Sun-worshippers, bow down, for we have found the hotels rich in pool-splashing, lounger-lazing, shades-on pleasures. But really, we’ve something for sybarites of all sorts, with an artful find in Mexico City, a hot-spring-toting hideout in Japan and a stress-busting stay in Sri Lanka.
Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sublime seafood, remarkable staying power, storied good looks, consummate museums: there are many reasons I’m fond of Dubrovnik; but above all, it’s the Old Town that stands out in my memories of a happy city break spent here. With this in mind, choosing a hotel with the right coordinates is key. My Euros are on Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik, which puts you just east of the city, a short walk from the Old Town, but more importantly with panoramas across the bay that frame its walled beauty.
In June, those terracotta roof tiles will be warming up nicely as the European sunshine works its magic. But there’ll still be enough breeze up on the fortified walkways to air-condition your forays of the ramparts, and dips off the rocks into the Adriatic will reward the brave with exhilaration.
Don’t miss Croatian sculptor Alem Korkut has an exhibition at MOMA Dubrovnik this month. It’s also the culmination of the city symphony orchestra’s Dubrovnik Musical Spring. And be sure to book lunch on the colonnaded, sea-facing terrace at Hotel Excelsior’s beach restaurant Prora, which reopens for the summer in June.
Kate Pettifer, Senior Content Editor
Collegio alla Querce
Florence, Italy
Like Stendhal, I’ve found Florence overwhelming at times; it feeds you marvels with the tenacity of a nonna who just heard that you skipped lunch. A little distance — say, at just-opened stay Collegio alla Querce, set in the Tuscan Hills — gives you breathing room amid tiered flowering gardens, and lets you see the bigger picture in all its Duomo-capped glory. You’re a 15-minute drive from the action here, but even as you enjoy opera-led sound baths, dine in the tree-studded restaurant and swim in cypress-lined serenity, this former boarding school sneaks in history lessons, with its original frescoes and chapel, curated library and authentic experiences. Thankfully, the headmaster’s office is less frightening these days — its principal use is now as the hotel’s bar.
Don’t miss You might think Florence is more a string-quartet sort of place, but from 12–15 June, Firenze Rocks shakes the classical city up (maybe literally), when Guns N’ Roses, Korn, Public Enemy and more take the stage. Or explore more traditional craftsmanship, with the hotel’s Pucci-themed tour, visit to a famed butcher and after-hours entry to The Accademia.
Emily Southall, Hotel Partnerships Manager
Domes of Elounda
Crete, Greece
With a name made to be uttered in a voice that channels Zeus (try it), Domes of Elounda is a Cretan classic, promising summer-holiday fun for all the family since the late Noughties. As a nation, Greece excels in the art of catering to clans, with refined resorts pleasing every age group all over the country. Here on Crete’s north-eastern coast, there’s a kids’ club for little ones and a super spa for those in search of eternal youth. Sun, sand and stellar service unite to ensure a blissful, balmy break from everyday life, in the best possible way.
Don’t miss Every Tuesday evening in Chania, from June onwards, the ‘traditional strata’ takes place, in which the city’s narrow streets are inundated with dancers and musicians in typical dress, in a celebration of the island’s heritage. Also this month, the village of Matala hosts a bound-to-be-colourful street-painting festival.
Caroline Lewis, Senior Associate Editor
Casona Roma Norte
Mexico City
I visited Mexico City for the first time in 2023 and, like every other tourist, fell in love. There’s much to adore about CDMX, from two-dollar tacos and endless guac to Mariachi music till late and markets to plunder for joyful textiles, but it’s Roma Norte that has the ex-pats filling out the visa paperwork. This creative quarter has all the leafy streets Mexico’s Distrito Federal is famous for, with added coffee-shop excellence, equally amazing restaurants and trinket-stocked boutiques and indoor markets. Behind its dusky pink façade, Twenties mansion Casona Roma Norte has been reimagined to fit into its trendy neighbourhood, with three crowd-pleasing restaurants, mezcal and matcha tasting rooms, and, of course, a rooftop speakeasy.
Don’t miss June can be a little wet in Mexico City (the rainy season is between May and September), but you can seek refuge at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, where it’s the penultimate month to catch the Impressionist exhibition touring from the Dallas Museum of Art.
CL
Arimasansoh Goshobessho
Kobe, Japan
Japanese hospitality is on another level, even at its 7-Elevens and multi-story car parks, so imagine what it’s like at a centuries-old temple turned ryokan in Arima Onsen, a rural town just outside Kobe that looks like a set from Spirited Away. Natural hot springs have been woven improbably into the town’s hilly infrastructure, and you’ll find the same at Arimasansoh Goshobessho, whose hundred-square-metre suites (just 10 in total) each have private access to their own hot-spring bath, the water of which has been bubbling for millennia and is a deep golden colour thanks to its mineral-rich properties. One of these, in the Corbo de Ouro treehouse villa, looks like a ramen egg inside a crow’s nest.
Don’t miss Naturally, you’ll want to spend all day soaking yourself pure in your private hot-spring bath, but that would be to miss out on the mind-bending artisanal culture of the local area. Staff can arrange afternoon tea or dance performances with an Arima geiko, kimono-fitting lessons, private pottery classes in the workshop of a famous artist, Zazen meditation sessions at a nearby temple or plenty of other soul-gratifying activities.
Martin Dickie, UX and Production Editor
Lord Crewe Arms
Northumberland, UK
One of poet WH Auden’s best known works might be Funeral Blues (with its immortal ‘Stop all the clocks’ opener), but he definitely was not maudlin during his stay at the Lord Crewe Arms hotel, when he allegedly ordered champagne and banged out Brahms on the piano. Whatever staff made of that, he later waxed lyrical about the sweet memories he made there. But that’s not all that’s notable: Benjamin Britten was a fan, too, and I’ll bet it even made surly scribe Philip Larkin crack a smile. Further back in time you have ghosts, a Jacobite general hiding in the hearth and sedentary monkishness. These days it writes its history large in the bold flavours of its British dining, convivial nights in its mediaeval crypt bar and country comforts: fireplaces, snoozy dogs and scenery you’ll get all poetic over.
Don’t miss On 7 June, head to the hotel’s 12th-century Gatehouse for a summery wine tasting and three-course meal with oenophile expert Louise Bartholdi. Otherwise, be charmed by the honey-stone village of Blanchland, built using the remains of the Abbey. And find more monastic architecture — plus cake — at the White Monk Tea Room.
Kate Weir, Deputy Editor
Braccialieri
Sicily, Italy
Ah, Sicily. The sun-baked isle boasts more annual rays than anywhere else in Europe, but that’s not the only reason it’s close to my heart. It’s a place steeped in superlatives: the flowers are brighter, the food tastes richer, even the birds sing that little bit sweeter. But nature is especially abundant in the Val di Noto, where Baroque towns and cities are punctuated by miles of fragrant olive and citrus groves. It’s this very land that nourishes Braccialieri, a family-run farming estate rooted in the quintessentially Sicilian love of the land. The estate’s bold colour palette and vibrant patterns (yes, that is a red checkerboard-tiled pool) draw inspiration from local fruits and flowers, but a classic rusticity endures in the original stone and tile work, setting the scene for balmy evenings filled with sunset aperitivi and field-to-fork dining experiences.
Don’t miss Okay, we know you don’t visit Italy for American culture, but hear us out: this summer, Noto’s Convitto delle Arti museum will bring together four legends of contemporary American art — Warhol, Basquiat, Haring and Scharf — in its latest exhibition Icon: The legacy of a revolutionary art.
Stephanie Gavan, Associate Editor
Glenross Living
Kalutara District, Sri Lanka
I’m convinced that Sri Lanka could cure the most entrenched ennui. Warm, vivid and laden with spice, the island country is inherently uplifting — and that’s before you get to its famous cuppa or cinnamon cakes. The tea plantations are among my favourite places (for their morning mists, fragrant botanics and endless supply of Orange pekoe tea), and that’s exactly what you get at Glenross Living. This former planter’s bungalow was once owned by a Scot in the tea business, with colonial- and Georgian-style villas fringed by cinnamon fields, rubber trees and views of Neboda’s hills. The team of butlers ensure you’ll want for nothing, in-house nutritionists can tailor all of your meals, and plantation hikes can be chased with Tibetan warm stone massages.
Don’t miss On 10 June, Sri Lanka will celebrate the festival of Poson Poya, one of the most important cultural events of the year. This national holiday commemorates the advent of Buddhism on the island in the 3rd century, celebrated with lanterns, pandals and colourful alms stalls.
Hamish Roy, Senior Associate Editor
Keep some space in your calendar for more new arrivals