The greatest place I’ve ever stayed (including a campsite in Wales) – according to 15 travel writers

It’s the number one occupational hazard for a travel writer: mention what you do and you’ll inevitably get asked: “Where should I go on holiday?” The answer, however, might not be what’s expected.

When you’ve seen one too many overwater villas and bland hotels, you start craving something a little different. Perhaps it’s somewhere with perfect service in an unexpected corner of the world, a bed with a view straight from a postcard or a place so remote that nobody can ask you anything at all (least of all where they should go on holiday).

Here, 15 of our writers highlight their favourite places to stay, from Italian wine estates to Kilimanjaro camps…

1. Faro de Punta Cumplida, La Palma, Spain

I was convinced someone was having a joke at my expense. I had been on the long road up the east flank of La Palma – the most explosively volcanic of the Canary Islands – for what felt like a day. Only when I saw its beam slicing the night sky did I believe the Faro de Punta Cumplida was real. 

The bedroom that I slumped into was both comfortable and chic, but it was not until morning that the glory of the picture was revealed; a lighthouse, built in 1867, extravagantly restored (in 2019) as a three-suite boutique gem. On one side, banana plantations stretching up the hillside; on the other, thrillingly close, the furious Atlantic – the view even more incredible once I’d climbed all 158 steps up to the lantern.

From £239 per night (0049 30 3302 2999; floatel.de/en/hideaways/faro-punta-cumplida).

Chris Leadbeater

2. Château de la Barre, near Le Mans, France

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the French aristocracy. You’re working to a script by Julian Fellowes. Woods and sheep-studded pastures, 100-acre grounds and a castle dignified by centuries and promising elegance, good conversation and fine manners.

Count Guy and Anglo-American Countess Marnie de Vanssay are the latest in a family who has lived here for 20 generations and opulent is the word for it all. Expect canopy beds, drapes and period furniture, scattered about the place as though 17th-century valuables were the normal fixtures of life.

B&B doubles from £275 (0033 243 350017; chateaudelabarre.com).

Anthony Peregrine

3. Ishara, Kenya

I have spent thousands of nights in hotels during my lifetime, and yet only once have I walked away with no notes. For me, Ishara is the definition of hospitality perfection: exceptional food, much of it homegrown in hydroponic towers, exclusive safaris and – as all hotels in the wilderness should have – an open-air bedroom atop a 12-foot platform for sleeping out beneath the stars and waking to the sound of roaring lions.  

From £965pp per night full board, including transfers to/from airstrip and exclusive-use safari vehicle and guide (00 254 011 535 2071, ishara.ke).

Lottie Gross

4. Mashpi Lodge, Mashpi, Ecuador

With its rooms like transparent cubes, Mashpi Lodge is a giant viewing station at the heart of Ecuador’s cloud forest, one of the Earth’s most biodiverse regions. Nothing can compare to the sheer magic of watching a toucan flit overhead while lounging in a Philippe Starck-designed tub or spotting mantled howler monkeys while lazing in bed.

Doubles from £817 (00 1 84473 85895; mashpilodge.com). 

Heidi Fuller-Love

5. Trulli of Stars, near Ostuni, Italy

Seas of olives, olive-green seas, baroque white-stone villages – Puglia, the heel of Italy, has rightly taken its place in the pantheon of Italy’s most visitable regions. Amid its delights, this traditional trulli is the real deal: a characterful Apulian dry stone dwelling with a conical roof that’s been given a glamorous do-over for 21st century tastes. Thus it comes with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a jacuzzi and an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, as well as views across carpets of olive groves and above to the twinkling stars that gave the place its name.

Sleeps up to eight, from £310 per night (trulliofstars.com). 

Sally Howard

6. Yazz Collective, Fethiye, Turkey

Hidden beneath a canopy of trees and set on its own private cove accessible only by boat, Yazz’s sleek guest houses and top-notch beachfront restaurant are utterly beguiling. I’ve never stayed anywhere quite as intimate or effortlessly chic.

Doubles from £498 (00 90 5306649501; yazzcollective.com). 

Terry Richardson

7. Capofaro, Salina, Italy

A lighthouse beam sweeps gently across a Malvasia vineyard, where caper flowers release their evening fragrance. From the restaurant terrace, as you twirl your linguine, the smoking cone of Stromboli seems to levitate above the sea on the horizon. The rooms are simple, white and made for kicking back, barefoot. In moments of stress, I dream myself here.

Doubles from £340 (00 39 090 984 4330; capofaro.it). 

Lee Marshall

8. 72 Hour Cabin, Dalsland, Sweden

It’s official: Dalslands Aktiviteter is extremely good for you. When researchers made a handful of high-flyers spend three days in the glass cabins here, in west Sweden’s lake-splattered wilderness, they found their stress levels decreased by almost 70 per cent. 

I felt much the same. Bushcraft, horse rides, kayaking, foraging and fishing are all available. But I spent most of my time simply lying in my hip human greenhouse, watching pine trees sway overhead and Lake Iväg shift from sun-glittered to dusk-pink to spangled with stars. At daybreak I walked the few steps from my cabin to my private deck, and slid into the lake, no one else in sight – not even the resident beaver. 

From £240 per night B&B or £430pp for a three-night full-board package ( 00 46 531 330 86, dalslandsaktiviteter.se). 

Sarah Baxter

9. Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne, Switzerland

The world’s best hospitality schools stretch from the banks of Lake Geneva into the hills of Vaud and the Valais, which may explain why the service at this 19th century pile is quite so spectacular. Unlike palace hotels in other cities (Paris, I’m looking at you), this is a place designed to make guests feel at home. 

After one night in one of the princessy rooms overlooking the water, I felt as though I’d had a week’s holiday (which just about justified the price tag). Whether you walk barefoot on the lakeside lawn, wear your robe all day in the Cinq Mondes spa or eat your evening’s sushi in activewear after a day of hiking in the nearby vineyards, you’ll be treated like royalty. 

Doubles from £450 (00 41 21 6133333, brp.ch).

Amanda Hyde

10. The Shingle House, Dungeness, Kent

I’ve been visiting Dungeness since the early 1990s, when I was a Derek Jarman-obsessed film student. His landmark Prospect Cottage sits next to the NORD Architecture-designed Shingle House, which I’ve rented for several stays with friends. It has a chic gallery-white interior and a pitch-black exterior, and makes the perfect spot for groups of up to eight to cook seafood from the nearby fishermen and make excursions along the coast on the local mini-railway. The sunsets across the beach, viewed from the big picture window in the lounge, are epically cinematic.

A four-night stay costs from £1695, self-catering (living-architecture.co.uk).

Mark C O’Flaherty

11. Palácio Príncipe Real, Lisbon, Portugal

It could be the colours – the purple jacaranda tree in the leafy garden, the clean blue pool surrounded by green lawn and the perfectly pink Palácio walls – that made me fall in love with this hotel. Or the indulgently deep bathtubs, candle-lit rooms and milk in the fridge. But above all it’s the caring staff and owners, Gail and Miles, for whom you are a person not a number. Hospitality personified.

Doubles from £385 (00 351 218 792 000; palacioprincipereal.com). 

Mary Lussiana

12. Taprobane Island, Sri Lanka

I first stayed here when I was 18 and I fell completely under the spell of this island, just off another island. We waded from the beach through waist-high waves to a wild open-sided villa clinging to the rocks. Days were spent playing elephant polo on the sand, slicing our own fresh tuna sashimi for lunch. Gentle breezes and excitable tides swirled around at all times. It was, and still is, elemental, otherworldly, one of a kind.

From £1,110 per night for up to 10 guests (www.taprobaneisland.com). 

Issy Von Simson

13. Summer Camp, Hawarden Estate, Wales

The best place I’ve ever stayed is not the most exotic or the most luxurious. It’s not even the grandest (though it is set on the Elysian Hawarden Estate, former home of William Gladstone). 

The concept’s not particularly sophisticated: three micro-festivals of 120 guests – retirees, teens, toddlers, tonnes of dogs – each over a long summer weekend, during which you can take workshops in everything from blacksmithing to beekeeping, loll by the lily-padded lake and eat feasts prepared by leading cooks, beside fires and under stripy circus awnings. Still, it draws us back every summer, no matter how much the kids change and grow.

Weekend tickets, £199 per adult and £129 per child (under 4s free) with workshops, activities and dinner included, plus £129 for a bring your own tent spot (sleeps four). Glamping, bell tents, campervan spots and B&B rooms also available (thegoodlifesociety.co.uk/events/summer-camp-2024).

Hattie Garlick

14. Angama Amboseli, Kenya

Bedside views don’t get much better than a snow-dusted Kilimanjaro emerging from the clouds, while some of Africa’s last super tuskers wander through a fever tree forest below. Protecting an ancient elephant migration path, Angama’s new canvas-suite camp is making big strides in conservation. A joyous wake-up call all round.

Mahlatini Luxury Travel (www.mahlatini.com) has a seven-night “Out of Africa” Angama Safari combining Angama Mara and Angama Amboseli from £8,000pp, including flights from London Heathrow to Nairobi.

Sarah Marshall

15. Awasi, Southern Patagonia, Chile

The jagged “Towers” of Torres del Paine National Park tease and taunt travellers. Get too close, turn a corner and the summits are lost from view. However, guests at Awasi can contemplate them from sunrise to dusk, through the floor-to-ceiling windows of its private villas – 14 of which are ranged along a gentle slope that faces the peaks directly. 

The main lodge dispenses fine dining with a Chilean twist (seafood from the fjords, steak from the steppes) and excellent wines. Private guides whisk you out in 4WD vehicles to observe pumas, hike on glaciers or boat across the lakes. Go birding, go bicycling. Meet the gauchos. Marvel at the fauna. Then head back to the best view in the world.

Doubles from £2,151 per night, all inclusive – three-night minimum stay (0056 22 233 9641, awasi.com).

Chris Moss