Our global editors — based in seven cities across three continents — share their favourite places to stay and ships to sail.
Consider the Gold List the answer to the question our editors get asked more than any other: what are your favourite places to stay? Our 30th annual collection, passionately selected by our international team, reveals which seaside resort we return to every August and the city hotel that gets everything right. Now all you have to do is pick the experience that’s right for you – and get travelling.
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Bab Al Shams, A Rare Finds Desert Resort, Dubai
Bab Al Shams reveals herself slowly, her sandstone exterior – an ode to traditional Emirati forts – half-hidden by spindly date palms and sand dunes. In a city that so often leans into excess, the grande dame of Dubai’s desert resorts works her magic with restraint.
For almost two decades, UAE residents have made the 45-minute pilgrimage from the city up Al Qudra Road – past outlandishly shaped man-made lakes, swirling cycle paths and endurance horse-racing tracks – to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and indulgent weekends at Bab Al Shams. The city may be creeping closer, but this is still the place we come to get away from it all. The resort’s much-photographed infinity pool, which drops off into a vast sandy expanse in a paradox of elemental opposites, is the draw for many. For me, it’s the quiet, which is all-enveloping and absolute. The resort comes into its own as the sun sets, the silhouettes of sand dunes framed in pinks and mauves; bamboo torches flickering along the perimeter and lanterns creating a play of light and shadow in outdoor passageways.
Now Bab Al Shams is fresh from a 10-month, no-holds-barred renovation, with new bragging rights as the first property in the Rare Finds Hotels & Resorts collection by the Kerzner group (Atlantis, One&Only). The exterior remains largely unchanged, the deep solid walls, arches, alcoves and geometric patterning lifted directly from the UAE’s vernacular architecture. But interiors have been transformed by a deft hand, the gilded ornamentalism that characterises the country’s Arabesque-inspired resorts forsaken for a lighter touch. The lobby, once a warren of dimly lit, compartmentalised spaces, has been opened out and brightened up. In my terrace garden room, instead of dark woods and heavy upholstery, nods to tradition come in delicate mother-of-pearl detailing on arched mirrors, brass studs on cupboard doors and majlis-style seating in a corner nook. Teal accents flit from headboards and furniture piping to diamond-shaped mosaic tiles in the rain shower.
The hotel is unassuming, but not devoid of spectacle. At Al Hadheerah, a colossal open-air restaurant, nightly performances accompany the Arabian classic dishes: a belly dancer, whirling dervish, musicians, singers and even a re-enactment of a Bedouin caravan with camels and horses crisscrossing a bordering desert plateau. Cooking stations serve lamb salona and chicken biryani, and the spirited Egyptian chef de cuisine takes great delight in showing guests the underground contraption used to prepare his seven-hour slow-cooked lamb ouzi. More sedate meals are served at the Mediterranean-inspired Zala or Pan-Asian Anwā, a prime sunset spot.
Bab Al Shams remains loyal to her desert environment. In the newly opened standalone spa, home to male and female hammams carefully crafted from green-veined Cipollino Nuvolato marble, some treatments use De L’Arta, a locally grown skincare line featuring Tetraena qatarensis, a shrub found in abundance around the hotel. On a recent visit, a morning safari took us through Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve, over powder-soft pale-yellow dunes, past camels feasting on desert grasses, regally horned Arabian oryx, skittish gazelles and the season’s first migratory flamingoes. Indian rollers flitted between ghaf trees and lizards scuttered off into hidden burrows. It was a reminder, as Bab Al Shams has always been, that there is immense natural beauty in the UAE, if you only stop to look. Selina Denman
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Dar Ahlam, Morocco
This rare palm-framed fantasyland near Ouarzazate, whose name translates from Arabic as “House of Dreams”, was conjured 20 years ago from the wild imagination of a Parisian creative. Thierry Teyssier re-envisaged the 200-year-old ochre kasbah and its rammed-earth ramparts to honour its Berber heritage with authenticity, elegance and an unrivalled romance. Spells at the hideaway are more magical than ever, with the handful of rooms in the North African castle joined by spacious suites at the edge of the Louis Benech-landscaped grounds. Teyssier’s past lives as a theatre actor and event planner keep him challenging traditional hospitality as a disrupter and storyteller: every soul-stirring scene is art-directed and choreographed to enchant, with delicate, tactile interiors, seductive scents and unexpected curios at every turn. Surrendering to Dar Ahlam’s rare rhythm is akin to participating in immersive theatre, with unprompted poolside pomegranate juices, candlelit Berber tents for secret suppers and personally addressed hand-penned scrolls or other gifts at bedtime. Guests can explore vast desert-scapes by four-by-four, or let the staff plan a picnic in a villager’s vegetable garden. There is no lobby, restaurant or bar, just beautiful spaces unfettered by telephones, menus or minibars. Dar Ahlam’s emotive approach to hospitality has a precious respect for Morocco’s remote rural places, with the surrounding community deeply involved. This interdependence with the people of the area is a welcome lesson in how respecting geography and hyperlocal history cultivates a richer appreciation on both sides. Juliet Kinsman
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El Fenn, Marrakech
It’s easy to forget what a game-changer El Fenn was when it opened two decades ago on the edge of the medina with just six jewel-toned bedrooms, plumes of bougainvillea and a rooftop that felt like a fabulous house party. It stitched itself into the fabric of the Red City and redefined its aesthetic with colour-clashing walls and lounges of thickly woven Berber and velvet fabrics; Moorish keyhole archways and orange trees. Like the best hotels, it has moved – and expanded – with the times. Co-owner Vanessa Branson, founder of the Marrakech Biennale and a certified Marocophile, has gradually bought up the crumbling neighbouring riads to create a wondrous labyrinth of 13 interconnected buildings, three pools and 41 bedrooms in blush pinks, mustards and acid yellows. Some have zellige tiles, others hand-stitched camel leather floors and carved wooden ceilings, all offset with pop art and bright contemporary installations. Various sun-dappled courtyards lead to a new wood-carved annexe, which references traditional Arabic motifs in the latticework and stained-glass windows. I recently stayed in one of the “cosy” rooms, behind an ornate cedar door. On a hand-plastered traditional tadelakt wall hangs a contemporary dot painting by Moroccan artist Abdelmalek Berhiss, while a timeworn mother-of-pearl iridescent chandelier dangles above the bed. It’s nearly impossible to tell old from new, a result of using local artisans, natural fabrics and upcycled furniture. The open-air, guest-only Colonnade Café is dotted with olive trees; its modern spiral staircase, which connects the ground-floor boutique with the sprawling spruced-up rooftop, is a monument to Marrakech’s contemporary mood. Yet amid the rooftop’s pool, sunbeds and pops of colour, the old magic of Marrakech endures. Chloe Sachdev
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Lolebezi, Zambia
The Lower Zambezi National Park has long been a pilgrimage for safari-goers seeking natural drama on water as well as land. So when this new lodge was opened in 2022 on a formerly wild 12-acre concession on the banks of the Zambezi River, conservationists’ eyes were firmly turned. Owned by Dubai-based businessman Irfaan Yousuf, Lolebezi is surrounded by game – which can be seen from kayaks, sundowner cruises, walks, and game drives. Built in partnership with respected African Bush Camps’ founder Beks Ndlovu, the six suites and double-height living space were designed by South Africa-based Fox Browne Creative and Jack Alexander Studio to feel like an indulgent contemporary boutique hotel, with curvaceous banquettes alongside calabash-strung art installations; reed ceilings above opulent green Italian marble. Considering the remote location, the food is remarkably inventive and fresh. There might be an Indian tandoori feast in the evening, Ottolenghi-style vegan tapas for lunch and spirulina- and baobab-spiked juices at dawn. With an Africology and Healing Earth spa set among giant leadwood trees (and, sometimes, wandering lions), a glass-walled gym, games room and velvet-seated cocktail bar, this is the most glamorous camp in Zambia. An instant classic on the African continent. Lisa Grainger
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Londolozi, South Africa
Even if you’ve never been, Londolozi exists in the imagination: a sprawling cluster of five thatched-roof safari camps, in varying sizes and shades of taupe and beige, built in an ancient riverine forest around waterfalls and tangled vines. Londolozi has been owned and run by the Varty family for nearly 100 years. The word londolozi comes from the Zulu language and means “protector of all living things”. Nelson Mandela, who recovered from imprisonment on Robben Island at the family camp, described it as “a dream I cherish for a model of nature preservation in our country”. The camps feel like deeply stylish African homes, layered in natural clay, khaki, and sand-coloured linens. Each has its own communal open-air lobby, with plunge pools and various rooms and suites attached. With a jovial family ethos and unbelievable wildlife, Londolozi is one of the world’s best safari outposts. Chloe Sachdev
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Miavana by Time + Tide, Madagascar
“How do they do it?” I kept asking myself during my stay at Miavana, a private island hideaway just off Madagascar’s northeastern coast. Its extensive restaurant menus and top-shelf drinks list would have been impressive even if it had a traiteur on its doorstep, but given that it took me two flights and a helicopter-hop to reach its perch in the remote Levens Archipelago, this toes-in-the-sand operation requires a logistical puzzle. The price is high, but that does buy you a stay in an enormous breezy beachfront villa with a barefoot Bauhaus-y design from bamboo and local sandstone, slicked up with licks of copper and jolts of turquoise. You’ll also have a private pool, of course, and a palm-hemmed beach as fine and white as powdered sugar right in front. The best things in life might be free, but Miavana adds a priceless dash of magic. Chris Schalkx
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Singita Sasakwa Lodge, Tanzania
Built in the style of an Edwardian stone manor house, overlooking the Serengeti, this safari lodge has gold standards since it opened in 2007. Its elegant, antique-clad interiors ooze romance, adorned with crystal chandeliers and wingback chairs, Persian rugs and African artefacts by the acclaimed Cape Town designers Cécile & Boyd. From the clifftop infinity pool, there are views for hundreds of miles over the 350,000-acre Grumeti Reserve and neighbouring Serengeti. This is a place you never want to leave, and to which many return year after year. Lisa Grainger
