Unless stated prices are per person, and include flights and transfers for packages outside the UK.
Santorini’s new cave hotel
££££
The most romantic island in the world is not a place you visit on a whim. Rooms in Santorini need to be booked months in advance, so if you’re capable only of spontaneous displays of affection, you’d better pick another island. A week staring at the views from the caldera’s edge will fly by, and the best place to do it is at the Sophia Suites, in Imerovigli — one of the island’s new wave of luxury hotels. It’s a dreamy place of cave rooms that seem carved from icing sugar, of underground private pools and mind-blowing sunsets. To get a room, you need to be quick — booking right now would be good — and a bit picky, as the cheaper ones have shared terraces, and you wouldn’t want that. Our choice is the Aurora Cave Suite, which has a private terrace and pool, and ridiculous views. A week from June 24 costs £1,554, B&B, excluding flights (00 30 22860 21181, sophiasuites-santorini.com). Fly to Santorini with easyJet.
Four Seasons comes to Anguilla
££££
Part of what makes Anguilla the best island in the Caribbean is that it’s a pain to get to. The beaches are fantastic, the food (from roadside barbecues to the top-end dining at Veya) is fabulous and the vibe is rum-soaked and friendly. But there are no direct flights and the giant cruise ships don’t stop, so developers looking to make a fast buck have gone elsewhere. The shopping may be so-so, but the hotel scene is suddenly looking rather attractive. Last year, the venerable Malliouhana was relaunched after a three-year refurb, and the new Zemi Beach House Resort and the Reef by CuisinArt opened, but the biggest news by far is the arrival of Four Seasons, which has taken over the modernist masterpiece that was the Viceroy, on gorgeous Barnes Bay. A week there starts at £2,499, B&B (0330 160 7478, caribtours.co.uk).
South America with Ranulph... by jet
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With £35,000, you could buy a nice new car, but that won’t get you to the Falklands and back in three weeks. For that, you need a privately chartered Boeing 767 such as the one Prestige Holidays is using for this whirlwind tour. It’s an impressive itinerary: the Copacabana Palace, in Rio, the Iguaçu Falls, Buenos Aires, penguin-bothering on the Falklands, Easter Island, Cuzco, a luxury train ride to Machu Picchu, the Galapagos and Havana — all with the finest dining available. If that’s not enough to persuade you, your travelling companion will be the veteran explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The trip departs from Stansted on November 6 and costs £34,995 (01425 484221, toursprestigeholidays.co.uk).
Down by the lake, Malawai
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When you first glimpse Likoma Island from a Cessna, 5,000ft above Lake Malawi, you’ll suspect you made the right choice. Stepping ashore after the speedboat transfer from the airstrip, you’ll be convinced, and by the time you’ve been shown into your room, hacked from the rock and with a private jetty, you’ll be wishing you’d booked two weeks instead of one. Likoma is tiny: seven square miles of baobab and beach within sight of the Mozambique coast. They like you to be active here, with kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, fishing trips and sailing on the clear freshwater lake; and, unlike many luxury resorts, Kaya Mawa shares its white-sand beach with the locals, who rope you in to help them haul baitfish from the deep. The terrific food is prepared by Richard Greenhall, who used to train Jamie Oliver’s protégés, and served while you lounge, Arab style, on cushions under the stars. A week starts at £3,795, full-board (01787 888590, safari-consultants.com).
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Believe the hype in the Seychelles
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Last year’s most talked-about opening was the Six Senses Zil Pasyon, on tiny Félicité Island — easily one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The 30 haute-luxe villas, all wood and stone, with pools and sea views, are scattered through virgin forest, near the beach or high on the hill. There are three beaches here, as well as six restaurants and, of course, a spa, hidden amid tower block-sized granite boulders. You may find yourself more than usually impressed by the hi-tech lavatories, which have an alarming number of functions. Elsewhere, the passion for technology (photovoltaic panels, a reverse-osmosis plant and digital lighting), the use of local materials and the devoted cultivation of an organic garden offer proof of Six Senses’ determination to let its guests enjoy this Eden without guilt. A week in a Hideaway Pool Villa starts at £5,399, half-board (020 8682 5050, scottdunn.com).
Castello cool, Puglia
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The fabulously named Marquis d’Amore bought this castle in Ugento in 1643, just as castles were going out of fashion. In 2013, his descendants, who had never managed to sell the place, decided that if life gave them lemons, they should make lemonade, embarking on an ambitious project to transform the derelict castello into Puglia’s official bastion of culture, gastronomy and wine. The fabulous baroque frescoes have been restored, contemporary art has been commissioned and, this spring, the Castello di Ugento opens as a luxury hotel, with nine palatial bedrooms, a spa using herbs from the garden, a gourmet restaurant and a cookery school dedicated to local cuisine. A week starts at £1,225, B&B, excluding flights (castellodiugento.com). Fly to Brindisi with Ryanair.
Join the club in the Grenadines
£££££
Canouan is where billionaires go to get away from millionaires — Donald Trump once had a casino here. The island is now home to the Pink Sands Club, the £100m, 26-suite, six-villa Italianate palace that’s the biggest opening in the Caribbean for years. It’s set above the elegant curve of Godahl beach, in bougainvillea-filled gardens that the guests trundle through on private golf carts en route to the resort’s 10 other beaches. You can play a round on the 18-hole course, watch fish through the glass floors of the overwater spa or simply lie in your huge bed, playing with the controls that make the wall-length mirror-cum-television slide away to reveal huge sea views. A week starts at £5,495 (0330 160 7477, carrier.co.uk).
The Costa del Sol’s best-kept secret
£££
Keep this to yourself, but halfway between Torremolinos and Fuengirola is a hotel considered by many to be the best in Spain. It’s called the Vincci Seleccion Aleysa Boutique & Spa, and comprises just 35 rooms on Benalmadena beach, within walking distance of some of the best nightlife on the Costa. On this busy coast, the hotel is a pool of tranquillity, as attractive for its discreet service and beachside location as for the generous size of its cream and dark-wood rooms. As you drift from spa to pool to the superb Alamar restaurant, popular with locals as well as guests, you’ll wonder how something quite so sophisticated could be, well, here, on the Costa del Sol. A week in a sea-view double costs £1,115, B&B, in mid-June (01903 258283, loveholidays.com).
Tough love in Austria
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Lanserhof Lans, Austria’s most sumptuous wellness retreat, might have inveigled its way into the Luxury section, but don’t be fooled. Yes, this Innsbruck health farm is fabulous, especially now it has reopened after multimillion-euro renovations that have added private rooftop terraces, a bathhouse, a saltwater pool and a cryotherapy chamber, but you are going to suffer here. Dr Franz Mayr’s theory, developed in 1901, was based on the belief that a healthy intestine is the key to health and beauty, and the treatments inspired by his work focus on flushing your body of toxins through a combination of deep massage, spa treatments — and starvation. By day three, you can expect to feel extraordinarily energised and alert, and by day seven you’ll have lost 6lb-9lb: weight that will stay off if you follow the doctor’s orders after you get home. A week’s detox starts at £2,999, full-board, excluding flights (020 7843 3597, healingholidays.co.uk). Fly to Innsbruck with easyJet.
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Overwater style in the Maldives
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No fewer than five new resorts have popped up in the Maldives in the past couple of months, and there are five more scheduled in the next six months. All need a gimmick: the Hurawalhi will have a photo concierge to help with the selfies; “smart, playful, rooted” Kandima is going after millennials; and Milhaidoo will let you name a star and get a certificate to prove it. They’re all trumped by Soneva Jani, which has an astronomical observatory, a silent outdoor cinema, where you listen using Bluetooth headphones so as not to disturb the wildlife, and, best of all, overwater villas with retractable roofs, so you can watch the stars from your bed. Most have waterslides, too. A week starts at £5,339, B&B (0330 160 7479, itcluxurytravel.co.uk).
The trend: package holidays go posh
Once upon a time, package holidays meant two weeks in Torremolinos, with a free snack on the coach to the resort if you were lucky, writes Susan d’Arcy. Now the super-rich have got in on the act — and the humble package has been given the mother of all makeovers.
The upmarket hotel chain Four Seasons was the first to adapt the concept, rolling out its own Four Seasons-liveried Boeing 757 in 2015 to fly the well-heeled between its resorts. Bone-white Italian leather seats; Bulgari amenities; attentive crew, including concierges and a doctor. The cost of its 19-day European and African package last November? An eye-watering £85,000 (fourseasons.com/aroundtheworld). Prestige Holidays is taking on South America in a 767 for £35,000.
That’s cheap compared with Crystal Cruises, which will unveil its branded Boeing 777, a superyacht for the skies, in August, alongside seven global itineraries. A plane this size would usually carry 300 or more passengers. But then where would you put the dining tables and the wine collection? So it will carry just 84 guests, who will be attended by sky butlers, dine in the on-board restaurant and hang out in the bar and lounge areas until landing. The inaugural Crystal AirCruise, on which guests will stay in luxury hotels in 10 cities, including New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Paris, costs £130,000 (crystalcruises.com/aircruises).
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Peninsula Hotels, Aman and the Oetker Collection are also getting in on the act, launching their own versions next year.
If you’re just after the private-jet bit, you’ll find this is getting easier and (a bit) more accessible. The likes of PrivateFly (privatefly.com) and Victor (flyvictor.com) already allow clients to book “empty legs” — relocation flights that would otherwise be made without passengers — for less than the usual price.
Recently, JetSmarter (jetsmarter.com), whose investors include the rapper Jay Z, was launched in Europe. As well as conventional charters, it allows members access to JetDeals (empty seats, basically) on private planes. It’s serious money, but can work out cheaper than premium classes for frequent flyers: £2,500 joining fee, then an £9,800 annual subscription to qualify for unlimited private-jet flights.