Gruberboomer

Twenty-six years on, Ellerman House is still everybody’s fantasy bolthole in Cape Town: minutes from the best beaches and the Table Mountain cableway, but close enough to the city and its dynamic food, art, and design scene. Sandwiched between Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape Edwardian mansion looks like a private residence from the road and that’s exactly what keeps guests coming back. Owner Paul Harris takes enormous pride in his country—his impressive collection of South African art spans original works from the turn of the last century to current contemporary art. An informal tour of the collection with one of the in-house art experts is a fascinating lesson in the country’s socio-political history. Then there are the 7,500 bottles of rare and vintage South African wines in the cellar, and the indigenous plants sourced from Kirstenbosch (Cape Town’s botanical garden) in the 1.5-acre terraced gardens. Besides the main house, there are two modern, minimalist private villas built into the granite mountainside, as well as a wine gallery, and an excellent little spa.

All things cozy and Austrian meet in this legendary inn, which first welcomed guests in the 15th century and now lists Prince Charles among its loyal fans. The hotel is in the heart of the medieval old town, surrounded by shops displaying wrought-iron guild signs. You can walk to pretty much anything, including Mozart’s birthplace, just down the street. Because driving can be a hassle—pedestrian-only areas, inscrutable road signs—you’re better off taking the train from Vienna or Munich. If it wasn’t so authentic, you’d swear a set designer had orchestrated the vaulted ceilings, antique farmers’ furniture, stag heads, and staff in lederhosen and dirndls.

Though it’s a sleek, modern hotel with impeccable high-tech hardware in its 185 rooms, Raffles’ address in Istanbul still channels the city’s Byzantine charm and mystery. Chalk it up to the gorgeous views from almost every room and lush Turkish textiles, handicrafts (like pierced metal-and-glass similar to those found in the Blue Mosque), and dramatic, oversized framed photos of its most famous sites. Set in the central Besiktas neighborhood on the European side, the Raffles puts guests right on top of an array of shopping and dining options, and you can see the Bosphorus from many of the rooms.

Spread across two buildings—20 suites in the beautifully restored 1911 Shanghai Club, 252 rooms and suites in the newly built tower—this hotel is a magnificent homage to Shanghai’s swank European past. In addition to opulent colonial-style suites (poster beds, walk-in closets, claw-foot tubs), the old building, now called the Waldorf Astoria Club, has a jaw-dropping 110-foot-long bar with Bund views. Rooms are neoclassical—pale-green linen wallpaper, matching silk bedcovers, and carpets with swirling flower motifs—but have all the mod cons, as well as a bathroom where a TV is embedded in the mirror and the Japanese-style toilet has water jets.

There’s a very particular effect exerted by La Mamounia, which seems to take hold the moment you head up the green tiled steps to this most bohemian of grandes dames. Upon seeing La Mamounia’s faded pink walls, Churchill was wont to ditch the suit and pick up his watercolor brushes; Paul McCartney wrote “Mamunia” (meaning “safe haven” in Arabic) during a 1973 stay; and Hitchcock, who filmed The Man Who Knew Too Much here, got his inspiration for The Birds from some overzealous finches on a jardin-facing balcony. La Mamounia was always a curious mash-up of Art Deco, Berber, and opulent Moorish, and the old place has had numerous facelifts over almost 100 years—from Jacques Majorelle’s bright stylings in 1946 to a theatrical noughties revamp by Jacques Garcia (Hotel Costes) and most recently a series of sly additions by Parisian futurists Jouin Manku, including a new cinema and teahouse. There are all the columns, foliage-filled courtyards, and mosaics of the most photogenic medina riad—except that there’s also the smoky Churchill speakeasy, an Asian-focused Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant with its sultry blacks and reds, and that legendary, vast square pool, around which I find the people-watching irresistible (bring dark sunglasses). There’s a reason that the actors and rock stars have kept coming; the fashionistas with kaftans and ci******es. For all that it is woven into Marrakech like the knots in a Berber rug, La Mamounia has never, ever been boring. Doubles from $600. —David Moralejo

Housed in an 18th-century mansion surrounded by lavender and cypress trees, this Relais & Chateaux property is a draw for both its proximity to Aix-en-Provence (it's a 15-minute walk to Cours Mirabeau) and countryside seclusion. The 23 rooms and suites have either a private garden of views of the sprawling grounds, and each one is outfitted in toile, cream, and crimson Louis XV furnishings. The outdoor pool is, of course, a highlight, as is the on-site wine cellar and spa. Head to the restaurant for a seasonal menu that pairs Provençale, French, and Mediterranean dishes with Bordeaux, Burgundy, and local wines—all served on the terrace during the summer.

Life isn’t perfect. That’s why we have places like Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, where the world’s most glamorous people descend every summer to live on what feels like an impeccably styled film set. The last day of my most recent stay here—the one I had reserved to spend entirely by its swimming pool, cut into rocks overlooking a glittering blue Mediterranean Sea—turned out to be gray and overcast. By this time, I had already experienced the other attractions: the rose garden, the tennis courts, the private cabanas where I enjoyed a massage, the restaurants that manage to feel casually chic in the day and all dressed up at night, and the Manolo Valdés exhibition on its perfectly manicured lawns, where pine trees are being carefully planted to eventually replace the imposing ones standing now. This is a place where nostalgia is kept alive, where corridors are filled with photographs of its most famous guests from the past 150 years, where golden sunshine infuses everyone and everything with an air of romance, so that your time here feels lengthened and expanded, and etched in memory no matter how short your visit actually is. You will leave so well taken care of, so well fed, so intoxicated by the heady, fragrant summer breeze that even a cold final day on the French Riviera will not taint your mood. Instead, it will seem like just a little twist in the plot, enough to make you believe that the rest of your life is pretty perfect after all. Doubles from $740. —Divia Thani