It says a lot about what kind of hotel the Bellevue Palace is that it’s the Swiss government’s official lodging, playing host to visiting dignitaries and heads of state as well as Swiss members of parliament. In fact it’s publicly owned, but privately managed, a sort of best-of-both-worlds approach that seems to have paid off — its facilities and atmosphere are flawless, but the service is anything but complacent.

The hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio is a vision so magnificent that you’ll have a hard time believing that Italians once nicknamed the place “the dying city.” When an earthquake struck in 1685, residents fled; centuries later, an Italian psychologist and his wife bought the old seminary and transformed it into a fantastically charming guesthouse called Corte della Maestà.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel is more than just one hotel among many in the city’s thriving NoMad neighborhood. Architecturally, it spans more than a century, combining a 1907 Renaissance-style structure with a modern 24-story glass tower. And inside, the Gilded Age glamour of its public spaces serves as the inspiration for designer Martin Brudnizki’s fantastically colorful and ornate rooms and suites.

They’re all pretty traditional, but some ryokan are more traditional than others. Asaba has not only the tranquil atmosphere and the stunning natural setting you’d expect from a top country inn, but it’s got five hundred thirty years of unbroken history behind it as well. In fact, if you wanted to calibrate your ryokan-sense using the most reliable possible instrument, then Asaba is your prototype.

The Tuscan villa hotel is the classic Italian getaway — but closely related, and perhaps a touch more dramatic, is the Umbrian watchtower hotel. Tenuta di Canonica stands on a hilltop just across the Tiber river from the old town of Todi, and while the tower itself is of medieval vintage, its foundations are Roman in origin — and the hotel is positively steeped in millennia of history.

Yes, Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon is a manmade tourist attraction, but only a killjoy would shun it on that basis — especially now that it’s also the site of the incredibly stylish and unmistakably high-end Retreat Hotel. It’s got its own guests-only lagoon, so that you can skip the very busy public pool, and a couple of suites come with their own fully private baths.

Pioneertown was born when Hollywood Western stars got sick of traveling long distances to find Old West atmosphere, and established their own Westworld in the desert near Joshua Tree. Those days are long gone, but the town is newly resurgent, as is the stylish and comfortable Pioneertown Motel. Its rooms trade Hollywood-style glamour for vintage charm with a contemporary design eye and custom furniture.

The Provençal hilltop village of Gordes provides the spectacular setting for one of the region’s most extraordinary hotels. Airelles Gordes takes pride of place within this medieval village, with its expansive view of the Luberon valley. The main house dates back to the 16th century, while the hotel’s interiors take their inspiration from the elegance of the 18th.

Once upon a time, Siem Reap was a village. A village strategically positioned as the gateway to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, mind you, but a village nonetheless, a far cry from the bustling resort destination it is today. So it makes sense that one new hotel, the 45-villa Phum Baitang, would aim to recreate the simple charm of village life, set just outside of town.

Raffles is the stuff of legends. Since opening in 1886, the last Singapore tiger was shot underneath the Bar and Billiards room (1902), the first Singapore sling was mixed at the Long Bar (1915), and Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor called it home. Joseph Conrad, W Somerset Maugham, and Rudyard Kipling lived here too. In short, Raffles embodies all that was glamorous about the Far East in colonial times.

At Lupaia, the “Tuscan rustic” farmhouse charm is cranked up to eleven or twelve, especially in its open kitchen, where a daily four-course dinner is made out of produce from the hotel’s own organic garden. And it’s in plentiful supply in the rooms as well, carefully adapted from five painstakingly renovated historical structures, each of which is an architectural mosaic of Tuscan styles.

The idea of a theme hotel is normally cause for some skepticism. Which makes the success of Legado Mitico in Buenos Aires so much more impressive. Its stylish guest rooms and public spaces pay homage to Argentina’s history in a subtle, intelligent manner, and the result is a quirky, cool hotel with an added hook for well-read travelers — and those who’d like a warmer alternative to the city’s frostier minimalist boutiques.

Villa Cicolina is a quiet, country-chic villa surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. The aristocratic families that used to summer at the old house left behind a legacy of well-preserved ceiling frescoes, artwork, and period furniture, lending the hotel an old-fashioned air, while today’s owners have endeavored to make the beautifully adorned rooms feel comfortable and lived-in.

This fishing village of Oualidia is where Marrakchis go when the tourist season hits, and it’s where you’ll find La Sultana. The style is, in a way, exactly what you’d expect from a classic Moroccan seaside resort — stone, tadelakt, antique furnishings and original artworks. Colors are soft and sunny, and sunlight and space are both in plentiful supply.