. Summer is for hiking, sailing, and the lakeside private beach, while winter is ski season — the Bayo Mountain ski resort is a short drive away, and the country around Sol Arrayán is ideal for snowshoeing or horseback rides.

How to get there:

Sol Arrayan is approximately a 50 minute (40 miles) drive from San Carlos de Bariloche International Airport. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

About Morgans Hotel:

Morgans Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel in New York and part of Morgans Hotel Group. Located on Madison Avenue, the hotel features Asia de Cuba restaurant from famed restaurateur, Jeffrey Chodorow.

Tablet Hotels Review:

Located in the once-grand neighborhood of Murray Hill, next to what used to be J.P. Morgan’s New York mansion, Morgans Hotel looks turn-of-the-century grand from the outside, with its Beaux-Arts limestone facade, but inside is smaller and less intimidating than Morgans Hotel Group’s other hotels. The lobby resembles a slightly updated but very tasteful mansion living room: leather armchairs, 1920s nickel lamps, and Parisian flea market cane tables. There’s also an M.C. Escher carpet and Japanese paper screens; but the feeling is old-fashioned formal.

The rooms are stylish in a masculine way, but far from overwhelming. Bathrooms are modestly sized and tiled in black and white, while bedrooms are a calming caramel, ivory and pale gold. The fabrics provide an unexpected tingle — corduroy armchairs, suede banquettes and silk lampshades. There’s even a cherry wood breakfast nook where you can nibble your croissant and scan Page Six.

Though the underground Morgans Hotel bar is quite the after-office hangout, it is incredibly dark, and therefore perfect for a clandestine rendezvous — but only if you can find your date. If you are hungry for a bit of outrageous style, eat upstairs at Asia de Cuba where you’ll find massive expanses of white marble, the rather forbidding “communal” table, and a motel-style waterfall mural. The food is described as New York-innovative pan-Asian — sometimes dubious (like five spice foie gras with bananas), sometimes delicious, but always daring.

Morgans Hotel is proud to count execs-on-the-run among its fashionable clientele: after all, the midtown location makes it a perfect base for business travelers. But with only four to five rooms per floor Morgans is more intimate than the average business hotel. While the service may not be the in-your-face convenient that most execs demand, the staffers always make you feel right at home. Morgans is perfect for those with a bit of patience, who want a taste of New York, an exceedingly handsome atmosphere, but with just a bit of nostalgia for what they’ve left behind.

Yes, this is the one with the stripper pole. Granted, it’s only in one room (the so very over-the-top Star Suite, complete with fuzzy plush king-size bunk beds and mirrored bedroom floor), but it goes a long way towards illustrating what sort of place the Andaz San Diego is. As in, maybe not the ideal place to book Mom and Dad a room while they’re in town visiting Sea World.

For the sort of person who’s into velvet-rope exclusivity, peekaboo showers, and hotel-bar bottle service from suggestively-clad cocktail waitresses, however — and who knows, that may include Mom and Dad after all — the Andaz is just the thing. While some hotel concerns are dialing back the nightlife, this one has it turned up all the way; the Quarter Kitchen restaurant is big news on San Diego’s emerging culinary scene, the Eden rooftop bar is quite often packed (though occasionally chilly, this being San Diego) and the Envy nightclub features tight door control on the outside and go-go-dancing debauchery on the inside.

Of course the little things we expect from boutique hotels everywhere are present here as well: flat-panel HDTVs, iPod docks, top-shelf bath products and luxurious linens. There’s butler service as well, and Cadillac Escalade mega-SUVs available to ferry you and your guests about the Gaslamp district, if need be. A quiet and private place to lay your head it’s not — the Andaz is for travelers who demand quite a bit more.

In recent memory Sri Lanka was a fairly obscure locale for a holiday. But now that seems a very long time ago. Today it’s an absolutely first-class luxury destination, especially the Dutch colonial town of Galle, on the island’s south coast. It’s home to a picturesque fortress, with battlements surrounding the old town, and now it’s home to a Fortress of another kind — this one a luxury resort by the Maldives-based Per Aquum group.

Many of its local competitors are mom-and-pop affairs, which are great for casual intimacy. The Fortress is bigger, just under fifty rooms, and feels a bit more like a resort, albeit a small one — there’s a full-service spa, for example, complete with yoga pavilion and fitness center, and amenities include round-the-clock room service and a pillow menu. Several dining venues serve everything from Sri Lankan cuisine to wood-fired pizza.

It’s still got plenty of personality, though, with the rooms outfitted in a striking and vaguely retro modernist style. Here raising the luxury stakes hasn’t compromised the experience at all — who could complain about Bose home theaters and in-room espresso machines, just a few steps away from the beach?

How to get there:

The Fortress is a four hour drive from Bandaranaike International Airport. Contact the hotel for airport transfer requests.

If there’s any real reason why the Greek Isles should be synonymous with sun-soaked, idyllic escape and the Bodrum Peninsula should remain obscure, it’s certainly nothing to do with geography. This part of Turkey is as stunning as anything on the Mediterranean, and it provides a splendid backdrop for some very fine hotels, including the Hamak Hotel, in the seaside village of Gündoğan, just across the peninsula from Bodrum.

The owners previously opened the Sofa Hotel in Istanbul, and they’re not strangers to the genre of chic, design-conscious little boutique hotels. This sort of understated luxe is at a premium in Turkey, but the Hamak’s style is carried off confidently, the rooms a vision in light neutrals and dark wood, the public spaces in soft whites and organic textures.

With just 20 rooms and one suite, it’s intimate, and the atmosphere is mellow, even as DJs spin in the beach club and the restaurant. There’s a Pilates studio, for the fitness-minded, and all manner of water sports are available. And for guests who require more stimulation than this laid-back village can provide, it’s a short drive into Bodrum proper, where there’s no end of nightlife.

To say that Amanbagh is extremely luxurious would be stating the obvious. The Aman brand as a whole is just that strong. A certain subset of acutely discriminating guests insist Aman or bust. This particular expression of Aman loveliness captures the lilting exoticism of Mughal Empire Rajasthan. While Europe was climbing out of the Middle Ages, the Mughals were enjoying a peaceful, classy epoch of their own in the Subcontinent. This was a time of onion-shaped domes and palms against the sky, gardens lit by oil lamps in alabaster pavilions, and halls of mirrors in complex Islamic patterns. Things went more pear-shaped in the eighteenth century, but thanks to American architect Ed Tuttle, Amanbagh revives Mughal splendor and serenity, and makes these things exclusively available to twenty-first-century patrons.

The two dozen suites occupy elegant sandstone haveli structures, each having either private courtyards, rooftop terraces or verdant little gardens. Interiors are sedate with buttery color palates, carved stone detail and Islamic patterned scrims. xquisite linens and palatial baths make the question of leaving one’s room a bit of a dilemma. Also available are sixteen private one-bedroom pavilions, each with a personal pool and garden outside and magnificent marble soaking tub inside. Of course, the main centerpiece pool is its own oasis paradise that you won’t mind sharing.

Amanbagh’s restaurant is supplied by its own organic gardens, and offers traditional regional dishes, expertly executed. As you might expect, there is a first-class spa, as well as a library on premises. However, the Amanbagh staff makes every effort to help you explore the colors, cultures and architecturally splendid sights of Rajasthan, whether by camel cart, elephant, or just a bicycle.

Though it’s hardly the household name that some other Mediterranean destinations are, Turkey’s Bodrum Peninsula can’t stay secret for long. The combination of hilly seaside geography and crystal blue waters isn’t exactly a hard sell. And the hotels aren’t half bad either — Maçakizi, for its part, is the kind of stylish and sophisticated boutique hotel that’ll put a jealous glint in the eyes of Côte d’Azur or Greek Isles hoteliers.

It’s named after the owners, a mother-and-son team — apparently the lady’s nickname is “Ace of Spades,” and we suspect it’s a good idea to stay out of any high-stakes card games while you’re on premises. Fortunately there’s no end of other diversions, from the beach club, where the beautiful people of Istanbul lounge on decks over the waters of Turkbuku bay, to the gardens, the restaurant, and the bar. This last is no typical bar — Turks take their nightlife seriously, and there’s a DJ on duty most nights.

As for the accommodations, the Maçakizi feels smaller than its eighty-odd rooms. The décor is breezy and minimalist, but never harsh — this place is meant to be all about the good life, and on that it certainly delivers. All mod cons are present, and yet there’s little in the way of flash — imagine a room in the house of a well-heeled and well-connected local friend, and you’re on your way there.

Don’t let the Fort Lauderdale location deter you — rowdy spring breakers are nowhere to be found at the Atlantic Hotel. What you will find is a modern and sophisticated beachfront luxury hotel. North of downtown and isolated by the vast canal system from Fort Lauderdale proper, the hotel sits almost directly on the sand, surrounded by signature Florida palm trees and all the high-end cafes and boutiques that evoke feelings of a mini-Venice not a fraternity row.

Florida’s Gold Coast has French Riviera–sized aspirations, and the Atlantic smartly takes advantage of one of its best assets: the twenty miles of bright white sand and turquoise sea, visible from every room. The most stunning view is available to all from the lounging pool on the fifth floor. The interior design complements the natural beauty of the area with muted yet modern textures and furnishings all drenched in white, giving every room a beach-cottage meets cosmopolitan-chic quality. And despite the Atlantic’s intimate presence, guests will find the rooms and suites more than spacious enough — the Penthouse Suites boast up to 3,500 square feet.

The hotel spa — The Spa Atlantic — is as opulent and grand as you’d expect from such an escape-and-pamper operation as this one. And the restaurant, Trina, is far better than typical hotel fare, with an ocean view that’s tough to match.

From the outside it’s not immediately clear what caliber of hotel this is, especially in a city with as much distinctive architecture as Leipzig has. But give it a chance. Behind that ’70s exterior is a very modern, very sleek luxury hotel — though the Westin isn’t located in the old town, this is still the Leipzig of Wagner, Bach or Mendelssohn, not the industrial Leipzig of the GDR days.

Materials are uniformly rich, and after a recent renovation, the design is crisp and minimal, and the colors are toned down — it’s a very adult look, a serious and dignified take on the contemporary design hotel from one of the bigger names in traditional business hotels. And underneath it, it’s a classic five-star, with all that entails: flat-panel televisions, wi-fi everywhere, those famous Westin beds, and a full-service spa and 24-hour gym at your disposal.

The location, just off the main rail station, could hardly be more central, and opera tourists will find all their destinations, from the opera house to Mendelssohn’s old digs, are within walking distance. As are any number of restaurants — though with the Westin’s own Yamato sushi bar and Falco fine dining restaurant, you’re not exactly desperate in that department.

Say what you will about London, but in more than a few ways Edinburgh is the most European of the UK’s cities — and any way you cut it it’s certainly the most cosmopolitan town in Scotland. So a stylish little boutique hotel like the Rutland, where designer prints and modernist furnishings take the place of tartan and antiques, makes perfect sense here.

Not that it’s entirely a continental-style design boutique. There’s more than a little bit of pub style about the Rutland — it’s got two bars and a restaurant downstairs, and just twelve rooms upstairs. Of course the rooms, each one individually designed, are no afterthought, in calming neutrals with vibrant graphic accents. Two of the rooms have views of the castle, a bit of stark contrast with the contemporary interiors, and three of them are junior suites, with a decided emphasis on comfort.

The ground-floor bar serves cocktails as well as breakfast and lunch, and the One Below is the darker, more intimate lounge space. The restaurant joins a thriving Edinburgh dining scene and keeps its focus on locally sourced ingredients; more than just a place to eat, it’s a hub for the Rutland’s social activity — lively downstairs, mellow upstairs is a formula for city-boutique success.

Tourism in Croatia is booming, and demand for quality lodging is far outstripping supply, following what we hope you’ll forgive us for calling a sort of Field of Dreams effect in reverse: “if you come, they will build it.” So the arrival of Zagreb’s first design hotel, a member of the Austrian Arcotel chain, is big news, and comes not a moment too soon.

Anyone who’s half-expecting a dated, provincial take on the design hotel is in for a pleasant surprise — the Allegra’s look is idiosyncratic, yes, but compelling as well, with perfectly elegant minimalist public spaces, and rooms that are livened considerably by boldly patterned (and slightly outré) linens and carpets. The furniture is pared-down and practical, perfectly functional for business traveling and visually sleek enough to appeal to the hip-hotels crowd.

The obligatory lobby bar is, as it should be, patronized by a blend of jet-setters and style-conscious Zagreb locals, and there’s plenty more happening outside — the hotel is just one part of a complex that includes restaurants, cafés, a multiplex cinema and a shopping center, which in turn is just steps from the center of the city, and a short walk from Zagreb’s main train terminal.

If you’re like us you might not think of Jordan first when it’s time to plan a spa getaway. But there’s really no way to go wrong with a location like Ma’In — to say nothing of your hosts, Six Senses, whose Evason spa resorts are a model of high-end consistency. Put it all together and you get the Evason Ma’In Hot Springs & Six Senses Spa.

First the location. The Evason Ma’In lies by the side of a creek, at the bottom of a canyon whose walls are dotted with hot spring waterfalls. It’s something like 800 feet below sea level, but a hundred or two above the level of the Dead Sea, which is the one that matters locally — its heavy, salty water is widely believed to have therapeutic properties, and the spa, for its part, makes liberal use of the mud from the sea floor.

In these surroundings all a hotel really has to do is stay out of the way — but the Evason does a little bit more than that. The architecture is locally inspired, as well as just plain inspired — the atmosphere throughout is palatial, and the accommodations are exceedingly private. Services and amenities are five-star, and there isn’t a classification system that can adequately explain the canyon, waterfall and Dead Sea views. It feels like another world entirely — but it’s just an hour from the Amman airport.