The Best Hotels

   
Race to 2008's best places to stay

Smug types are already snaffling the best villas, hotels and camp sites for next summer. Chris Haslam helps you beat them to itEver noticed that by the time most of us get round to booking our summer holidays, the top spots have long gone? There might still be space in your favorite hotel, but that corner sea-view room with the wraparound balcony was booked months ago, by a slightly smug-looking man with a fake tan and a pink sweater draped devilishly across his shoulders. And that gorgeous villa overlooking the beach, the one you’d sell your granny to grab? Gone before the sun had set on last summer, to a familiar-looking fellow who wrote all his postcards on the first day of his holiday and is now indoors, ironing his underpants. How does he do it? By booking preposterously early, of course – and that means right now, while the rest of us haven’t even decided what we want for Christmas. Now you can beat Mr Smugley-Dunne at his own game, because we’ve found the hardest-to-get rooms in the hippest hotels, the best beach clubs, the most vied-for villas, and the perfect pitches on the most coveted camp sites. Get dialing. — Prices, unless stated, are for those grail-like high-season weeks and are the most you can expect to pay – so you could save a bundle by booking off-peak The hot hotelsIf you find yourself at the Hotel Terraza (00 34 972 256154, www.hotelterraza.com) in the Costa Brava resort of Roses next summer, you are probably entitled to feel smug. It’s not that the sea-view rooms overlooking the hotel’s perfect little private beach are particularly hard to get, nor that they’re especially exclusive, at about £100 a double. It’s just that the restaurant up the road is El Bulli – consistently voted the best in the universe – and securing a table there is as likely as winning the Euromillions lottery. To be in with a chance, send your request, citing four dates, by e-mail to bulli@elbulli.com on October 15 – no earlier and no later. You could ask for a corner table, but I wouldn’t push it. Fly to the nearest airport, Girona, with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com). Holidaymakers don’t go out much in Oia, that dazzling village of white houses teetering like spilt sugar lumps above Santorini’s black volcanic caldera. They lounge instead on cantilevered terraces, sipping chilled kokkineli and gazing across the wine-dark sea until the sun slides behind the crater’s western rim. Unlike the tourists bussed in to watch the sunset from the ruins of Oia’s Venetian castle, those organised enough to have found rooms here have that view to themselves all day, every day. No wonder they look so pleased with themselves. Early birds can still grab a week in Oia’s most sought-after spot – 1864 The Sea Captain’s House (00 30 22860 71983, www.santorini-gr.com). Ask for the Sailing Suite, which has a four-poster bed and a sun-trap balcony; £345 per night. Fly to Santorini with Thomsonfly (0870 190 0737, www.thomsonfly.com). Few find the Château de Bagnols by chance, and fewer still are lucky enough to cast themselves as a captive princess or fearless musketeer embroiled in some liaison dangereuse inside this fairy-tale castle, deep in theBeaujolais foothills. That’s because word of France’s most gorgeous five-star palace has spread to the peasantry, and now Barbra Streisand, Hillary Clinton and Naomi Campbell are among those clamoring to be allowed across the drawbridge. Prices here are predictably aristocratic, but if you keep your head and move fast, there’s plenty of high-season availability. The best room here is Gaspard Dugué, a junior suite with arched ceilings, a gilded four-poster and hand-painted murals on the walls. Original Travel (020 7978 7333, www.originaltravel.co.uk) offers two nights of wanton extravagance for £820pp, including flights and car hire. High on a hill overlooking the cobalt blue of Portofino Bay stands the Hotel Splendido, arguably the finest hotel and indisputably the biggest name-dropper on the Italian Riviera. Everybody who was anybody has stayed here, and, rather than letting them slip away discreetly, the Splendido demands that they sign a statement confessing their residence. They call it the Golden Book, and it contains such stellar signatures as Churchill, Bogart, Niven and De Niro. Michael Winner has managed to sign it twice, but don’t let that put you off – Hotel Splendido is indeed splendid, and you need to be booking right now. The Smugley-Dunnes’ favourite room is 221, with two terraces and twice the views. Elegant Resorts (01244 897515, www.elegantresorts.co.uk) has seven nights from £4,690pp, including flights. Four years after arriving in the Caribbean like some anorexic Chelsea fashionista, One Aldwych’s little sister, Carlisle Bay, has begun to blend into the landscape of Antigua. Bougainvillea has covered her austere grey walls, and that fastidious minimalism is beginning to look like a simple lack of clutter. Operators recommend booking a year in advance to secure a room at Easter, but who wants to sit on a beach with those awful Smugley-Dunnes? It’s cheaper, less crowded and every bit as lovely in the summer, the odd shower notwithstanding. The most sought-after rooms here are the first-floor Ocean suites, with uninterrupted aquamarine views – if you want one, heed the advice of Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com), which says: “It is advisable to book now, as these will probably all be taken by the beginning of October.” The price is £3,465pp, including flights from Gatwick with British Airways. Here are three reminders of why you wanted to go to the One&Only Reethi Rah, in the Maldives: huge villas overlooking the diamond-clear waters of North Malé Atoll; opal sands, turquoise seas and sapphire skies; and utter seclusion, complete tranquillity and absolutely no nightlife whatsoever (unless you count intimate private dining beneath the stars). All clear now? The best rooms aren’t the more expensive huts on stilts above the lagoon, but the vast beach villas with private pools. They’ll be gone before the month is out, so seize one smartish with The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646, www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk); £3,490pp per week, including flights. Nearer home, Cornwall’s Bedruthan Steps hotel (01637 860860, www.bedruthan.com) looks like a polytechnic from the outside, but that doesn’t matter if you’re on the inside looking out. The problem is that families who’ve discovered what appears to be a collaborative experiment in child-friendliness by Willy Wonka, Enid Blyton and the Pied Piper, perched above gorgeous Mawgan Porth beach, tend to rebook as they’re checking out. “We’re 79% full for next summer,” the hotel says, “but there’s still availability if you book now.” The best rooms are villa suites 112 to 116, which cost £3,024 per room per week, half-board, based on a family of four sharing. You’re way ahead of the Smugley-Dunnes if you’re looking for a room at trendy Babington House (01373 812266, www.babingtonhouse.co.uk) in Somerset. “We’re looking at 96% occupancy for 2008, but there’s still plenty of weekend availability,” confirms the celebrity-spotter’s crib. As you’ll be booking early, you’ll have a choice of accommodation, so ask for room 6 – it has a huge bathtub on the balcony. Room 12, with the enormous emperor bed, is your fall-back. Both cost £355 per night, room-only. The best beach clubsThere’s one sector of the population that cannot be tempted by slick advertising and glossy brochures selling exotic hotels in challenging, far-flung destinations. They’re the Mark Warner barmy army, who’ve found what they like – full-board, free watersports and childcare – and see no reason to go anywhere else ever again. Or at least until the kids leave home. This makes for fierce competition for the top weeks, and the most hotly contested property is the San Lucianu resort, in Corsica. The best rooms here are the family suites: “They’re much more spacious and manageable, from a family point of view, than the interconnecting rooms,” the company confides. What’s more, they have the biggest balconies and the best views – but there are only four of them, so call now. A week costs £3,900 for a family of four, including flights; call 0870 770 4227 or visit www.markwarner.co.uk. The sailing-holiday specialist Sunsail (0870 427 0077, www.sunsail.co.uk) opened its first beach club in 1981, and quickly realised it was on to a good thing. By reclassifying lounging by the pool as a watersport, Sunsail succeeded in making a shore-based sailing holiday attractive to the most sloth-like of landlubbers. Last year saw the opening of the company’s fifth resort, Club Phokaia, in Turkey, with the usual armada of free boat-based activities and a spa for the ladies. It’s already the most popular port of call for Sunsailors – the best rooms are the spacious garden villas, with two bedrooms and a large living area. A week costs £4,836 for a family of four, including flights. Book before November 10 and you get 10% off. Swish villas and cottagesIf Boden were a holiday company, it would probably be Classic Cottages (01326 555555, www.classic.co.uk), the West Country letting agency that likes you to be beautiful, well dressed and glowing with health before you set foot in its properties. Which you are, so no worries there. First to go, every year, is Stonebarrow Lodge, a four-bedroom timber bungalow just east of Lyme Regis. The first booking for this cottage for next summer was taken in September 2006. Could it be the summer house, the stream that meanders through the grounds or the hot tub with views over the Jurassic Coast that makes the place so highly desired? Or is it the mystery at the bottom of the garden? I’m sworn to secrecy on the latter, so it’ll cost you £1,434 a week to find out. You’re so far ahead of the game this year, you could also book La Paz – not the Bolivian capital, which sleeps 1.25 million and has three bathrooms, but the coveted cottage of the same name above picture-perfect Maenporth Cove. It sleeps 10, costs £2,292 per week and will be all booked up next month, as will Skylight Barn, another Smugley-Dunne secret. Above Perprean Bay, and just up the lane from Coverack, the cottage sleeps four and costs £705 per week. When the new Coast & Country Cottages (01239 881397, www.welsh-cottages.co.uk) brochure hits the doormat in early October, the best weeks in the cutest cottages will be long gone – in some cases, for years to come. Take the stable cottage at Croesgoch, for example – except you can’t, because the company tells me a close friend of Mr Smugley-Dunne has booked the same high-season fortnight every year until he dies. The lesson here is not to wait for the brochure – call up, or go online, and book a week in the National Trust lodge at Llangrannog, which sleeps 12 in a stunning clifftop location for £1,100 a week, or the exquisite whitewashed cottage at Pwllderi, on Pembrokeshire’s Strumble Head, which sleeps three for £605 per week. As we go to press, there are plenty still available, so brysia (hurry up), as they say in Wales. By the time you’ve read the description of Sunset House, on Cephalonia, it could already be too late, so here’s the important stuff first: it sleeps six and costs £1,034pp for the week, including flights and car hire, and you book it through Greek Islands Club (020 8232 9780, www.greekislandsclub.com). So, what makes Sunset House so hot? Put it this way: you’re on a boat trip around the Erissos peninsula. The wine is chilled, the sun is going down in a blaze of glory and everything is perfect, until your loved one points at that fabulous villa in the island’s most dramatic setting and says: “Why didn’t you think to book us that one?” Well, that one is Sunset House. What price a week in a villa on the Côte d’Azur? Price of a small car? Price of a big car? Price of a terraced house in Rotherham? And then some: the five-bedroom Villa Katarina costs £41,000 and the all-but-impossible-to-book Mas des Sources, near St Tropez’s Pampelonne beach, costs £35,000 a week in high season. But Smugley-Dunne’s wife is called Prudence, and she knows that the Beauvallon villa, in St Trop’s secluded Domaine de Beauvallon, offers better views of the gulf for about 10% of the price. Put her brand-new nose out of joint by grabbing one of the last remaining high-season weeks: it sleeps 10 and costs from £3,955, through the Villa Book (0845 500 2000, www.thevillabook.com). Fly to the nearest airport, Toulon, with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com). Leave it until after Christmas to book your Tuscan villa and all you’ll get is a lockup in Lucca or a partially converted goat shed on an industrial estate in Grosseto. “The huge family villas are always the first to go,” says the villa specialist To Tuscany (020 7193 7782, www.to-tuscany.com), and the best weeks of the year are snapped up long before Hallowe’en. Since you’ve got time, try for Villa Mina, a sprawling palace in the Chianti hills, with views of Florence from its private tower. It sleeps 14 and costs £3,919 for the hardest-to-get weeks. Or try Villa Valliole, a 17th-century farmhouse that sleeps eight, has views of Siena and costs £3,338 per week. Airlines flying to the nearest airport, Pisa, include EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) and Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com). Getting to St Barts has never been easy. While Air France flies from Paris to St Martin, a 10-minute hop from St Barts, the British have always had to waste a precious night in Antigua before another full day on an island-hopper flight. Thus, this chic French département d’outre-mer has remained the domain of tight-trunked Parisian playboys, hungry American day-trippers and – you guessed it – the Smugley-Dunnes, who snap up the lovely Harbour Crest House before the rest of us can get a look-in. Sleeping six, this cool, colonial-style cottage, with a pool and a hot tub, is set above Shell Beach and has views across to St Kitts and Nevis. At £2,680 per week, with Wimco (0870 850 1144, www.wimco.com), it’s a bargain, and getting there is no longer a problem: the Caribbean airline Winair has announced direct flights (£150 return) from Antigua to St Barts, connecting with incoming flights from London. British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Antigua; from £561. The cool camp sitesIt’s already too late to book a weekend at the home-counties hippie hang-out Blackberry Wood (01273 890035, www.blackberrywood.com), just north of Brighton, where every Friday and Saturday night from April until September 2008 has already been seized. Why? Mainly because Blackberry Wood is one of just a tiny handful of sites that allow campfires – as crucial to camping as the Flake is to a 99. Add open-air showers and an award-winning gastropub – the Jolly Sportsman, in East Chillington, a half-hour amble to the east – and it begins to sound too good to be true. Fortunately, there’s loads of midweek availability, even in the school holidays. Pitch your own tent for £5 a night; add £7 per night for each adult and half that for kids under 12. Oh, and the pitch they call Mecca – because it faces east, not because it has a bingo hall – is the best. It’s the most remote and has its own stream. “I’d rather you didn’t mention Sandy Balls,” begged the gentleman I met in Fordingbridge. Rather than an embarrassing travel-hygiene issue, he was vainly trying to protect a well-kept holiday secret. The Westlake family are still welcoming guests and their dogs to the quirkily named camp site they established in 1934 in 120 acres between the New Forest and the River Avon, although these days the accommodation extends to mutt-friendly, plasma-ed-up, hot-tub-fitted log cabins. Sandy Balls’ reputation for bucolic tranquillity and wholesome, summer-camp-style children’s entertainment – bird-watching, orienteering and storytelling included – is carefully spread by word of mouth to trusted confidants. Superior Dog Lodge 159, which sleeps four and a pooch, and has a decking balcony overlooking the river, is the one the Smugley-Dunnes always ask for, whispers manager Tim Howell. The price is £1,315 a week – otherwise try a tent for £425. Call 01425 653042 or visit www.sandy-balls.co.uk. You’ll need to move fast to bag a pitch at Pinewoods (01328 710439, www.pinewoods.co.uk), near Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. Admittedly, it’s not very pretty, and there is a fair amount of branded leisurewear mooching around the caravan site, but one of Britain’s most beautiful beaches is a couple of minutes’ walk away. Lovely Holkham Hall is a mile west, and three miles farther is the Hoste Arms, in Burnham Market – a gastronomic peak for gourmet Munro-baggers. Best of all, though, are Wells’s colourful beach huts, which Pinewoods guests can hire for £24 a day. Ludicrously, only six tent pitches can be booked here, and to secure one, you need to apply by post, which apparently involves something called a stamp. Reservations are allocated on a first come, first served basis, and pitches cost £17 a night. Britain is lovely – it’s why we live here – but camping makes you a hostage to the weather, so the smart money heads south, where sunshine is guaranteed. Among Europe’s fastest-selling sites is Bella Italia, on the southern shore of Lake Garda, with spectacular views across the lake, five pools and six waterslides. Pitches here go quicker than a greyhound on a bullet train, but which one is the best? “Definitely area 26,” says the camping specialist Keycamp (0870 428 9450, www.keycamp.co.uk). “It offers peace and tranquillity, and is close to the lake shore.” A week in a three-bedroom supertent costs £758 for a family of four, including ferry crossings. Brittany’s best camp site is Le Ty-Nadan (00 33 2 98 71 75 47, www.camping-ty-nadan.fr) – which could be Breton for hen’s teeth, as this accurately describes the rarity of available pitches here in high summer. Set in an oak forest, north of Concarneau, on the sandy banks of the River Ellé, the site offers a range of facilities, including indoor and outdoor pool complexes, canoeing, rock-climbing, riding and archery. Then there’s staring at the river, drinking cidre fermier and looking forward to more moules-frites – but only if you act now. Pitch your own tent for a family of four for £229 a week. Return crossings with Brittany Ferries to St Malo (0870 907 6103, www.brittany-ferries.co.uk) cost £368. Or book a package with Eurocamp (0844 406 0456, www.eurocamp.co.uk), which has a week in a ready-pitched tent for £743 for a family of four, including ferry crossings.

A year in advance to secure a room at Easter, but who wants to sit on a beach with those awful Smugley-Dunnes? It’s cheaper, less crowded and every bit as lovely in the summer, the odd shower notwithstanding. The most sought-after rooms here are the first-floor Ocean suites, with uninterrupted aquamarine views – if you want one, heed the advice of Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com), which says: “It is advisable to book now, as these will probably all be taken by the beginning of October.” The price is £3,465pp, including flights from Gatwick with British Airways. Here are three reminders of why you wanted to go to the One&Only Reethi Rah, in the Maldives: huge villas overlooking the diamond-clear waters of North Malé Atoll; opal sands, turquoise seas and sapphire skies; and utter seclusion, complete tranquillity and absolutely no nightlife whatsoever (unless you count intimate private dining beneath the stars). All clear now? The best rooms aren’t the more expensive huts on stilts above the lagoon, but the vast beach villas with private pools. They’ll be gone before the month is out, so seize one smartish with The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646, www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk); £3,490pp per week, including flights.

Nearer home, Cornwall’s Bedruthan Steps hotel (01637 860860, www.bedruthan.com) looks like a polytechnic from the outside, but that doesn’t matter if you’re on the inside looking out. The problem is that families who’ve discovered what appears to be a collaborative experiment in child-friendliness by Willy Wonka, Enid Blyton and the Pied Piper, perched above gorgeous Mawgan Porth beach, tend to rebook as they’re checking out. “We’re 79% full for next summer,” the hotel says, “but there’s still availability if you book now.” The best rooms are villa suites 112 to 116, which cost £3,024 per room per week, half-board, based on a family of four sharing.

You’re way ahead of the Smugley-Dunnes if you’re looking for a room at trendy Babington House (01373 812266, www.babingtonhouse.co.uk) in Somerset. “We’re looking at 96% occupancy for 2008, but there’s still plenty of weekend availability,” confirms the celebrity-spotter’s crib. As you’ll be booking early, you’ll have a choice of accommodation, so ask for room 6 – it has a huge bathtub on the balcony. Room 12, with the enormous emperor bed, is your fall-back. Both cost £355 per night, room-only.



The best beach clubs

There’s one sector of the population that cannot be tempted by slick advertising and glossy brochures selling exotic hotels in challenging, far-flung destinations. They’re the Mark Warner barmy army, who’ve found what they like – full-board, free watersports and childcare – and see no reason to go anywhere else ever again. Or at least until the kids leave home. This makes for fierce competition for the top weeks, and the most hotly contested property is the San Lucianu resort, in Corsica. The best rooms here are the family suites: “They’re much more spacious and manageable, from a family point of view, than the interconnecting rooms,” the company confides. What’s more, they have the biggest balconies and the best views – but there are only four of them, so call now. A week costs £3,900 for a family of four, including flights; call 0870 770 4227 or visit www.markwarner.co.uk.

The sailing-holiday specialist Sunsail (0870 427 0077, www.sunsail.co.uk) opened its first beach club in 1981, and quickly realised it was on to a good thing. By reclassifying lounging by the pool as a watersport, Sunsail succeeded in making a shore-based sailing holiday attractive to the most sloth-like of landlubbers. Last year saw the opening of the company’s fifth resort, Club Phokaia, in Turkey, with the usual armada of free boat-based activities and a spa for the ladies. It’s already the most popular port of call for Sunsailors – the best rooms are the spacious garden villas, with two bedrooms and a large living area. A week costs £4,836 for a family of four, including flights. Book before November 10 and you get 10% off.



Swish villas and cottages

If Boden were a holiday company, it would probably be Classic Cottages (01326 555555, www.classic.co.uk), the West Country letting agency that likes you to be beautiful, well dressed and glowing with health before you set foot in its properties. Which you are, so no worries there. First to go, every year, is Stonebarrow Lodge, a four-bedroom timber bungalow just east of Lyme Regis. The first booking for this cottage for next summer was taken in September 2006. Could it be the summer house, the stream that meanders through the grounds or the hot tub with views over the Jurassic Coast that makes the place so highly desired? Or is it the mystery at the bottom of the garden? I’m sworn to secrecy on the latter, so it’ll cost you £1,434 a week to find out. You’re so far ahead of the game this year, you could also book La Paz – not the Bolivian capital, which sleeps 1.25 million and has three bathrooms, but the coveted cottage of the same name above picture-perfect Maenporth Cove. It sleeps 10, costs £2,292 per week and will be all booked up next month, as will Skylight Barn, another Smugley-Dunne secret. Above Perprean Bay, and just up the lane from Coverack, the cottage sleeps four and costs £705 per week.

When the new Coast & Country Cottages (01239 881397, www.welsh-cottages.co.uk) brochure hits the doormat in early October, the best weeks in the cutest cottages will be long gone – in some cases, for years to come. Take the stable cottage at Croesgoch, for example – except you can’t, because the company tells me a close friend of Mr Smugley-Dunne has booked the same high-season fortnight every year until he dies. The lesson here is not to wait for the brochure – call up, or go online, and book a week in the National Trust lodge at Llangrannog, which sleeps 12 in a stunning clifftop location for £1,100 a week, or the exquisite whitewashed cottage at Pwllderi, on Pembrokeshire’s Strumble Head, which sleeps three for £605 per week. As we go to press, there are plenty still available, so brysia (hurry up), as they say in Wales.

By the time you’ve read the description of Sunset House, on Cephalonia, it could already be too late, so here’s the important stuff first: it sleeps six and costs £1,034pp for the week, including flights and car hire, and you book it through Greek Islands Club (020 8232 9780, www.greekislandsclub.com). So, what makes Sunset House so hot? Put it this way: you’re on a boat trip around the Erissos peninsula. The wine is chilled, the sun is going down in a blaze of glory and everything is perfect, until your loved one points at that fabulous villa in the island’s most dramatic setting and says: “Why didn’t you think to book us that one?” Well, that one is Sunset House.

What price a week in a villa on the Côte d’Azur? Price of a small car? Price of a big car? Price of a terraced house in Rotherham? And then some: the five-bedroom Villa Katarina costs £41,000 and the all-but-impossible-to-book Mas des Sources, near St Tropez’s Pampelonne beach, costs £35,000 a week in high season. But Smugley-Dunne’s wife is called Prudence, and she knows that the Beauvallon villa, in St Trop’s secluded Domaine de Beauvallon, offers better views of the gulf for about 10% of the price. Put her brand-new nose out of joint by grabbing one of the last remaining high-season weeks: it sleeps 10 and costs from £3,955, through the Villa Book (0845 500 2000, www.thevillabook.com). Fly to the nearest airport, Toulon, with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com).

Leave it until after Christmas to book your Tuscan villa and all you’ll get is a lockup in Lucca or a partially converted goat shed on an industrial estate in Grosseto. “The huge family villas are always the first to go,” says the villa specialist To Tuscany (020 7193 7782, www.to-tuscany.com), and the best weeks of the year are snapped up long before Hallowe’en. Since you’ve got time, try for Villa Mina, a sprawling palace in the Chianti hills, with views of Florence from its private tower. It sleeps 14 and costs £3,919 for the hardest-to-get weeks. Or try Villa Valliole, a 17th-century farmhouse that sleeps eight, has views of Siena and costs £3,338 per week. Airlines flying to the nearest airport, Pisa, include EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) and Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com).

Getting to St Barts has never been easy. While Air France flies from Paris to St Martin, a 10-minute hop from St Barts, the British have always had to waste a precious night in Antigua before another full day on an island-hopper flight. Thus, this chic French département d’outre-mer has remained the domain of tight-trunked Parisian playboys, hungry American day-trippers and – you guessed it – the Smugley-Dunnes, who snap up the lovely Harbour Crest House before the rest of us can get a look-in. Sleeping six, this cool, colonial-style cottage, with a pool and a hot tub, is set above Shell Beach and has views across to St Kitts and Nevis. At £2,680 per week, with Wimco (0870 850 1144, www.wimco.com), it’s a bargain, and getting there is no longer a problem: the Caribbean airline Winair has announced direct flights (£150 return) from Antigua to St Barts, connecting with incoming flights from London. British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Antigua; from £561.



The cool camp sites

It’s already too late to book a weekend at the home-counties hippie hang-out Blackberry Wood (01273 890035, www.blackberrywood.com), just north of Brighton, where every Friday and Saturday night from April until September 2008 has already been seized. Why? Mainly because Blackberry Wood is one of just a tiny handful of sites that allow campfires – as crucial to camping as the Flake is to a 99. Add open-air showers and an award-winning gastropub – the Jolly Sportsman, in East Chillington, a half-hour amble to the east – and it begins to sound too good to be true. Fortunately, there’s loads of midweek availability, even in the school holidays. Pitch your own tent for £5 a night; add £7 per night for each adult and half that for kids under 12. Oh, and the pitch they call Mecca – because it faces east, not because it has a bingo hall – is the best. It’s the most remote and has its own stream.

“I’d rather you didn’t mention Sandy Balls,” begged the gentleman I met in Fordingbridge. Rather than an embarrassing travel-hygiene issue, he was vainly trying to protect a well-kept holiday secret. The Westlake family are still welcoming guests and their dogs to the quirkily named camp site they established in 1934 in 120 acres between the New Forest and the River Avon, although these days the accommodation extends to mutt-friendly, plasma-ed-up, hot-tub-fitted log cabins.

Sandy Balls’ reputation for bucolic tranquillity and wholesome, summer-camp-style children’s entertainment – bird-watching, orienteering and storytelling included – is carefully spread by word of mouth to trusted confidants. Superior Dog Lodge 159, which sleeps four and a pooch, and has a decking balcony overlooking the river, is the one the Smugley-Dunnes always ask for, whispers manager Tim Howell. The price is £1,315 a week – otherwise try a tent for £425. Call 01425 653042 or visit www.sandy-balls.co.uk.

You’ll need to move fast to bag a pitch at Pinewoods (01328 710439, www.pinewoods.co.uk), near Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. Admittedly, it’s not very pretty, and there is a fair amount of branded leisurewear mooching around the caravan site, but one of Britain’s most beautiful beaches is a couple of minutes’ walk away. Lovely Holkham Hall is a mile west, and three miles farther is the Hoste Arms, in Burnham Market – a gastronomic peak for gourmet Munro-baggers. Best of all, though, are Wells’s colourful beach huts, which Pinewoods guests can hire for £24 a day. Ludicrously, only six tent pitches can be booked here, and to secure one, you need to apply by post, which apparently involves something called a stamp. Reservations are allocated on a first come, first served basis, and pitches cost £17 a night.

Britain is lovely – it’s why we live here – but camping makes you a hostage to the weather, so the smart money heads south, where sunshine is guaranteed. Among Europe’s fastest-selling sites is Bella Italia, on the southern shore of Lake Garda, with spectacular views across the lake, five pools and six waterslides. Pitches here go quicker than a greyhound on a bullet train, but which one is the best? “Definitely area 26,” says the camping specialist Keycamp (0870 428 9450, www.keycamp.co.uk). “It offers peace and tranquillity, and is close to the lake shore.” A week in a three-bedroom supertent costs £758 for a family of four, including ferry crossings.

Brittany’s best camp site is Le Ty-Nadan (00 33 2 98 71 75 47, www.camping-ty-nadan.fr) – which could be Breton for hen’s teeth, as this accurately describes the rarity of available pitches here in high summer. Set in an oak forest, north of Concarneau, on the sandy banks of the River Ellé, the site offers a range of facilities, including indoor and outdoor pool complexes, canoeing, rock-climbing, riding and archery. Then there’s staring at the river, drinking cidre fermier and looking forward to more moules-frites – but only if you act now. Pitch your own tent for a family of four for £229 a week. Return crossings with Brittany Ferries to St Malo (0870 907 6103, www.brittany-ferries.co.uk) cost £368. Or book a package with Eurocamp (0844 406 0456, www.eurocamp.co.uk), which has a week in a ready-pitched tent for £743 for a family of four, including ferry crossings. 

The world's 20 best hotels on a budget How to find a gorgeous place to stay, with stylish service, stunning views and epic bedrooms without breaking the bank

Finding affordable accommodation does not mean having to settle for something distinctly average. Breathtaking views, attentive service, great food and hand-picked decor – all are available at a cost that won’t make you cringe. We pick the top 20 bargain hotels from the American Budget Travel Magazine’s new cheap-chic bible Secret Hotels. HOTEL DE L'AMPHITHEATRE, France

Style, comfort and reasonable prices combine to make these chic lodgings a truly excellent deal. Its central location in the heart of Arles – right by the amphitheatre and a short walk to the main town square – makes it a convenient choice as well.

The owners have completely renovated the building, exposing amazing 17th-century wood-beam ceilings. Wall colours tend towards rich shades of yellow, ochre and red, and they're balanced with bright fabrics, regionally made quilts, light floor tiles, and modern furniture that borrows from antique styles. The cheapest rooms are on the small side; it’s definitely worth paying the extra £8 for a “comfort” double. The Belvedere (£98), which has a 360-degree view of the rooftops of Arles, is worth a splurge. An outdoor terrace and an inviting lounge add to the homey feel.

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Vincent Van Gogh lived in Arles in 1888, during which time he developed his signature style of vivid colours and swirling brushstrokes – and then cut off his ear. 00 33 4 90 96 10 30, www.hotelamphitheatre.fr , £33-£98


BLUE MOON VILLAS, Bali

Bali’s remote northeast coast is still well off the beaten track for most visitors, but that may change if more hotels follow the example of Blue Moon Villas, a stylish boutique hotel that makes the most of its dramatic coastal setting.

It has five rooms in three bright, airy villas, as well as an open-sided restaurant. All rooms have separate balconies or terraces, some of which are large enough to double as living rooms. And the bathrooms are partly open to the outside (but completely private).

After a dinner of fresh wahoo barbecued over coconut husks, you’ll want to sit on your balcony and watch the sun set behind the sacred mountain Agung, a prelude to the main event: the brilliant night sky. If the local roosters wake you up in time, you can go out in a fishing boat in the morning to watch the sun rise over Mount Rinjani on the neighbouring island of Lombok. Failing that, just relax by the infinity pool tucked in the centre of a lush garden. 00 62 812 362 2597, www.bluemoonvillas.com , from £34

TREVALSA COURT, Cornwall

German expats Klaus Wagner and Matthias Mainka spent seven years creating a sumptuous prewar atmosphere at this former family home. They’ve obsessed over every detail, right down to the door handles. The 13 rooms are furnished with Lloyd Loom woven chairs, and the moss-green walls are decorated with sophisticated black-and-white art. The level of care is palpable.

As it should be, dinner is served in the oak-panelled dining room, where windows frame the sea. The German chef, Achim Dreher, sneaks Swiss-German influences into his menus. Keep an eye out for highlights such as potato dumplings stuffed with prunes.

A path at the end of the garden leads to secluded Polstreath Beach. 01726 842468, trevalsa-hotel.co.uk , £49-£98

HOTEL MILAREPA, Costa Rica

With its golden beaches, tropical rainforest and rocky tide pools, the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula is sometimes called the Hawaii of Latin America. Certainly, this small luxury hotel has the aloha spirit. It was either that or the sense of privacy – the hotel has only four rooms – that attracted Leonardo DiCaprio, who once stayed here with a girlfriend.

Caroline Marot and her business partner, Philippe Verquin, have filled each of the bungalows with Indonesian teak and bamboo furniture, topped by elegant, understated white chair cushions, bedding and drapery. The tiled bathrooms are private and semi-alfresco: the sink and toilet are under the eaves, but the shower is open to the sky.

A seven-table restaurant looks out over the pool, past a well-trimmed lawn, and down to the beach, where there’s a driftwood massage hut (£30 for more than an hour). The American chef, James Kelly, draws from Asian influences and makes great use of local seafood. 00 506 640 0023, www.milarepahotel.com , £60-£114 (room-only before December 1, 2007)

JAKE’S, Jamaica

Sitting alongside rocky shoals washed by the warm surf of Jamaica’s South Coast, Jake’s Easter-egg-coloured guest cottages are funky boutique versions of the Caribbean shack. The two-dozen buildings overflow with odd, endearing details that are an exercise in culture-clash chic: Indian minaret-shaped windows, Arabian-influenced domes, hammered-tin doors, door frames made with driftwood, Mayan-inspired weavings, glass bottles embedded in plaster walls. The grounds are dotted with flowering bushes and desert greenery – cactus, yucca and gnarled little trees.

What you get instead of a room with a television, air-con and a phone is a welcoming, laid-back vibe. The hotel was created by Sally Henzell, a theatre designer by trade, and is currently run by her son Jason; both are particularly loved by the surrounding fishing village for starting a nonprofit organisation for the local community. Consequently, the bar and pool at Jake’s are popular with guests and locals alike, and hustlers are virtually nonexistent.

Boats have been raised on stilts and capped with thatched roofs to create an open-air restaurant, Little Ochie, located right on the beach. You can choose your own fresh fish, lobster, crab, or octopus, and the proprietor, Blackie, will cook it any way you like. 01895 450731, www.jakeshotel.com , from £55

LA RIGNANA, Italy

A long way from the main roads, in Chianti wine country, tucked within 300 acres of forest, olive groves and vineyards, sits a refined bed-and-breakfast – and working farm – owned by Cosimo Gericke and Sveva Rocco di Torrepadula.

The two historic guesthouses on the property have noble roots. The Fattoria is based on a 1,000-year-old structure that was once a castle. Enlarged in the 18th century, it contains seven rooms with rustic furnishings and sloping brick ceilings laced with wooden beams. The other guest building, the two-floor Villa Rignana, belonged to the Ricci family in the 17th century and has eight rooms with plank floors and frescoes.

There’s a pretty infinity pool amid the olive trees, with views of rolling hills in the distance. The restaurant, in another cluster of farm buildings and under separate management, has tables on a patio and serves traditional Tuscan fare. 0039 055 852 065, www.rignana.it , £71-£95

PODERE TERRENO, Italy

Roberto Melosi left a promising hotel career at London’s Savoy to become chef and host of an agriturismo on a working farm in Italy. His Paris-born wife, Marie-Sylvie Haniez, decided the only proper way to run an agriturismo was to share communal dinners with guests in the French table d’hôte style. Together, the couple manage a restored 16th-century farmhouse that has seven country-comfy rooms furnished with a hodgepodge of carved-wood vanities and worn terracotta floors.

Wine means a lot to the family: vineyards encircle the house, and guest rooms are named after local grapes. Malvasia, Trebbiano, Vernaccia and Ciliegiolo are all on the east side of the house, with the best vineyard views. In summer, guests enjoy that view from the patio during family-style dinners. There is also a tiny spa with a hot tub and massage table. 00 39 0577 738312, www.podereterreno.it , £65 per person, includes breakfast and dinner

LA FINCA CARIBE, Puerto Rico

In the proprietor’s words, La Finca is “one part funky summer camp, one part homey wilderness lodge”, and flowing linen fabrics and casual-looking models fit right in on the hippieish yet manicured property. Three rustic houses are spread across three hilly acres. The hospitality is warm, but a bit devil-may-care; don’t expect phones, televisions or matching towels or sheets.

There’s a self-serve honour bar, a grill, a porch swing, hammocks and laundry facilities, with a horseshoe pit below. Banana, star fruit and mango trees frame the small swimming pool. 001787 741 0495, www.lafinca.com , from £32

HOTEL BRISE MARINE, France

On the terribly exclusive St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula, where most homes have gates and names like Lotus or Mon Plaisir, a room rate that’s less than your monthly salary is a true bargain. Amazingly, this gorgeous Italianate villa with turquoise shutters, just steps from town and around the corner from the prettiest beach, is relatively reasonable.

Dating from 1878, the seaside mansion is encircled by a beautiful garden filled with bougainvillea and palm, orange and lemon trees; its various patios and terraces look out on the bright blue bay, the cliffs of the coastline and, in the distance, the Italian Alps. The 18 rooms are simply furnished, but many share the amazing view and a few (nos 3, 16 and 18) have spacious balconies. The sea panorama from No 10’s large, curved terrace is spectacular. There’s no restaurant at the hotel, but breakfast is served on the patio. 00 33 4 93 76 04 36, hotel-brisemarine.com , £102-£112 (room-only)

PENSION MAUARII, French Polynesia

The only decent place to stay on the southern end of the island of Huahine, Pension Mauarii has a castaway vibe. The Oceanside cabins are raised on stilts; at high tide, the water rushes below them. Capped by thatched roofs that are rigged with flap doors in order to catch the breezes, the chalets are twice the size of their competitors – and some even have interior sleeping lofts. All have giant bathrooms done up in cracked tile and inlaid coral.

There’s an activities concierge who can arrange watersports and scooters. Snorkellers, meanwhile, will be in heaven, swimming with the eagle rays in the crystal-clear water right off the white-sand beach. The hotel has a gourmet restaurant, unusual for the island, which serves three meals daily. 00 689 68 8649, www.mauarii.com , room £29-£66, bungalow £71-£114

LE CADRAN SOLAIRE, France

Once a postal-relay inn, this old stone building in the residential part of a very small town has thick walls, a tranquil atmosphere (reinforced by the absence of televisions in the rooms), and a trellised garden. It's named for the sundial found on the front of the building that dates back to 1846. With high-beamed ceilings and garden views, the 12 rooms are luminous; ornate modern bedsteads, period reproduction furniture, and muted colors complete the decor.

Graveson is five miles north of St-Rémy-de-Provence and within a half-hour drive of most Provençal highlights. Huge plane trees shade a tiny canal that cuts across the main square, and from May to October there's a Friday market where cheese and produce are sold. A walk along the town's streets will take you past the 12th-century Notre Dame du Bon Remède chapel, the fortified door of the Romanesque church, the 17th-century Breuil château, and Saint Michel de Frigolet church.

A Graveson, 00 33/4-90-95-71-79, hotel-en-provence.com, £38-£52.

HOTEL DE L'ATELIER, France

Spare yourself the agony of trying to find high-season lodgings in Avignon - there's a great little hotel across the river in Villeneuve, a charming medieval village just a five-minute bus ride from the City of Popes.

The building was constructed in the 16th century as a silk workshop, and the 23 rooms are all different shapes and sizes. There are exposed beams and stone walls, as well as painted niches, Art Deco dressers, Chinese end tables, and antique photography. The garden terrace is livened up with modern sculpture, and hallways showcase paintings by local artists. An old fireplace in the living room adds character and is a great place to curl up with a cup of tea.

A Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, 00 33/4-90-25-01-84, hoteldelatelier.com, £34-£67.

LES DEUX FRERES, France

Go up-past the crowds, past the noise-to the tiny village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Stop to gasp at the panorama from the tiny town square, and notice the lovely dining terrace to your right. It's attached to the restaurant of the intimate Les Deux Frères.

Each guest room has a name indicating its theme. The African room, for instance, has carvedwood furniture, bed linens with banana trees pictured on them, and a leopard-print headboard and chair cushions.. The Bride room is white-on-white, with a romantic padded headboard, a white wrought-iron café table and chairs, and a wrought-iron lamp draped with crystals.

The hotel's views range from lovely to stupendous.

A Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, 00 33/4-93-28-99-00, lesdeuxfreres.com, £48-£70.

IL PODERUCCIO, Italy

Il Poderuccio lies down the road from Sant'Angelo in Colle, a hilltop medieval village in the heart of Brunello wine country. Don't be alarmed if there's no one around when you stroll across the lawn to the check-in desk. Owner Giorgio Girardi could be in the back tinkering with the tractor or in the fields pruning the grapevines, while his wife, Renate, is probably in one of the gardens.

The Girardis rely entirely on word-of-mouth to guide discriminating travellers to their doorstep. Giorgio left an international banking career to restore this farm and is proud to have strung grapevines along only a fifth of his land. Locals think that he's insane to limit his production of one of the country's most famous (and most expensive) wines, but Giorgio prefers keeping the operation small enough to run almost single-handedly. Renate has filled the six large guest rooms with many thoughtful touches.

A Colle, six miles south of Montalcino, 00 39/0577-844-052, £60, includes breakfast, open Easter-November (closed for July in some years).

ULUN UBUD RESORT AND SPA, Bali

In an open-air workshop just to the west of Ubud, the island's cultural capital, a young wood-carver is carefully contemplating his latest work-a goddess slowly emerging from a twisted tree trunk. When he's satisfied at last, he marks the wood and begins his carving again.

The craftsman's boss is Gus Tu, son of a noted local wood-carver and owner of the Ulun Ubud, which sits next to the workshop. The artistic heritage is obvious as you meander down the paths and steep steps linking the hotel's 22 thatched cottages: Every nook holds a statue or a carving-a Hindu warrior here, a head of the Buddha there, and everywhere countless carved frogs, fish, shrimps, and crabs. The rooms are simple but comfortable, decorated with traditional Balinese antiques and original paintings.

The hotel has a reasonable restaurant serving Balinese and Western fare, and there's a free shuttle if you're feeling inclined to sample some of Ubud's many restaurants. Spend a day rafting; visiting hot springs; or attending traditional theater, dance, or music performances; then return to the hotel spa for a Balinese Boreh therapy session.

A Ubud, 00 62/361-975-024, ulunubud.com, from £38, includes breakfast.

RUMAH CANTIK, Bali

In northern Bali, Lovina is a miniature version of the hugely popular resort towns that lie along the island's south coast. So it might seem surprising that just 200 yards or so from the area's main drag is a place of peace and quiet.

The Rumah Cantik-a homestay with four rooms in a flower-filled tropical garden-was built by Made Kantra and Jette Stampe, a Balinese-Danish couple, and its eclectic design reflects its owners' backgrounds. On the outside of the two pavilions housing the guest rooms, European-style pillars support a Balinese roof with upturned eaves. Inside, the mix of influences continues in the generous guest rooms: The four-poster king-size beds are done up with white canopies, while the other furniture, made by traditional Balinese craftsmen, has a hint of Japanese simplicity.

A Lovina, 00 62/362-42-159, lovinacantik.com, from £34.

YLANG YLANG BEACH RESORT, Costa Rica

It takes a certain confidence to put up a hotel that requires a 15-minute hike on the beach to get to, but Ylang Ylang pulls it off. (If you're not feeling up to the trek, you can arrange a lift for yourself and/or your bags from sister property El Sano Banano, located in town.)

Ylang Ylang's main, two-story building has six rooms, each with pale-yellow walls decorated with original watercolors of local birds. Woven blankets with colorful stripes are tucked neatly across the beds. The eight bungalows are more private; all but one have ocean views from their patios. Stone walkways connect the buildings (one is home to a beautiful yoga studio) and are lined with flowering plants and trees- including the fragrant ylang-ylang, as the hotel's name indicates.

A Montezuma, 00 506/642-0636, elbanano.com, from £65, includes breakfast and candlelit dinner

CASA ZEN, Costa Rica

Experienced surfers, backpacking young couples, and hip parents unafraid to travel with their babies-these are the kinds of free spirits who tend to find common ground at Casa Zen. Kelly Lange, a transplant from Kansas City, opened the hotel in December 2004. She rents 10 rooms with one or two beds, two dorm rooms, and one room with its own bathroom and kitchen. The other six shared bathrooms could be considered part of Casa Zen's communal ethos. All rooms are spare but inviting, with batik bedspreads and tangerine, ocher, and yellow color schemes.

A Santa Teresa, 00 506/640-0523, zencostarica.com, dorm from £6 per person, private rooms from £12, cash only.

MOUNT HAVEN HOTEL, England

Orange Trevillion was drawn to Penzance, at the end of Cornwall, because of the town's proximity to St. Michael's Mount, an ancient craggy island that looks like a lopsided volcano. "It's a sacred place," says Trevillion, an eccentric with carrot colored hair who believes that four of the earth's energy lines come together here.

Trevillion and her partners bought Mount Haven in 2001 and created a friendly retreat. They knocked down walls and reconfigured the old coach house to maximize views of St. Michael's Mount and the ocean. Most of the 18 rooms look out on the water. They have an Asian feel, with silk bedspreads and throw pillows in embroidered fabrics from Trevillion's frequent trips to India.

The best vistas are from the terrace: You can see St. Michael's Mount rising steeply out of the water, a medieval castle perched on its tippy-top.

A Penzance, 01736 710 249, mounthaven.co.uk, from £77, includes breakfast.

SEASCAPE INN, England

The Seascape Inn, on Andros Island's Mangrove Cay in the Bahamas, is within minutes of a 120-mile-long barrier reef (the third largest in the world), making it perfect for diving, fishing, or just dropping out for a week.

The five raised cabanas are paragons of simplicity: They have white walls, white bedspreads, and white curtains; open-beamed ceilings; and terra-cotta floor tiles. Furniture consists of a bed and a wooden armchair; the only real amenity, if you can call it that, is a ceiling fan. In other words, there's hardly anything to distract from the miles of deserted white-sand beach.

Brooklyn-born hosts Mickey and Joan McGowan can typically be found at the bar and restaurant, which serves basic fare: burgers and quesadillas for lunch, and steaks, chicken Parmesan, and fresh fish for dinner. Gracious and friendly, the McGowans are clearly thrilled with their choice to move to the Bahamas 10 years ago.

A Andros Island, Bahamas, 00 242/369-0342, seascapeinn.com, from £75 (includes continental breakfast).

Sorrel Downer Costa Rica has its Marriotts, Four Seasons, beach resorts and casinos but to experience it at its best you need to grab your rubber boots, slap on the Deet and head for the hills. Going wild doesn’t necessarily mean adios to comforts – there are many luxurious wilderness lodges tucked away in cloud forests and steamy, dripping jungle, but also many that are basic, super-remote or just plain quirky and what they lack in thread count, bin size and, okay, electricity, they make up for in Kodak moments and indelible memories. If you want nights spent listening to plinking tree frogs, howler monkeys and the splatter of rain on leaves, to see monkeys and flash birds swoop past your hammock, to amble through a reserve or sit on a beach and pretend it’s all yours; if you want spirit of place and to know you are in Costa Rica, these hidden gems – ranging from rock bottom basic to charming – will deliver it.

Southern Pacific: Sirena Ranger Station, Corcovado National Park

One of the finest places on earth and well-worth the effort of getting there – considerable, given its location at the heart of Corcovado National Park on the Osa peninsula, and the total absence of roads. After getting yourself to one of the three perimeter stations (a feat in itself) there’s a 14km hike along the beach (from La Leona), a 20km slug through orange mud (from Los Patos) or, from San Pedrillo, a 23km hike along sand (mainly) and timed carefully to arrive at two tidal rivers (one at each end) before the water is thigh deep and chock-a-block with hammerhead sharks. The wooden station is in a clearing, a grassy airstrip back from the sea, but don’t anticipate a refreshing dip on arrival. As the park office states, the beach is a ‘high energy beach with rip currents and bull sharks’, and the river is ‘home to a population of crocodiles and due to its brackish water, bull sharks and sting rays’, concluding laconically, ‘Swimming is not advised.’ This I can confirm. Facilities are modest – there’s rice and beans for those who book ahead, and space to camp, string up a hammock, plus+ bunkbeds. These things are irrelevant once night falls and you experience being at the cacophonous heart of a truly wild place, home to tapir and jaguar – tracks are often spotted around the station, howler, spider and capuchin monkeys, pizotes and raccoon-like mapaches, toucans, scarlet macaws, trogons, honeycreepers, hummingbirds, parrots, tanagers, hawks, vultures (above the kitchen) and fishing bulldog bats. Don’t even think about hiking (particularly after dark) without rubber boots – poisonous snakes are plentiful. You’ll also need moleskin for blisters, torch and spare batteries, factor infinity sun protection, mosquito net and sheet, water bottle and written permission from the ACOSA office located by the airstrip in Puerto Jimenez. Fabulous stuff.

Non-residents daily park fee $8/day; permission to camp $4/day; bunk bed (bring own sheets, towels and mosquito net) $8/ day. Breakfast $8; lunch $11; dinner $11; No access without ACOSA authorization: Tel 506 735-5036. Park information

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Southern Pacific: Tiskita Jungle Lodge

Peter Aspinall began homesteading this piece of land on the coast close to the Panamanian border in the 1970s, and raised his family here, and while the location is remote and wild, the atmosphere at the beautiful lodge – one of the pioneering ecolodges - is heartwarmingly homely. Amble through the tropical fruit orchards plucking and eating, poke around the rock pools or doze on the veranda of a wooden cabin. Accessed by plane, and without telephones, television, fax or passers-by, it’s easy to forget the outside world exists at all. The cabins are in the thick of the local action, with hummingbirds making fly-bys through the outdoor showers, sloths and squirrel monkeys in the surrounding trees. Cas, guanabana, mangosteen, star fruit and other fruity treats draw the jungle’s flashiest birds into the 37 acres of orchards, while large mammals lurk just beyond in the forest reserve. Guided hikes are available free of charge, and sea and mangrove fishing, riding and various excursions can be arranged for a reasonable price.

Tiskita-lodge.co.cr. Packages: 2 nights cost $655, 3 nights $750, 4 nights $840 per person (based on 2 people sharing) including flights from San Jose. Closed Sept 10-Oct 31

Southern Caribbean: The Iguana Verde Treehouse

There’s a sandy lane that runs south to Panama between mountains and forest and the Caribbean sea, flanked by hibiscus hedges, palms and hatch-front pulperias selling cold beer. Cycle along and all you hear is birdsong, crickets and reggae. The lane peters out in the steamy wilderness of the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge, a place best explored by dugout canoe in the company of indigenous guides. The treehouse is one of four beautifully quirky properties inside the refuge of a 10-acre beachfront property owned by the Green Iguana Foundation. It’s ridiculously comfortable for a tree, with two-storeys, two bedrooms and a kitchen and shower room built from salvaged hardwoods dragged from the forest by oxen into the buttress roots of a Sangrillo, and ideally designed for lying in a hammock and watching the abundant wildlife including large iguanas. For excursions into the forest – you can even (theoretically) cross the continent on a 6-day trek through La Amistad – contact the Talamancan Association for Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC) at their office in nearby Puerto Viejo, or by phone (506) 750 0398.

Costaricatreehouse.com; tel (506) 750-0706. Rates: Two people $225 / night; $1350 / week – 6 people $385 / night; $2310 / week

Caribbean: Selva Bananito

The Stein family made a moral decision to leave 850 hectares of their family farm untouched, and to build a lodge (predominantly out of wood discarded by loggers) as alternative source of income. They demonstrate how environmentally-sound ecotourism can and should be done, restricting the number of guests, eschewing electricity, harnessing solar energy to heat water, using bio-degradable soaps, composting, recycling glass and plastics, and purifying water using bacteria, enzymes, and water lilies. They established Fundación Cuencas de Limón, to boot, a nonprofit organization dedicated to watershed protection and educational programs, and offset carbon emissions produced by your air travel by planting trees. Just as importantly, with its trails, rivers, cabins in stilts and views across to the Cerro Muchilla and Amistad Biosphere Reserve, the Steins have created in Selva Bananito, a place sufficiently sublime as to convert even a casual visitor into a fervent ecologist. There is much here to keep twitchers happy, but it is best enjoyed by those with a spirit of adventure. Not only are 8-hour jungle hikes involving 60 river crossings and rappelling down an 80-ft waterfall, galloping horse rides and tree climbing on the activities menu, but the journey from San Jose, particularly during the rainy season can be a little, ahem, challenging.

www.selvabananito.com. 3 days / 2 nights packages includes transfers from San José, 3 meals, introductory tree-climbing, waterfall tour and horseback ride at $355-$375 pp (valid until Nov 30 2007. Self-drive deduct $45 pp)

Central Highlands: Bosque de Paz

Few know the steep, deep, forested valley high on the borders of the Juan Blanco National Park, let alone the lodge, wedged at the bottom of it beside a burbling stream – in fact there’s so little traffic round this way that the resident guide has spotted ocelots stretched out on the warm tarmac when returning late at night – but those who do know it return again and again. It’s a blissful place, thick with dripping trees weighed down by epiphytes, famed for its bustling bird life as well as the plentiful orchids that are collected, catalogued, propagated and researched. Costa Rican owners, Federico González-Pinto and his wife Vanessa, bought the land twenty years ago and have dedicated themselves to conservation and education as well as top hospitality. Thirteen circular trails meander along rivers and to waterfalls on the 700 hectare reserve although spectacular views, comfortable beds, hearty meals and a well-stocked library make being lazy an easy option. With pizotes ambling along the river bank and 25 of the 28 local hummingbird species buzzing like kamikazes around the flowers and feeders, there’s really no need to move at all to enjoy la naturaleza at its finest.

Bosquedepaz.com; tel (506) 234 6676. Rates: $129 pp based on two sharing, including 3 meals and access to trails

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Galapagos in "grave environmental danger"
Central Highlands: Leo’s House, Rancho Mastatal

Driving west of San Jose and beyond Puriscal towards the spanking new and pretty much overlooked national park, La Cangreja, takes you into breathtakingly beautiful mountain country with small farmsteads perched on ridges, wooden houses smothered in bougainvillea, and horses tied up outside rudimentary bars. Leo’s House on the park boundary is a good base for complete rural immersion, close enough to villages and pulperias for beer and gallo pinto, but sufficiently remote for the only sounds at night to be strange screeching and snuffling. It’s looked after by Tim and Robin O’ Hara, owners of the nearby environmental learning and sustainable living centre, Rancho Mastatal, who built it with their own bare hands, and comes with 250 acres of rainforest and 5km of trails to explore either alone or with Mario the groundkeeper. There are an increasing number of cabins for rent across Costa Rica, but this stands out, not only for the setting, but for the house itself, built from bamboo, cob and adobe with porches and hammocks, and a showcase for green building techniques. Meals can be taken (with advance notice) with the interns and volunteers at Rancho Mastatal – a good opportunity to request a tour and to learn more about natural construction and compost toilets, or, given that the house is fully equipped with fridge, stove, electricity and running water, in the privacy of your own retreat.

Ranchomastatal.com. $75 per night per couple for private double with shared bathroom or $175 a night for entire house (sleeps up to 6) including all meals

Southern Talamancas: Las Cruces Biological Station, Wilson Botanical Garden

Italian farmers settled in the foggy ridges and ravines of San Vito, but beyond the farms rises a 472,000-hectare expanse of partly impenetrable rainforest draped over the southern ranges of the Talamanca mountains and extending into Panama: La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. Within it is the Wilson Botanical Garden, a world-renowned collection of phallic flowers, tumbling orchids, great big bromeliads, gingers, heliconias and palms now run by the Organisation of Tropical Studies which has a base station here for scientists and researchers. Twelve comfortable cabins with balconies and spectacular views are available for guests who can explore the garden, and also venture off along steep forest trails either alone with maps or, for less experienced hikers, with guides. This is a legendary destination for birders as well as botanists; the setting is spectacular and raucous with parrots and toucans, as well as the ubiquitous howler monkeys. Hearty meals are served family-style – the ideal opportunity to identify birds, snakes, mammals spotted on hikes and to learn something of the constant struggle conservationists face to protect even this remotest of areas from developers.

reservations@ots.ac.cr; tel (506) 773 4004. Rates: single $86, double $62 pp including three meals, half day guided tour and taxes.

Northern Central: Curubanda Lodge

In the dash to the Guanacaste beaches, most people bypass the farms and volcanic mountains of the northern interior, but life here is sweet and slow, the culture rich and traditional. Curubanda is one of a string of community tourism projects up and down the country allowing visitors to get an increasingly rare taste of Costa Rican food, life and hospitality. The owners of this albergue on a ranch in lush, rolling grassland, encourage you to ‘feel like a cowboy between two volcanoes’ which is probably not something you do every day. Guests can saddle up and ride out, or hike to swimming holes beneath waterfalls, climb the forested flanks of Rincon de la Vieja – one of the aforementioned volcanoes, or tread cautiously around the burbling mud pools at its base. Or just hang out back at the ranch. In over eight years of living in Costa Rica, staying as the guest of farmers in Rincon still ranks as one of the highlights. Most community-run tours and lodges belong to one of two efficient networks: ACTUAR (actuarcostaria.com) and COOPRENA (turismoruralcr.com) who have united to produce a useful guide, The Real Costa Rica, available in local bookshops.

Finca Nueva Zelandia, Quebrada Grande de Liberia. For reservations in English, and to co-ordinate transport contact actuarcostarica.com.


Unless stated, all hotel prices are on a B&B basis

GREECE MYSTIQUE, Santorini

Lounging on a balcony at Mystique, in the village of Oia, might be the most romantic way to watch the sun set yet devised. It slinks behind Santorini’s volcanic caldera with sylphlike grace. The island is lush with gorgeous honeymoon hotels, but Mystique, opened last month, threatens to beat them all. Its 18 villas are carved into the cliff face, each overlooking the caldera, and every one flat-screened and hi-fi’d. There’s locally quarried limestone on the floor, original art on the walls, cushions clad in antique textiles. Shame that the name conjures up visions of a tight-trousered 1970s lounge band.

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Details: 00 30 22 860 71114, www.mystique.gr; doubles from £280. Excel Airways (0870 320 7777, www.xl.com) flies from Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle.

MYKONOS GRACE, Mykonos

Mykonos is authentically A-list these days – so chic that star restaurateur Nobuyuki Matsuhisa sets up a summer outpost of Nobu there. The island has plenty of fashionable five-stars, but the new-look Mykonos Grace is effortlessly glamorous, and half the price of many of its rivals. The hotel reopened last month after a full-on facelift. The rooms now have a delectable airiness, with lots of trendy Venetian plaster, Starck-esque fittings and spacious terraces, some with hot tubs. The popular Agios Stefanos beach is on the doorstep; thumping nightclubs are a five-minute cab ride away.

Details: 00 30 22 890 26 690, www.mykonosgrace.com; doubles from £100. Olympic Holidays (0870 999 0338, www.olympicdirect.com) has flights from Gatwick and Manchester.

HOTEL BELLEVUE, Dubrovnik

Top hotels in the Croatian capital are beautiful but a bit old-fashioned – more hip op than hip-hop. Enter the brilliantly boutique Bellevue, which opened in March. Its new owners have spent a year and £14m transforming it from a three-star also-ran into a five-star ode to organic chic, with drop-dead gorgeous views over the teal waters of Miramare Bay. Rooms have been given a dash of panache by Renata Strok, mother of one half of the fashion label Gharani Strok, a favourite with Kate, Keira, Kylie et al. She has used lots of billowing muslin and soft marine tones to recreate the fresh-air ambience of a luxury yacht. And they come complete with an appropriate soundtrack – waves crashing against the hotel’s private beach below.

Details: 00 385 20 330 000, www.hotel-bellevue.hr; doubles from £125. Fly there from Gatwick with Croatia Airlines (020 8563 0022, www.croatiaairlines.com) or British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com).

THE ADRIANA, Hvar

Hvar is Croatia’s answer to St Tropez: no bikini is too tiny, no billionaire too slimy. In fact, it might even be more yachtie now than the Côte d’Azur. Opening this month, the Adriana never knowingly undersells its contemporary theme – neutral colours are lifted by vermilion, ochre and aubergine accents, and there’s lots of frosted glass and moody black-and-white photography. The rooftop terrace has a heated seawater pool, a pine-shaded yoga deck and what promises to be a buzzy bar, all with photo opportunities looking out over Hvar’s elaborate Italianate cathedral, the Venetian piazza, the harbour and the bay.

Details: 00 385 21 750 750, www.suncanihvar.com/adriana; doubles from £183. Fly to Dubrovnik (see above).

HOTEL FOUQUET’S BARRIERE, Paris

Just what springtime needs: another irresistible reason to visit Paris. Opened in November, the Barrière is perfectly pitched on the corner of the Champs Elysées, and decorated by the fashionistas’ favourite, Jacques Garcia, the only designer who can make Versace look understated. So that will be lashings of louche chocolates and lush creams in the bedrooms, vampy velvets for the furniture, and embroidered leather for the lobby walls, then. Even the flat-screen televisions are encased in sharkskin or hidden behind mirrors. Where better to sip champagne than on the hotel’s outdoor terrace, which is adorned with hundreds of tree branches dipped in silver. Now that’s flash.

Details: 00 33 1 40 69 60 00, www.fouquets-barriere.com ; doubles from £450. Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com) has returns from £59, and Air France (www.airfrance.co.uk) flies from nine UK airports, plus Dublin.

LA RESERVE, Paris

What discerning travellers want is a home from home, not an anonymous reception desk and surly room service. Opening this month on Place du Trocadéro, in the fashionable 16th arrondissement, La Réserve really promises to deliver. Decorated in muted mushrooms and jet blacks, its 10 luxury apartments have cutting-edge technology for the boys, indulgent travertine bathrooms for the girls, and views of the Eiffel Tower or everyone. Each comes with housekeeping, concierge, chef and masseur; some have private gardens, others their own cinema.

Details: 00 33 6 75 38 92 99, www.lareserve-paris.com ; from £1,158 a night, minimum three-night stay.

CAPELLA CASTLEMARTYR, Co Cork

This 17th-century rococo manor house in Ireland, once home to Sir Walter Raleigh, is set in 220 romantic acres, complete with ruined castle and historic chapel, and opens as a hotel next month. The classically styled bedrooms are pure quality, with Pratesi linens, Waterford glassware and complimentary minibars filled with freshly baked soda bread and local cheeses. The hotel likes its buzzwords, and everything is “experiential”. Spa treatments are based on the lunar cycle, and you can catch your supper with the local fishermen or watch Irish dancers on the lawn.

Details: 00 353 21 464 4050, www.capellacastlemartyr.com ; doubles from £360. Aer Arann (0870 876 76 76, www.aerarann.ie ) flies from Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Leeds Bradford; returns from £37.

BELLINTER HOUSE, Co Meath

The Celtic tiger purrs away contentedly at this Palladian pile, put together by the team behind Dublin’s perennially popular POD nightclub. Opened in December, Bellinter is set in genteel Meath parkland on the bonny banks of the Boyne, perfect for an Austen-esque evening stroll. The bedrooms go for bold fabrics, groovy vintage furniture and top-of-the-range entertainment systems. Some are sexily split-level, others have ultra-indulgent dressing rooms. The food is scrumptious (try the fresh oysters from Carlingford Lough), and the spa is organic (using the seaweed-based Voya range, whose fans include Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Details: 00 353 46 903 0900, www.bellinterhouse.com ; doubles from £153. Fly to Dublin with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com ), Aer Lingus (0870 876 5000, www.aerlingus.com ) or British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ).

LA BANDITA, Tuscany

This isn’t so much a hotel as a cool pad that belongs to the friend of a friend, and happens to have views over the Val d’Orcia nature reserve – the sort of soft-focus, cypress-studded landscape that made Merchant Ivory a fortune. Those once-removed friends are John Voigtmann, the former manager of the Strokes and Christina Aguilera, and Ondine Cohane, upmarket-magazine writer. Four years ago, fed up with the fast lane, they decided to pool their travel experience and create a bolt hole where guests can really loosen their stays. It opens this month, and it’s romantically rustic, with air con and plenty of attitude.

Details: 00 39 333 404 6704, www.la-bandita.com ; doubles from £135, room-only. Fly to Florence from Gatwick with Meridiana (0845 355 5588, www.meridiana.it).

JK PLACE, Capri

Its sister property (also in Italy, in Florence) is already favoured by the likes of Jade Jagger, and this breezily insouciant boutique hotel looks set to revolutionise hospitality on the Amalfi coast – traditionally as sickly sweet as a bottle of limoncello. Opened in March, it’s all seaside pastels, glamorous contemporary furniture, scented candles and chunky coffee-table books. It is also the only hotel on the island with a seafront location – though beaches in Italy tend to be for sashaying along rather than swimming off.

Details: 00 39 081 838 4001, www.jkcapri.com ; doubles from £278. Fly to Naples with EasyJet (www.easyjet.com ), BMI (0870 607 0555, www.flybmi.co.uk) or BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com).

THE CHEDI, Milan

Hotel-industry insiders never utter the name Adrian Zecha without mentally genuflecting. First as Mr Amanresorts, lately as Mr GHM, Zecha is the brains behind some of the world’s most exclusive hotels. He opened the 250-room Chedi in April, his first GHM property in Europe, and the style is Italy meets Indonesia, with an oriental stamp on everything from design to ambience. Even the hotel’s signature scent is a blend of green tea and mandarin. Its location is lousy – in the residential Bovisa district, a 15-minute taxi ride from the centre – but that won’t deter Zecha fans such as Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.

Details: 00 800 37 46 83 57, www.designhotels.com ; doubles from £78. Fly to Milan with BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ), Alitalia (0870 544 8259, www.alitalia.com ), Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com ) or Flybe (0871 522 6100, www.flybe.com ), or to Bergamo with Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com ).

THE OTHER SIDE, Norway

The next big thing in top-end travel is extreme luxury, and The Other Side, in Neiden, looks like being right on message. Opening in December, this high-concept lodge struts its stuff on a pristine plateau in the desolate tundra, overlooking the Barents Sea. Its dozen bedrooms draw inspiration from the traditions and beliefs of the local Sami people – think crackling log fires and decadent drapes of fur – and each room is based on an element. The Wind House is on stilts, the Water House above a pond, and so on. All come with panoramic views. Nocturnal pursuits include the northern lights in winter, midnight sunbathing in summer, and Dr Zhivago dog-sledding any time you like.

Details: 00 47 7899 6203, www.theotherside.no ; doubles from £233. Fly to Kirkenes (an hour from Neiden) with Norwegian Air Shuttle (www.norwegian.no), via Oslo.

AQUAPURA, Douro Valley

New this month, this is Portugal’s first six-star resort – and what a stellar location. Aquapura snuggles down in the divine Douro Valley, Unesco-protected and smothered in vine-draped hills. There are 50 discreetly decadent rooms inside the resort’s meticulously restored 19th-century manor house, plus 21 ultra-private suites dappling the woodland. Pampered princesses will be in raptures, because the hotel spa has been designed by the team behind Hodson Bay, Ireland’s latest wellness wonder. And as well as a ravishing range of rubs and scrubs, Aquapura has food by a disciple of Alain Ducasse and barrelfuls of the local tipple.

Details: 00 351 21 360 0040, www.aquapurahotels.com; doubles from £150. Fly to Oporto with TAP Portugal (0845 601 0932, www.flytap.com), or Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com).

L’AVENIDA, Majorca

This hip hideaway is a 100-year-old modernist mansion set among the citrus groves of Soller. Opened in March, it has been freshly squeezed into the 21st century: the original frescoes and sweeping marble staircase have been fairydusted back to their best, while the eight bedrooms smoulder with contemporary sexiness. That means extravagant Cole and Son wallpapers, Bonacina chairs, black-marble chandeliers and Philippe Starck bathrooms – all with jaw-dropping views onto the Tramuntana mountains. Forget oranges, this is one for the BlackBerry set.

Details: 00 34 971 634075, www.avenida-hotel.com ; doubles from £106. Airlines flying to Palma include BMI Baby (0871 224 0224, www.bmibaby.com ), Flyglobespan (0871 271 0415, www.flyglobespan.com ) and Monarch (0870 040 5040, www.flymonarch.com ).

MARQUES DE RISCAL, La Rioja

Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum is an undisputed masterpiece of avant-garde architecture. Now, its designer, Frank Gehry, has created his first hotel, the flamboyant Marques de Riscal, deep in the rolling hills of La Rioja Alavesa. Gehry’s trademark titanium is ever-present, while his signature sensuous curves and soaring ceilings ensure the interiors are a tour de force, too. The hotel can be challenging on a practical level – but who said sleeping in a sculpture would be easy? Also there: a restaurant overseen by the region’s only Michelin-starred chef, and a Caudalie Vinothérapie spa – you can soak in a merlot bath.

Details: 00 800 3254 5454, www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury ; doubles from £200. Fly to Bilbao with BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ), EasyJet (www.easyjet.com ) and Iberia (0870 609 0500, www.iberiaairlines.co.uk ).

CORRAL DEL REY, Seville

This sophisticated urban retreat opened in March, a new venture from the family behind Hacienda de San Rafael, an Alist haunt just outside town. Their new property offers cool, spacious rooms in the palest olive greens and champagne creams, complimented by 17th-century beams, marble columns and fine art. It’s in the old quarter of Barrio Alfalfa, a five-minute stroll from the cathedral – though you can get an eyeful of its gothic glory from Corral del Rey’s rooftop garden and plunge pool. Dine under the stars there – or, for a more intimate evening, in the vaulted cellars that were rediscovered during the palacio’s restoration.

Details: 00 34 954 227 116, www.corraldelrey.com ; doubles from £190. Fly to Seville with Iberia (0870 609 0500, www.iberia.com ) or Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com ).

REINA VICTORIA, Madrid

Best known as Mr Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber is the brains behind some of America’s blingingest bars. Since November, he’s gone to Spain, ensuring that Madrid’s newest hotel has the hottest social scene in the city. The rooftop bar is fabulously chic, while the restaurant is very El Bulli – unsurprising, since head chef Jaime Renedo studied under the gastronomic galactico Ferran Adria. The bedrooms are by Keith Hobbs (who outfitted celebrity bolt holes such as the Metropolitan in London and the Clarence in Dublin), so they come with preloaded iPods, 300-thread linens and organic Aveda essentials.

Details: 00 34 91 701 6000, www.solmelia.com ; doubles from £112. Airlines flying to Madrid include EasyJet (www.easyjet.com ) and British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ).

OYSTER RESIDENCE BEYAZ YUNUS, Olu Deniz

Turkey’s Olu Deniz is one of the Med’s most magnificent bays, but until last month its hotels failed to live up to their location. That’s when Beyaz Yunus came to the rescue. Dreamt up by Chelsea School of Art graduate Gunsenin Gonal, its seven suites have the intimate atmosphere of a Moroccan riad. Their flat-screen televisions and outdoor hot tubs are softened by artisan rugs and furniture, and surrounded by bougainvillea-draped terraces that tumble to the Aegean. Better still, Gonal runs one of Turkey’s best restaurants, the White Dolphin, so the just-caught red snapper will be grilled to perfection.

Details: 00 90 252 617 0765, www.oysterresidences.com ; the hotel cannot be booked direct, so go through Exclusive Escapes (020 8605 3500, www.exclusiveescapes.co.uk ), which has a week from £850pp, including half-board and flights this year (from £1,100pp next year). Fly to Dalaman with British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com ) or Cyprus Turkish Airlines (020 7930 4851, www.kthy.net ).

ADAM & EVE HOTEL, Antalya

It opened in December, and the toned and the tanned will be tweaking their dental-floss bikinis there this summer. It’s an unapologetic altar to hedonism, with “the longest cocktail bar in the world”, a two-storey nightclub and a pool for “late-night revellers looking to make a little mischief”. The main pool (“the world’s longest”, naturally) has sun loungers submerged in the shallows for those who overdo it but can’t make it to the spa. The Adam & Eve claims to be the world’s sexiest hotel, and its 400-plus white-on-white bedrooms have floor-to-ceiling mirrors, their own son et lumière systems and party-size whirlpool baths. The top suite even has its own DJ booth.

Details: 00 90 242 715 2444, www.adamevehotels.com ; half-board doubles from £235. Fly to Antalya with Turkish Airlines (020 7766 9300, www.thy.com ) or get a charter flight from Charter Flight Centre (0845 045 0153, www.charterflights.co.uk ).