Peter Island Resort
Doubles from £746; peterisland.com.
Immobilia, Cairo
A 1930s art deco landmark in once-glorious, now-gritty downtown Cairo, the Immobilia was long the city’s tallest building. This year, its upper floors have opened as “a secret hotel of sorts”, said Chris Schalkx in Condé Nast Traveller – a collection of one- and three-bedroom serviced apartments with a small restaurant serving excellent light meals. These “high-design hideaways” mix “art deco bones” – original doors and parquet floors – with an eclectic array of art and antiques, from vintage kilims to lamps of Murano glass. They offer the kind of characterful stays that Cairo has long lacked, with “cactus-lined” roof terraces perfect for dinner parties.
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Doubles from £240; egyptbeyond.com.
Cristine Bedfor, Seville
Originally a splendid 1920s theatre and cinema, this building in Seville’s old town lay derelict for years before it was opened as a hotel (part of a small chain) this year. It remains pleasingly “theatrical”, said Emma Love in House & Garden, with interiors decorated in rich colours (powder pink, oxblood, lapis blue, emerald, mustard), lovely tiles, and textiles with historic prints. The 28 rooms manage to be at once “cosy” and “light and airy”. There’s a small rooftop pool, and a glass-roofed courtyard that serves mainly as the restaurant, offering “Spanish-influenced” dishes such as slow-cooked Iberian pork.
Doubles from €350; cristinebedforhotel.com.
Tewinbury Farm Hotel, Hertfordshire
Set on a former dairy farm near Welwyn Garden City, this rambling hotel is like a more “affordable” and “family-friendly” version of Soho Farmhouse, said Cathy Adams in The Times. Its 52 rooms are spread across the old farmhouse, its outbuildings (which have a “nicely worn-in, homely feel”), and a series of lakeside huts (with their own outdoor hot tubs) and lodges. There is an upmarket gastropub on site, serving “classics well done”, a courtyard where you can get pizza from woodfired ovens, and a wine bar. A gym, freshwater swimming lakes and an outdoor cinema are due to open soon.
Doubles from £175 b&b; tewinbury.co.uk.
Hyll, Charingworth, Gloucestershire
T.S. Eliot wrote the first of the poems in his “Four Quartets” at Charingworth Manor in 1934, after visiting another nearby manor, Burnt Norton. It later became a hotel, and this year it has been revamped as Hyll, said Fiona Duncan in The Telegraph. The name might grate, but it’s a calmer, more relaxing place than many of its “trendy” Cotswolds rivals, with 26 “cocoon”-like rooms, with heavenly beds and wonderful books (though the decor is slightly dull). There’s a garden with “spectacular” views, and good food, including pleasing breakfast dishes such as Scotch woodcock (scrambled eggs and anchovies).
Doubles from £350 b&b; hyllhotel.com.
Le Dune Piscinas, Sardinia
Recently reopened following a three-year makeover, this "characterful" beach hotel is the perfect base for exploring Sardinia's wild southwest coast, said Rick Jordan in Condé Nast Traveller. It occupies an old warehouse set amid vast sand dunes – a "primordial" landscape scattered with the "surreal" detritus of long-abandoned mines and backed by hills cloaked in fragrant maquis. The 29 rooms and suites have simple furnishings enlivened by a good collection of contemporary art, and there's an outdoor pool and a "small but lovely" spa. The hotel's restaurant serves good modern Italian cuisine.
Blackberry Farm, Tennessee, United States
Set beside Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blackberry Farm is a "Southern sanctuary" of "storybook perfection", said Jesse Ashlock in Condé Nast Traveler. It has 68 rooms, including cottages, which balance "rustic country style" with "functional modernity". Inventive but comforting dishes are served in a 200-year-old timber-framed barn that was moved here from Pennsylvania Dutch Country. There's a spa and pool, activities for children (including petting the Italian truffle-hunting dogs bred on site), and "adventure guides" are on hand to take you fishing, hiking and riding.
Doubles from about £900; blackberryfarm.com.
Rockhouse Hotel, Jamaica
With its "stone-and-thatch" villas and "bright-red" ladders dropping into the sea, the Rockhouse represents a certain brand of old-school "Jamaican cool", said Lale Arikoglu in Condé Nast Traveler. Staff regale guests with stories of Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones jumping off its cliffs in the 1970s, and little has changed in the hotel's design since then – its stone-floored studios and villas retain their "bohemian" air. There's a spa and two restaurants – one serving Jamaican classics, the other more "American-leaning". All in all, a "soulful" alternative to Negril's "slicker" resorts and all-inclusives.
Doubles from £137; rockhouse.com.
The Brando, French Polynesia
Marlon Brando bought the Polynesian atoll of Tetiaroa while filming "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1960, and it became his "beloved hideaway". The resort he built later fell into disuse, but it was relaunched 10 years ago, and is still as heavenly as ever, said Megan Spurrell in Condé Nast Traveler. There are two restaurants, a spa and 35 beachfront villas, each with its own plunge pool. Guests can cycle to open-air temples, snorkel on the reef, and kayak past bird-nesting sites, before returning for mai tais at Bob's Bar, which also serves some of Brando's favourite treats, including coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce.
Doubles from £2,679 all-inclusive; thebrando.com.
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