It's just a little old inn perched at the top of a slipway in a tiny Cornish hamlet, but The Lugger at Portloe has somehow achieved iconic status. Perhaps because its owners have injected seaside simplicty with a measure of chic without adding an ounce of pretension. Or simply because its romantic harbourside location is unbeatable.

Tucked in the back streets of an Andalucían hilltop town, behind sandy burnt orange walls is not the place you'd expect to find a five-star hotel.

But in Carmona, the Guardiola family have successfully transformed a shabby palazzo into an opulent luxury hotel, while preserving the old-fashioned charm of the building's aristocratic heritage.

It's barely a year old but may have the best location on the fringe of the Old City in the 19th-century Mamilla neighbourhood.

The hotel itself is nothing if not modern. Designed by Moshe Safdie, it blends seamlessly with its environment, built with gorgeous Jerusalem stone as is the shopping centre it is attached to. Interior décor is minimalist and contemporary and filled with Herman Miller, Kartell and Cassina furnishings.

The Murano delivers a very particular vision of Marrakesh conceived in Milan - Italian high design in an Arabian nights setting. The result is startling at times, but not altogether unpleasing.      

Rooms are spacious and attractive, the pool is cool in every sense, and the setting - in the tranquil oasis just outside the city centre known as the Palmeraie - a great base for Morocco's fascinating, but hot, dusty and noisy, shopping and entertainment capital.

What can transform an already very good hotel into a truly great one? If you already have a great location and beautiful rooms, it is people. And the Villa Sant'Andrea has achieved greatness in its first season under excellent new management by Orient Express.

With its lack of handsome lobby, uniformed flunkeys or even a sign over the door, Soho House is the antithesis of Berlin’s imposing five-star hotels. Yet it is a five-star animal, albeit of a different breed.

This is the latest enterprise of the media luvvies’ empire, now owned by Richard Caring, which started as a private club in London. Part of its appeal is that guests become members for the duration of their stay, admitted to the  fabulous 7th-floor bar, lounge and restaurant, and the rooftop pool and bar above.

If Bath is, as many assert, a Regency theme park, the Royal Crescent Hotel is its best ride. And one you don't have to queue for if you are staying inside this magnificent row of five Grade I listed houses designed by John Wood the Younger. He is said to have dreamed up the lawn-fronted crescent, which so spectacularly overlooks the city, because its shape had symbolism relevant to his masonic lodge.

Nobody, apparently, was more surprised than the villagers of Villabuena de Alava in Spain's Rioja winemaking region when an extraordinary building started taking shape right next door to their 17th-century church.

But oddly, the small but eclectic Hotel Viura, named for one of the important white wine grapes of the region, now blends into the landscape, despite its ultra-modern concrete cubist architecture.

Set in 520 acres of lush, secluded estate beside the rugged Fife coastline, the Fairmont St Andrews - just three miles from this week's British Open - captivates you from the moment your cab noses on to its long driveway.  

The exterior resembles an elegant French chateau, but as soon as you step inside, the tartan carpets, paintings and the warm hospitality remind you that you are in Scotland. The bright, airy glass-roofed atrium adds an American flavour, as befits a hotel bought by the up-scale North American chain Fairmont 10 years ago. 

Other than the giveaway in its name and the occasional low-flying aeroplane, guests at the sumptuous Luton Hoo could be forgiven for being unaware of its proximity to Luton airport.

The peace, calm and luxury make the hotel feel like a rural idyll, yet it is just 30 minutes up the M1 from North London. A winding, gravel drive flanked by towering trees, brings you to the magnificent palladian Mansion House built by Robert Adam in 1767, its 1,000 acres of parkland containing gardens landscaped by Capability Brown.