City destinations

Once touted as the ‘City of Churches’, Adelaide is making a concerted effort to lose the pious tag and re-express itself as a creative, progressive destination with a kickin’ arts scene, fab restaurants and more bars than you could blitz in a year.

Boutique hotels in Adelaide

The city with a village mentality, where ducks compete for canal-bank space with disoriented tourists.

Boutique hotels in Amsterdam

Antwerp has always had an eye for beauty and life’s finer things; how else would the thriving port and city have become the glittering centre of the world’s diamond industry and be at the cutting edge of avant-garde minimalist fashion?

Boutique hotels in Antwerp

Centre of the ancient world, Athens is every bit as glorious and atmospheric as you'd imagine.

Boutique hotels in Athens

Surrounded by volcanic peaks and water, it’s hard to ignore the natural beauty of New Zealand’s largest city, situated on the North Island.

Boutique hotels in Auckland

Blur sang about Parklife – Austinities live the park life. All year round, throngs of locals lay down their picnic blankets beside the lakes in Texas’ sun-drenched capital, which boasts colour, character and kookiness aplenty.

Boutique hotels in Austin

A sultry, engaging cacophony of sights, smells, tastes and heat, Thailand's capital is a wonder in itself, often resembling a gigantic, sprawling sauna, filled with with temples, ladyboys, delicious street-food and gridlock.

Boutique hotels in Bangkok

The Spanish city with its finger most firmly on the pulse, Barcelona has always embraced style, bold design and all things new.

Boutique hotels in Barcelona

Bath provides the perfect English getaway. This is a genteel city soaked in history, which has kept its stiff upper lip but learned how to relax with a cocktail, too.

Boutique hotels in Bath

The construction's finished, the Olympics is over, and Beijing is still showing off its facelift to the world.

Boutique hotels in Beijing

Belfast is back. The Northern Irish capital has had a makeover, put the tough times behind her and is stepping out in style from behind Dublin's shadow.

Boutique hotels in Belfast

Flying in the face of stuffy German stereotypes, famously liberal and fun-loving Berlin has long been a magnet for pleasure-seekers.

Boutique hotels in Berlin

A world apart from its noisy neighbour, New York, Boston is a cornerstone of American history with an altogether arty atmosphere. But that doesn’t mean that this big city doesn’t have bright lights of its own.

Boutique hotels in Boston

Forget kiss-me-quick hats and candyfloss on Palace Pier – with its pretty, terraced squares, Brighton gives Bath a run for its Regency money.

Boutique hotels in Brighton

The charms of Queensland’s capital are both superficial and soulful. Go for the sunshine and nearby beaches, and make time for its riverside restaurants, parks and museums.

Boutique hotels in Brisbane

As the de facto capital of Europe, Brussels has a lot to live up to, but it steps into the role of Euro-culture melting pot with architectural, gastronomic and cosmopolitan élan.

Boutique hotels in Brussels

Glorious beaches and soaring mountains frame this thriving city built on the foothills of Table Mountain, along the edge of the Atlantic.

Boutique hotels in Cape Town

Architecturally astonishing and alive with history, the stately, statuesque city of Córdoba is an Andalucian wonderland of whitewashed walls and winding streets.

Boutique hotels in Córdoba

There’s no city that better symbolises Thailand’s diverse cultural heritage and modern aspirations than Chiang Mai: tour buses crowd Burmese-style temples and ornately carved teak houses; vendors in hilltribe costumes ply souvenirs beside fast food outlets.

Boutique hotels in Chiang Mai

Function is indeed as important as form, and this compact city of spires, squares and canals makes fine dining, boutique shopping and cool nightlife an irresistibly effortless experience.

Boutique hotels in Copenhagen

A city of thrilling innovation and luxurious excesses, Dubai rises like a mirage from the desert, flanked by the Arabian Gulf coast and cleaved by a glittering creek.

Boutique hotels in Dubai

A small riverside city with a big gushing heart, this historic Irish hub is beloved for its pubs, its U2 and Dracula connections (author Bram Stoker was born here), and its general joie de vivre.

Boutique hotels in Dublin

If Scotland’s first city had a front door, it would come with a huge ‘Welcome’ mat.

Boutique hotels in Edinburgh

For a city boasting more past glories than the average continent, the capital of Tuscany is excitingly forward-looking.

Boutique hotels in Florence

Sun-baked and history-steeped, Granada allows you to travel from the romance of a mediaeval sultanate via the teashops and bazaars of Morocco, through centuries of Catholic Andalucia, and finally to the tapas bars and bustling streets of a modern Spanish city – all in one day.

Boutique hotels in Granada

There's more to Harrogate than Bettys tea rooms and Farrah's toffee; as well as being a green-fingered garden of earthly delights and heritage spa destination, it's the gateway to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

Boutique hotels in Harrogate

Incredible coastlines, lush valleys, ancient mountain peaks, colonial heritage, succulent seafood, world-famous wildlife and a historical harbour – you couldn’t ask for more.

Boutique hotels in Hobart

Full of colour and teeming with life, Hong Kong is a modern Asian metropolis known for its incredible efficiency, its vibrant shopping and its world-beating cuisine. While it does deserve the reputation, dig a little deeper and you find there’s much more going on beneath the surface.

Boutique hotels in Hong Kong

Straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul is the historic crossroads between East and West, a city of minarets and palaces looking resolutely to the future.

Boutique hotels in Istanbul

This 'City of Gold' has suffered from a tarnished image in recent years but Johannesburg, built on the fabulous mineral wealth beneath the veld, is beginning to recapture its glitter.

Boutique hotels in Johannesburg

Kuala Lumpur – known to the savvy visitor as ‘KL’ – is Malaysia’s brash and bustling boom-town: a heady urban blend of impossibly tall towers and ornate temples, mega-malls and chic eateries, big business and pure pleasure…

Boutique hotels in Kuala Lumpur

Boutique hotels in Launceston

Once the stamping ground of Romans, Moors and Crusaders, this historic hillside city has culture, cobbles, cafés, cable cars and cod aplenty.

Boutique hotels in Lisbon

This stately old lady on the banks of the Mersey may have celebrated her 800th birthday, but she’s enjoying an invigorating shake-up these days…

Boutique hotels in Liverpool

England's capital has got it all. And she flaunts it.

Boutique hotels in London

LA – a city of silver-screen dreams, where movie moguls, stars and starlets party in the California sunshine.

Boutique hotels in Los Angeles

Often described, even by the Parisians, as being like Paris but without the crowds, France’s second city, Lyon, is a chic metropolis but with a style and frenetic pace all of its own.

Boutique hotels in Lyon

By day, Madrid is a city of extravagant palaces, majestic plazas and stately parks; by night, los gatos (the cats), as the city’s inhabitants are nicknamed, prowl the historic avenues until the early hours indulging their passion for decadent nightlife.

Boutique hotels in Madrid

Mancunians may be too down-to-earth to say it themselves, but the capital of the northwest has come over all Manhattanchester.

Boutique hotels in Manchester

Berber, Arabic and Moorish culture, oriental spices, desert landscapes, glamorous hideaways... all with a French accent.

Boutique hotels in Marrakech

Set on the banks of the Yarra River, Melbourne has elegant Victorian-era streetscapes, Manhattan-style skyscrapers and an abundance of beautiful gardens.

Boutique hotels in Melbourne

Mexico City, erstwhile heart of the vast Aztec empire, once stood in the middle of a lake. These days the water is gone, replaced by a churning sea of humanity – with more than 19 million inhabitants, the city is one of the largest and most dynamic on earth.

Boutique hotels in Mexico City

Miami is a particularly colourful swirl in the great American melting pot; few cities are more diverse and cosmopolitan, and even fewer can boast white-sand beaches and endless days of perfect sunshine, too.

Boutique hotels in Miami

Art, fashion, furniture and football are Milan’s healthy obsessions.

Boutique hotels in Milan

If Monte Carlo were in the thesaurus, it would be a synonym for casinos, luxury yachts and Formula 1.

Boutique hotels in Monte Carlo

Canada’s second city, Montreal, is the North American meeting point of French and English heritage, a culture-rich hubbub, and one of the world’s original winter wonderlands.

Boutique hotels in Montreal

Munich is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany, filled with stately Florentine, Gothic and baroque symbols of wealth and power set against an Alpine backdrop.

Boutique hotels in Munich

The archetypal modern city, New York is still as big, bold and beautiful as ever.

Boutique hotels in New York

Surrounded by the stark beauty of the desert and the snow-capped peak of San Jacinto, the lush green golf courses and tree-lined boulevards of Palm Springs make it the perfect urban oasis.

Boutique hotels in Palm Springs

Paris is a dream project for pedestrians, with endless secrets hidden away from all the wonderful clichés.

Boutique hotels in Paris

With its notoriously creative approach to town planning, its masses of individual boutiques and galleries and the soulful music scene, Portland is no cookie-cutter city.

Boutique hotels in Portland

A cobblestoned fairytale rich in culture and counterculture, Prague is an architectural medley of antique churches, brutalist relics and art nouveau facades.

Boutique hotels in Prague

Snow-capped mountains and smoking volcanoes surround the Valley of Puebla, which cradles this proud and peaceful city. Slower-paced than its frenetic neighbour, Mexico City, the old colonial town blends beautiful baroque architecture with a well-rooted sense of tradition.

Boutique hotels in Puebla

Set on the banks of Lake Wakatipu, postcard-perfect Queenstown boasts a striking setting beneath jagged mountain range The Remarkables, a pretty town centre and a rich menu of restaurants and bars.

Boutique hotels in Queenstown

Located on the edge of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a volcanic landscape, Reykjavík has developed its own fascinating and wonderfully idiosyncratic sense of style.

Boutique hotels in Reykjavík

Rio is one of the most spectacular spots on earth, where lush mountains plunge into the tropical sea. From Sugar Loaf mountain you can survey the skip-a-beat views down to the world-famous beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana.

Boutique hotels in Rio De Janeiro

It’s true: Rome wasn’t built in a day – and almost every moment of its lengthy and splendid history is still visible in some form.

Boutique hotels in Rome

Like the lobsters that adorn platters in many of its restaurants, San Diego isn't the most instantly appealing. Unlike Los Angeles, 100 miles up the Pacific coast, its charms aren't on the surface; but crack into its shell and behind the seemingly soulless buildings that line its seafront you'll find a fascinating city with a buoyant youthful edge.

Boutique hotels in San Diego

An elegant city sparkling under several Michelin stars, San Sebastián is on the shores of the Bay of Biscay in the Basque region of northern Spain.

Boutique hotels in San Sebastián

Skyscrapers, shopping and sensuality: this is Shanghai’s decade, and it wants to make sure you know it.

Boutique hotels in Shanghai

Singapore has come a long way, baby. Once dubbed the most boring city in Asia, it now marries old-world charm with gleaming modernity.

Boutique hotels in Singapore

The Ancients believed that mariners were lured to the islands and towering cliffs of the Amalfi Coast by the songs of the Sirens, mythical temptresses who gave their name to the seductive town of Sorrento.

Boutique hotels in Sorrento

A network of 14 islands on the edge of the Baltic, Stockholm is cool, vibrant yet laid-back, and everything works beautifully – in terms of function and aesthetics.

Boutique hotels in Stockholm

With the guarantee of fantastic year-round sunshine, spectacular surf-and-turf landscapes and activities, the emphasis in these parts is on outdoor living.

Boutique hotels in Sydney

A maze of merchant houses, spires and red-tiled roofs, Estonia's seaside capital is a living history book where vodka-fuelled nocturnal fun is as typical as festivals of modern dance, cinema and contemporary music.

Boutique hotels in Tallinn

With a history of religious nonconformism that gave Bohemians their name for rebellion, Tábor is an architectural jewel an easy trip south from Prague.

Boutique hotels in Tábor

Officially recognised as having four distinct districts, Canada’s largest city is bubbling with vibrant new quarters.

Boutique hotels in Toronto

Revamped and rejuvenated, Valencia’s an ancient Mediterranean port with grand modern designs, and it’s not just the oranges that benefit from the region’s year-round sunshine…

Boutique hotels in Valencia

It may seem curious in a city that sits out in the sea and is characterised by its glittering waterways, but it’s walking you should prepare for when you visit Venice.

Boutique hotels in Venice

The Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs may be gone, but this city by the Danube retains its regal air.

Boutique hotels in Vienna

Proud, historic and unexpectedly alive with greenery, the capital of the US is much more than the linchpin of governmental machinery; it’s a cultural hotbed of free museums and monuments.

Boutique hotels in Washington DC

New Zealand’s capital, at the Southern tip of the North Island, has it all – cosmopolitan living, a vibrant arts scene, cutting-edge boutiques and fine regional dining – all against a backdrop of some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes.

Boutique hotels in Wellington