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A private ferry drops you and your car off, and a personal attendant promptly hoses the sea water off your fender. You get a mimosa along with mineral water at check in, and your own personal golf cart to shuttle you about the grounds during your stay. It’s hard to believe that you’re just seven minutes away from South Beach.

Once upon a time, in 1925, Fisher Island was William Vanderbilt’s private retreat. Now it’s where society’s wealthiest go for their dose of Florida sun. It’s flashier than Palm Beach and more exclusive than Bal Harbour. The security is White House quality—50 security guards and stringent security clearance procedures for anyone coming on and off the island. The guest list reads like the back pages of Entertainment Weekly—everyone from Meg Ryan to Margaret Thatcher, and Oprah has a house here next door to her trainer. You could drop a few million dollars and buy a cottage here. Or, check in to the hotel, and, for a few days, you can at least pretend to be a billionaire.

The best thing about Fisher Island, you see, is not the hotel; it’s the opportunity to participate in the Fisher Island lifestyle. Here you can tee off your golf game on a course designed by PB Dye, practice your tennis on the same clay courts as Pete Sampras, and at the end of the day make sure to book a massage with Eduardo, formerly of the Brazilian rowing team.

Though hotel rates begin at an aspirational $315 a night, insiders insist that, for the true Fisher Island experience, you must book one of the cottages. Besides a $1,000 price tag, they come with a terrace and kitchen, all decorated in voluptuous Vanderbilt style—Regency mahogany furniture and thick carpets. You’ll find peacocks perching on the roof, and sometimes in your bathtub. And the jacuzzi in your garden is, according to experts, celestial. You won’t ever want to leave.

How to get there:

Fisher Island is 20 minutes from Miami’s International Airport; 10 minutes away from Miami’s business and Design District and 7 minutes away from Miami Beach. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange a transfer.

There was a time when the way to do Phuket involved backpacks, hostels and dog-eared guidebooks. These days the action is elsewhere. If you’re going to find an experience worth remembering you’re going to have to break away from the pack a bit, and on this island that can only mean a move towards the high end, and a reservation somewhere small, somewhere like the Bundarika Resort, on Phuket’s northern Layan Beach.

Bundarika is the sort of place where you’ll feel no pressing need to venture off the property. The Jacuzzi suites got their name in the manner you’d expect, while the Ocean View incorporates a jacuzzi with, as you may expect, a view of the locality’s predominant aquatic body. From there it’s on up into villa territory, where plunge pools are the norm and a clean, contemporary Thai style dresses up a textbook example of modern high-end hotel design.

The wellness center takes advantage of Bundarika’s uniquely restful atmosphere to go a bit beyond the usual massages and skin treatments — the “wellness retreats” add a spiritual and even a quasi-medical element to the usual business of relaxation. Up here you just might remember what it was that drew you to Phuket in the first place.

How to get there:
Bundarika Villas & Suites is located on Layan Beach, approximately 15 kms (20 minutes) from Phuket International Airport. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

Everybody knows the W hotels as the chain that took the concept of the “design boutique” mainstream, with a series of stylish properties, mostly in American cities, attracting a design-savvy, upwardly mobile sort of crowd. So it’s a bit of a surprise to find that big white W cropping up in the Maldives, of all places — the Maldives have been about over-the-top luxury, while the W hotels have been a bit more accessible.

Here in the Maldives you’ll find that the W can do over-the-top too. In proper Maldives style the experience begins at the Malé airport’s W lounge, where guests are bundled onto a seaplane for the last leg to the resort’s private island. Once there it’s on to the villas, either the bi-level Beach Oasis, set just a yard or two from the sand, or the Ocean Oasis, out on stilts above the waters of the lagoon. All come with city conveniences like 42” televisions and high-speed internet, as well as Maldives-only touches like private plunge pools and transparent glass floors.

Everything’s impeccably designed, as you’d expect, as chic as any other W and quite a bit more luxurious. A private-island getaway in the Maldives would be nothing without a dive center (check) or a full-service spa, and this one doesn’t disappoint; treatments are administered on overwater platforms, open to the breeze, shaded by tent-like Teflon roofs. And unlike some of the old guard Maldives resorts, this W is about nightlife too, with a nightclub that’s thoughtfully set 15 feet underground, so as not to disturb the island’s idyllic calm.

Though it loses something in translation, Gastwerk is a pun on the building’s original function—a gaswerk, or gasworks—and on its new one, that of a ‘guest works,’ or a hotel. This is a textbook reclamation of a decaying heavy industrial site, a trend that takes Americans’ appetite for loft living one step further: while New York artists inhabit posh city lofts, German photographer Andreas Gursky lives in a converted power plant in Düsseldorf—and while it may seem edgy in England or the US to convert a warehouse or printing press into a hotel, it can’t be long before the Germans make a hotel from a nuclear plant or a drydock on the Baltic Sea.

Happily the hotel’s execution lives up to the novelty of the concept; the rooms are uncannily bright and airy, many with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the interior design is modern yet accessible—though a favorite of design junkies and architectural trainspotters, Gastwerk is a hotel first, and a comfortable one at that. The flagship suite was designed by Terence Conran, but even the humblest rooms look sharp, in exposed brick and muted colors, with classic high-design furniture alongside modern musts like CD players and high-speed internet.

Public amenities include a health club and fitness center as well as extensive business and conference facilities, and the hotel’s new restaurant serves a mix of the cuisines of five continents. The location is not quite downtown, though it’s just a short cab ride to the city center, and the creative industries are beginning to migrate toward the Gastwerk’s neighborhood, bringing the best in restaurants and nightlife with them.

Alongside the Miles River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, sits a classic white Colonial mansion, built by Purser Samuel Hambleton after the War of 1812, and christened the Inn at Perry Cabin. Long known as the top hotel on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, this meticulously restored manor house is now operated by the Orient Express group, which brings an added measure of professional hospitality to the informal and friendly atmosphere at the Inn.

Guests are greeted by a mix of antique and contemporary furnishings, and though there’s an air of history about the Inn, the décor opts for classic designer fabrics and wallpapers, courtesy of Laura Ashley, rather than obsessive recreations of the early 1800s. Some rooms open through French doors onto patios or decks, and bathrooms are spacious, in keeping with modern fashions, with oversized sinks and massive rain showers.

The cuisine is mid-Atlantic with French influences, and English-style high tea is served with scones and Devon cream. Modern facilities include an indoor pool and health club with fitness center, and there are a number of nearby golf courses—or indulge in a more timeless pursuit like a horse-drawn carriage ride or a sailing trip.

How to get there:

The Inn at Perry Cabin is approximately a 2 hour drive from both Baltimore-Washington International and Reagan National Airports. Easton Municipal Airport is 15 minutes away, providing regional air service. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

India is home to some grand old historic palace hotels, even in Mumbai—but this most modern of cities is booming, and a number of spectacular and utterly modern business hotels have landed in the suburbs, nearer the airport, rather than in crowded and historic South Mumbai.

It’s here, near the Bandra-Kurla business district, that you’ll find the sprawling Grand Hyatt Mumbai. Frankly, this isn’t the most postcard-perfect place for travelers intent on seeing the sights of the old city to set up shop—it is, however, ideal for business travelers, or anyone looking for a completely self-sufficient hotel experience. It’s possible to stay at the Grand Hyatt for days without ever leaving the grounds, dining in the hotel’s four restaurants, treating yourself to spa treatments in the health club, even shopping in the on-site mall. More than a hotel, it’s billed as a “lifestyle complex,” and includes 149 serviced apartments in addition to its nearly six hundred traditional guest rooms.

Accommodations are strikingly modern and spare, without any trace of touristy Indian kitsch, yet with enough personality to avoid the “where am I again?” feeling occasioned upon waking in many more anonymous business hotels. Rooms are open-plan, decorated in light woods and earth tones, and feature ingeniously designed bathrooms, placed behind floor-to-ceiling sliding partitions, with separate baths and showers.

Twenty-five-inch plasma TVs are standard, along with every technological amenity you could expect. Ground-floor Grand Club rooms feature private patios, a charming and welcome touch, and the suites are so massive you’ll wonder if you’ve been shown to one of the apartments by mistake. Perfect for the busy executive traveler, or anyone who wants a completely over-the-top luxury hotel experience—just do remember to come home again, or at least to venture out for a walk every so often.

Please note: 3 nights minimum stay

It’s a whole different side of Jamaica. Goldeneye was Ian Fleming’s estate on the island’s north coast, just down the road from Noël Coward’s place, and the desk in the flagship Fleming Villa is where he sat down to write all fourteen of his James Bond novels. It’s still as casual and low-key as you expect Jamaica to be, but with an undercurrent of colonial-era gentility that most of the island’s other properties can’t hope to match.

The original five villas are still intact on this gorgeous plot of coastal land, a bluff facing an empty cove a few miles to the east of Ocho Rios. That was always enough for a modestly festive sort of atmosphere, but eleven brand-new cottages and six new lagoon-facing suites have upped the sociability quotient considerably. The old Goldeneye was a semi-private escape for a smallish contingent of style-seekers and creative types — the new Goldeneye is as chill as ever, just a touch more accessible.

It’s not just more accessible in terms of the relative scarcity of the accommodations, but in a physical sense as well. The new Ian Fleming International Airport cuts what was once a multi-hour drive down to ten minutes. The result is a uniquely history-steeped boutique hotel experience that only feels remote — in reality it’s a quick hop from the States, and no more far-flung than any of the Caribbean’s other choice destinations. Guests can also fly into the Montego Bay Airport and transfer is available for $150 for 2, each way (1h30 drive). If flying into Kingston, the cost is $180 for 2, each way (2h30 drive). Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

The hotel has no minimum age restrictions.

For more information about Jamaica, click here to read “Spotlight on Jamaica” featured in Tablet’s blog.

In the crowded and often ostentatious world of Paris hotels, Le Dokhan’s sets itself apart—the feeling is less grand hotel, more private mansion, one impeccably designed by the noted decorator Frédéric Méchiche, whose antique selection and keen eye for color make hospitable order from what would, in lesser hands, be a jumble of period furniture and printed fabrics.

Perhaps it’s this unifying vision that attracts the style-conscious crowd that is this hotel’s primary audience; though lacking some of the luxuries of Paris’s five-stars, Le Dokhan’s maintains a devoted following. Fashionista in-jokes abound, like the elevator upholstered in canvas rescued from vintage Vuitton steamer-trunks, and the rooms, varying widely in plan and volume, are impeccably designed—and have large, functional bathrooms and triple-glazed soundproof windows. Suites have views of the Eiffel Tower.

The champagne bar has the city’s widest selection, and a charming lounge serves tea. Lunch is served in a stunning wood-paneled dining room, but for dinner you will be on your own—though there are worse fates than being consigned to Paris’s fine restaurants.

About Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel: Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel in Paris from Frédéric Méchiche. It is located in the Trocadero district, with views of the Eiffel Tower. The hotel features a champagne bar with the city’s biggest selection of champagne.

The archetypal Florentine villa wears a patina of age, often applied at great expense with a damp sponge — and this, for some reason, is what passes for authenticity. Villa Le Maschere takes a different tack. In their vision, you get closer to the past by turning back the clock — and by cleaning away the ravages of time, you reveal a much more authentic picture of Tuscany, a timeless version, one that allows guests to inhabit the place itself in the present, without the distance of the intervening centuries.

By now you’ve undoubtedly seen those familiar white Greek statues painted over in vivid colors, in reference to how they would have looked at the time. Think of the bold patterned facade of the Villa Le Maschere this way. The building’s interiors are meticulously restored as well, and the frescoes, the columns, the tiles are in impeccable condition. The only departure from Renaissance correctness is in the fixtures and some of the furnishings — surely we’re right to regard flat-panel televisions, modern luxury beds and functional modern plumbing as improvements rather than intrusions.

Three restaurants, one of them in the old wine cellar, serve the finest in Tuscan cooking, and the subterranean spa opens directly onto the outdoor swimming pools. It’s a comfortable enough hotel that one could quite happily shut oneself in for the duration of a stay. Not that anyone actually would — not twenty miles outside of Florence.

How to get there:
Villa Le Maschere Resort is approximately 30km from central Florence and the Florence airport, 15 km from the Mugello Circuit, 12km from an 18 hole international golf course, and 6km from the village of Barberino di Mugello. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com for assistance with airport transfers.

There’s more to Bilbao than heroic feats of modern architecture: though it’s home to the Gehry-designed Guggenheim (and the ripple of modern building that has followed in its wake), it’s also home to some classics, like this 17th-century palace — dismantled stone by stone three decades ago and today rebuilt as a 43-room luxury hotel in the hills just outside the city.

Though it’s billed as “Hotel & Golf in Bilbao,” the 9-hole “Pitch & Putt” course is of secondary interest at best. Far more impressive is the meticulous reconstruction of the Palacio itself; it’s four kilometers of road and about a hundred years of design from Santiago Calatrava’s airport to the Palacio Urgoiti. Guest rooms are ornate, colorful, packed with antiques, naturally sunlit and outfitted with modern conveniences like flat-screen televisions and wireless internet access.

Palacio Urgoiti’s restaurant serves classic Basque cuisine with views of the golf course and the hills beyond. Four-star facilities include an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, and an assortment of meeting rooms seating anywhere from five to 200. It’s not all business, though: the beaches at Plentzia and Bakio are just fifteen minutes away, as is the city center, with all of its sights, ancient and modern.

Please note: The Lugger Hotel is unable to accommodate children under 12 years old.

Tucked away in a hidden cove on the Cornish coast, the Lugger won’t be mistaken for one of England’s new crop of hot-spot country boutiques. This place, once a seventeenth-century smugglers’ inn, is the kind of quiet and remote place where you go to make a getaway, rather than an entrance.

That’s not to say it isn’t charming and comfortable — it certainly is. It’s just to say that the Lugger does just what a good down-to-earth seaside escape should do, and does it exceedingly well. The interiors are warm and inviting, contemporary but not modernist, luxurious but not precious, and the service is attentively old-fashioned.

Bedrooms are neither frilly nor stark, but stylish, simple and plush, with overstuffed beds and plentiful pillows, and a soothing palette of muted creams and greys. Bathrooms are just right, no marble or gold plating, just deep oversized tubs and separate (and torrential) showers. All the rooms are different: some larger than others, and some with better views.

The Lugger experience wouldn’t be complete without a meal in the hotel restaurant overlooking the harbor. Dinner is an elegant three-course affair accompanied by a wide selection of wines, with an emphasis on seafood, especially Portloe lobster and locally harvested crab.

A private ferry drops you and your car off, and a personal attendant promptly hoses the sea water off your fender. You get a mimosa along with mineral water at check in, and your own personal golf cart to shuttle you about the grounds during your stay. It’s hard to believe that you’re just seven minutes away from South Beach.

Once upon a time, in 1925, Fisher Island was William Vanderbilt’s private retreat. Now it’s where society’s wealthiest go for their dose of Florida sun. It’s flashier than Palm Beach and more exclusive than Bal Harbour. The security is White House quality—50 security guards and stringent security clearance procedures for anyone coming on and off the island. The guest list reads like the back pages of Entertainment Weekly—everyone from Meg Ryan to Margaret Thatcher, and Oprah has a house here next door to her trainer. You could drop a few million dollars and buy a cottage here. Or, check in to the hotel, and, for a few days, you can at least pretend to be a billionaire.

The best thing about Fisher Island, you see, is not the hotel; it’s the opportunity to participate in the Fisher Island lifestyle. Here you can tee off your golf game on a course designed by PB Dye, practice your tennis on the same clay courts as Pete Sampras, and at the end of the day make sure to book a massage with Eduardo, formerly of the Brazilian rowing team.

Though hotel rates begin at an aspirational $315 a night, insiders insist that, for the true Fisher Island experience, you must book one of the cottages. Besides a $1,000 price tag, they come with a terrace and kitchen, all decorated in voluptuous Vanderbilt style—Regency mahogany furniture and thick carpets. You’ll find peacocks perching on the roof, and sometimes in your bathtub. And the jacuzzi in your garden is, according to experts, celestial. You won’t ever want to leave.

How to get there:

Fisher Island is 20 minutes from Miami’s International Airport; 10 minutes away from Miami’s business and Design District and 7 minutes away from Miami Beach. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange a transfer.

Much of the buzz around Sri Lanka has centered on the seaside colonial town of Galle Fort, and the beach in general. Perfectly reasonable, and all very well — but there’s more to it than that. For example, a few miles inland from Galle there’s Kahanda Kanda, formerly a private residence and still a working tea plantation, but one whose owner has turned it, to everyone’s benefit, into a small and contemporary boutique-style hotel.

Small is one of the key words — it’s got just five suites, each of them free-standing, surrounded by shady vegetation, all within a stone’s throw of a central infinity pool, on a hillside overlooking Koggala Lake. Interiors are stylish, a blend of contemporary luxury and colonial heritage, and the bathrooms are downright indulgent, as they tend to be these days. The atmosphere could hardly be more private or tranquil, and the no-kids policy certainly doesn’t hurt in that department.

Activities are mercifully few: this is a place to get away, though not a difficult or terribly remote one. The beach is a short drive away, if you’re determined, and sporting options on-site include swimming, yoga, and a small fitness center — an emphasis on health that’s complemented by the hotel’s hybrid Thai/Sri Lankan cuisine.

How to get there:

Kahanda Kanda the boutique hotel, can be found just 5 kilometres inland from the coastal Galle Road (as the crow flies), perched at the north east shore of Koggala Lake.

Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

Occupying a rather severe stone-clad Twenties building, a former corporate headquarters, the Bentley is certainly the only hotel of its kind in Genoa. After all when you think of Liguria you think of the Riviera, and the good life on the coast; this, however, is a very urban place, what’s called the Carignano, in the old financial heart of the city.

From the monumental marble exterior to the heavy revolving door to the ornate stonework of the lobby the Bentley still retains a certain atmosphere left over from its big-business days; if anything it feels like a slightly exaggerated film-set version of a central bank, so stately and rich is the décor. Meanwhile the rooms are crisp and contemporary, several steps beyond the typical business hotel, with natural oak floors, high headboards, and the obligatory 42-inch LCD televisions.

The public spaces are no less impressive. Grace, the restaurant, is a bit formal, in whites and creams and metal tones, and the Norman Lounge looks a bit 1980s Wall Street — this is a compliment, not a criticism. And instead of a bank vault the Bentley hides a spa, a warm-toned modernist-inspired space, complete with exercise pool and Technogym fitness equipment.

How to Get There

Bentley Hotel Genova is approximately a 20 minute drive from Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA). Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

Quirky, stylish Medusa is a converted eighteenth-century Victorian townhouse in ultra-fashionable Darlinghurst, Sydney’s gallery and boutique district. The award-winning design, by prominent Australian interior architect Scott Werner, is anything but Victorian; in fact, these daring, modern interiors are a large factor in Medusa’s draw, especially among the young, creative types the hotel (and the neighborhood) caters to.

Make no mistake: this is not the sort of place where you would want to hole up for a few days and avoid the outside world. Medusa is a comfortable, stylish home base, a place to leave your suitcase while you browse the shops and cafés by day, a place to lay your head after a fun night out. There is no restaurant, no bar, not even a lounge where you can see and be seen - that’s what the rest of Darlinghurst is for.

Don’t expect a Spartan flophouse, or some kind of glamour hostel; these rooms are vividly decorated, each to an individual scheme, with queen or king beds and marble and glass en-suite bathrooms. The larger, high-ceilinged Grand rooms have breakfast tables, lounge chairs, and a chaise lounge, and overlook either the quiet inner courtyard or colorful Darlinghurst Road. Animal lovers take note – the courtyard rooms (of all sizes) allow guests with dogs, making Medusa the only dog-friendly upscale hotel in Australia. And if you are here on business, there is a conference room and a fully-equipped business center, with high-speed internet and color printing facilities.

Enough has been said about Darlinghurst’s pub & club scene – the rest of the city is easily accessible as well, from Oxford Street (home of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras) to the more traditional tourist spots. The Opera House is just on the other side of the Botanical Gardens, which themselves make for a gorgeous walk to the harbour. Kings Cross railway station is five minutes from the hotel, taxis are easy to come by, and several bus lines stop right at Medusa’s door, for a ride to Circular Quay or the central business district.

When we talk about the California wine country we’re generally talking about the Napa and Sonoma valleys, just north of San Francisco. But the more southerly region from Paso Robles to San Luis Obispo, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, shouldn’t be overlooked. And while central California’s lodging options may be fewer, it doesn’t mean there’s any compromise in quality; the Hotel Cheval in Paso Robles is proof positive of that.

It’s a new build, which means that each of its sixteen rooms has plenty of space to spread out, and all the necessities are built in: many feature gas fireplaces, deep tubs, and/or outdoor patios or sun decks. The look is contemporary-luxe, and it’s not without personality — there’s a bit of stable-house ruggedness and some well-chosen splashes of color.

There’s no spa per se, but massages and treatments are available in-room. And if there’s no restaurant, it’s just a further enticement to sample the burgeoning Paso Robles culinary scene. It’s roughly the same drill as in any wine-producing region: winery tours, gourmet meals, and when all is said and done, a small, tranquil and luxurious hotel to act as a home base for a weekend of wining and dining.

We don′t put much stock in the concept of star ratings for hotels; often it′s just an exercise in list-making, where some phenomenal hotels lose out to boring and predictable ones, for the crime of lacking a swimming pool.

It′s useful, though, for understanding the unique situation of the Angleterre Hotel. This is the older yet slightly less decadent four-star sister of the five-star Astoria next door; and while the rooms may be less opulent and the amenities list shorter, it′s got every bit as much personality as its famed sibling.

The Angleterre benefits from the same absolutely central location, on St. Isaac′s square, and is just as close to the cathedral and the Hermitage museum. Where it differs is in the rooms, which are ever so slightly smaller than their siblings next door. The décor depends less heavily on antique furnishings and historical artifacts, and more on the keen eye of decorator Olga Polizzi, the stylish sister (this time we mean it literally) of the proprietor, Rocco Forte.

As for services, the Angleterre is hardly lacking, especially considering that the amenities of the Astoria are available and at guests′ disposal. Unique to the Angleterre is the English-style tea service, as well as the Borsalino Brasserie. There′s a combination nightclub and casino too—and if you strike it rich, head next door to Davidov′s restaurant for generous helpings of the finest caviars and vodkas.

Visa Information for Russia

Most travelers to Russia need to obtain a Visa from their local Russian Consulate prior to departure. Applying for a Tourist Visa is easier and cheaper than applying for a Business Visa. This can be a frustrating process so allow at least 10 days prior to departure to apply.

The process can only start after you make a Hotel Reservation. You will need a Certificate/Voucher from the hotel where you have a confirmed reservation in hand before you can go to the Consulate to apply for a visa. This Certificate/Voucher will be faxed or emailed to you by the hotel.

As soon as you have your Confirmation from TabletHotels.com, please contact customer service. We will assist you in obtaining the Certificate/Voucher from the hotel for your visa application.

If everywhere else in the Caribbean seems old hat, chances are you haven’t tried the Dominican Republic. Here, especially on the rough-and-tumble north coast, it’s possible to escape the package-holiday hordes, and maybe even get a taste of that undiscovered-paradise feeling that’s long since departed most Caribbean ports.

And any question about whether the Dominican Republic is ready for high-end luxury tourism is settled by a look at the Casa Colonial. This Spanish-style mansion, right on the beach at Playa Dorada, comprises some fifty oversized (and over-the-top) suites, each with all mod cons, from plush robe, slippers and Frette linens to the obligatory flat-screen television and stereo system. Junior suites are lavish enough, but there’s plenty of room to upgrade — to master suites with private entrances and Roman baths, penthouses, and the Presidential suite, practically a self-contained residence unto itself.

Though a smallish boutique the Casa Colonial comes with many of the big-resort trappings — full-service spa, rooftop infinity pool, and a number of individual-sized whirlpool baths, poised with views of the Playa Dorada. Hard to believe a place like this can still exist in today’s Caribbean; best to get there while the Dominican Republic is still something of a secret.

How to Get There

Casa Colonial Beach & Spa is approximately a 15 minute drive from Gregorio Luperón International Airport (POP). Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.

There’s more to New Zealand than just those rustic rural lodges. Though it may confound the narrative a bit, New Zealanders can do cosmopolitan style as well. The George, a 53-room boutique in central Christchurch, would look at home in any European capital, so chic is the pared-down modernist décor — in fact the endless whites and blond wood recall nothing so much as Scandinavia at its coolest.

Of course urban, in Christchurch, is relative — they won’t be shooting Blade Runner 2 here, that’s for sure. The George stands at the edge of Hagley Park, which many of the rooms overlook; not only do you get 32” LCD televisions, wireless internet and 24-hour room service, but idyllic views as well.

The George comes with not one but two restaurants among Christchurch’s finest — the clubby 50 Park and the more formal Pescatore (no points for guessing what’s on the menu at the latter). You can work out in the fitness center, or take a complimentary mountain bike for a spin around the park, and if you’re still feeling confined (unlikely in this scenic, modestly sized city) you’re never far from the vast expanses of great outdoors that are a New Zealand trademark.

How to get there:

The George is approximately a 25 minute drive from Christchurch International Airport. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange an airport transfer.

In the midst of the scenic Cotswolds, Lucknam Park is an old-fashioned country house hotel, on five hundred acres of registered parkland, just six miles from the original English resort town of Bath. The manor itself dates back to 1720, and was in fact a family residence right up until the hotel’s establishment in 1987.

So this is the place to live out your Mr. Darcy fantasy (playing whichever role you prefer), or just to indulge in some industrial-grade relaxation, in the most picturesque of styles. Yes, we know Jane Austen did not approve of Bath, but her loss is literature’s gain — you would not likely get much writing done while soaking in a hot spring, nor will you finish your latest novel at The Spa, Lucknam Park’s new £15M addition.

The gardens and parklands are impressive, just what one would imagine from a period country manor. The estate grounds would be the perfect venue for a bit of horseback riding, if only the stables had dozens of horses and a fully staffed equestrian center for the guests’ use. Which, in a remarkable coincidence, they do.

The hotel’s 29 rooms and 13 suites, newly and massively renovated, are stuffed to the gills with atmosphere and antiques — though more aggressively comfortable than overweeningly opulent, there is no show of restraint in the décor. Larger suites feature four-poster beds, some high enough to require footstools for a step up, and a sitting room where one could entertain suitors or gaze out over the estate and the gardens.

The facilities include the aforementioned equestrian center and Spa, as well as an indoor and an outdoor pool, walking trails, loaner bikes, tennis courts, and a five-a-side football pitch. And now, post-renovation, there are two restaurants — the Brasserie, located within the spa complex, joins The Park, the hotel’s Michelin-starred gourmet restaurant, which is anything but rustic. Here they’ll teach city dwellers a thing or two about upscale elegance, and that approach extends to every aspect of Lucknam Park. Some country hotels aspire to be just like home — and this one is, if home happens to be an opulently appointed 18th-century manor with an army of attentive servants.

How to get there:
Lucknam Park is approximately a 45 minute drive from Bristol Airport and 2 hours from London.