01Lake Como, Italy
Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni
A nineteenth-century villa on the Bellagio shoreline, this hotel has spent well over a century in the same role. Frescoed ceilings, stucco work and chandeliers run through the public rooms, and the staircase is the sort of thing guests photograph before they reach their floor.
Rooms vary considerably. Some face the water directly, others look across the gardens or back toward the village, and the older building means no two floor plans read quite alike. Period furniture sits alongside modern bathrooms; the hotel has renovated in layers rather than all at once.
Outside, terraced gardens step down toward the lake, with a pool, tennis courts and a small lakeside beach club. Dining is formal in the main room and lighter by the water. The town itself begins a short walk from the gate, which is much of the appeal — grand without being isolated.
- Historic villa
- Lakefront
- Terraced gardens
- Seasonal opening
02Marrakech, Morocco
Amanjena
Set in olive groves outside the city walls, Amanjena is organised around a large basin pool of the kind used for irrigation across southern Morocco. Pisé walls in a warm ochre, palm shade and long reflecting channels give the property its shape, and the architecture borrows directly from Moorish garden tradition.
Accommodation is in pavilions and maisons rather than corridors. Each has its own walled courtyard, a domed sitting room and, in the larger units, a private pool. The distance between buildings is deliberate; quiet is one of the things the design is protecting.
The medina is a short drive away, and the hotel arranges access to it, to the Atlas foothills and to the golf courses nearby. Meals draw on Moroccan, Mediterranean and Thai kitchens, served either in the main pavilion or in the courtyard of a guest's own pavilion.
- Pavilion accommodation
- Private courtyards
- Basin pool
- Outside the medina
03Arenal, Costa Rica
Nayara Tented Camp
Tented does not mean rough here. Each unit is a raised, permanent structure with canvas walls, a full bathroom and a private plunge pool fed by spring water, built on a hillside facing Arenal Volcano. The frame is fixed; the canvas is what makes the room feel open to the forest.
Reforestation is central to the property's story. Land that was once pasture has been replanted, and sloths have returned to the cecropia trees along the walkways — guests are as likely to see one from a bridge as from a tour. Staff naturalists point out what has moved in since the planting began.
Days tend to run between the pools, the hot springs and the trails of Arenal Volcano National Park. Dining is Costa Rican with an Asado room, and the volcano view is the reason most of the seating faces the way it does.
- Tented suites
- Private plunge pools
- Volcano views
- Reforested site