Written by Lucy Fennings: So, hotelier par excellence André Balazs’ edgy new mission base in New York might have been grabbing all the media limelight of late, but let’s not forget the two Los Angeles bolt holes that put the Standard brand on the map – and our favorite is the Standard Hollywood’s funky sibling site in Downtown LA.

This is still one of the coolest hangouts in the city. Giant foot sculptures in the bathrooms of rooms justifiably called ‘Wow’, an original 1950s lobby space, and genius flashes of canary yellow and scarlet send you into a 20th-century time warp. Here, in a plastic-fantastic playground, Bond’s groovy overnight mission bases meet the GPlan furnishings of suburban middle America – it’s an inspired, slightly psychedelic take on Hitchcock-era decor. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: Some days, your holiday dreams are made up of a few glasses of wine on a quiet Tuscan veranda, a stroll on the countryside or a leisurely lunch in a laidback city café. And some days, you want all-out, no-holds-barred, shamefully luxurious excess and exclusivity. The Delano in Miami was designed for just such days.

This South Beach star hotel is something of a style icon: admiring its interior ‘vignettes’ and set pieces, it’s no wonder it has been used as a backdrop to so many music videos and fashion shoots (including – our favourite – Sarah Silverman’s touching love duet with Matt Damon). There are more than a few decorative space oddities, courtesy of Philippe Starck and the Delano design team: this is the kind of hotel where even the piano in the mid-century Florida Room lounge bar is made of transparent, shimmering Lucite. Oversized planters and dream-sequence chiffon drapes, for that Alice in Wonderland feel? Check. High quota of original art and furnishings by Antonio Gaudí, Man Ray, Charles and Ray Eames, Salvador Dalí and Mark Newson? You betcha. Furniture in the swimming pool? Yup, that too. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: Sometimes, a whirlwind trip to Rome tugs at the heartstrings; sometimes, balmy Caribbean beaches are the stuff romantic dreams are made of; but sometimes, a weekend break closer to home is just what the doctor ordered. Within walking distance of Santa Monica’s famous pier and the shopping delights of Third Street Promenade, quirky boutique hotel Oceana Santa Monica occupies an unassuming butter-hued block on Ocean Avenue. Step inside, however, and a welcome committee of light and colour cheers your arrival: duck-egg blues, soft mossy greens and custardy yellows demand you make yourself at home; giant picture windows flood the space with light; and crisp white accents and dark bookshelves lined with leather-bound books add just enough gravitas to reassure the weary wanderer. Click Read More for additional information and photos of Oceana Santa Monica.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: If you’re reading this Stateside, you’re probably thinking, wow, the British pound is WEAK right now. So what are you waiting for? Get over here to Blighty ay-sap, and act like Rockefeller by throwing your dollars at us and our fancy central London hotels. Need a slightly more specific target? Allow us to direct you to a slice of romantic city luxury in the form of an under-the-radar stay that won’t break the bank.

Jump off the Tube at South Kensington with all the smart-set shoppers, amble for, ooh, all of 100 yards, and you’ll find yourself outside The Pelham hotel. You’d never guess that the elegant white façade of this double-fronted Georgian townhouse hid some 50 generously sized hotel rooms, unless you’d been sent there – and that’s half of the beauty of this delightful London pied à terre. Checking in is like being part of a members’ only club, and knowing a secret hidey-hole that the bag-laden fashion hounds and sight-seers scurrying past have probably never noticed. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: Our top tip: visit Napa Valley in the new year and you’ll have it to yourselves (and at a super-tempting low-season rate). Tip number two: check into unique boutique resort The Carneros Inn. From a distance, Carneros’ rambling collection of structures looks nothing like a boutique hotel, and rather a lot like a group of warehouses. Closer inspection, however, reveals something far more exciting – something that would elicit ecstatic overtures about harmonious spaces and landscape-enhancing projects in Architectural Digest. We imagine one of their writers strolling along its lavender-lined paths, making expansive gestures toward the mountain backdrop and rolling fields. ‘This wonderful new-build resort is the result of a bold, contemporary vision of traditional local farm buildings,’ they’d say. ‘The distinctive tin-roofed barns, silos and rancher’s cottages dotted throughout Napa Valley have informed an ultra-modern “agri-chic” aesthetic that marries old-school decked porches, cowhide rugs and rocking chairs with Le Corbusier chaises and a colour scheme designed to relax and soothe tired minds.’ Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: Right credit crunchers, here’s a hot tip: kiss goodbye to wintry weather and say hello, sunny South Africa! The Rand is still offering a pretty good bang for your buck, so get yourself over there, sharpish. Here’s a little more inspiration to get you going…

When you were little and you fantasized about a letter arriving telling you that you were in fact the child of a kindly, wealthy, outdoorsy couple who owned a magical home with horses and a swimming pool and quad bikes who let you do whatever you wanted, you probably pictured something like Kurland. The gardens are mature and rambling, its private polo ground hosts matches every day in season, the Cape Dutch architecture is stylish 1940s and the interiors mix colonial country chic with contemporary comfort. But you don’t need rose-tinted spectacles to appreciate what’s on offer here: this luxury Garden Route boutique hotel really is that idyllic. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Written by Lucy Fennings: There’s not really much point in arguing with the sentiment that Venice (and here you must affect the nasal sing-song and shaggy-haired nod of number-one Venice fan Francesco da Mosto) is the most beautiful city in the world. It just is.

What’s that? You want evidence? What about all those Baroque, Renaissance and Rococo facades, moodily reflected in a network of waterways? The elegant barks firmly punted under mediaeval bridges by stripey-topped gondolieri like so many Turkish slippers? The mists of autumn wreathing over landing stages and around window frames? Venice is a visual, sensual, historical treat, and if its maze of alleyways and many surprising sights fails to quicken your pulse, you may as declare game over right now. Someone visiting such a splendid setting requires suitably splendid accommodation: and Palazzo Barbarigo is happy to oblige. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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