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Ocean.
The Indigo Bay Island Resort is one of
only a handful of resorts bearing the
Rani name, which has become a sym-
bol of excellence in southern Africa.
Guests stay in either Bay View Villas
or Beach Chalets, and when not par-
ticipating in one of the wide variety of
land and water activities, can lounge
by a choice of pools.
Wildflower Hall in Shimla, Himachal
Pradesh, India
Rising majestically from a Himalayan
mountaintop into blue skies over dark
green forests is Wildflower Hall, the
refurbished former residence of Lord
Kitchener and now an Oberoi luxury
resort. The air is evergreen fresh and
the weather surprisingly agreeable all
year round, with daytime temperatures
in the high 70s in the summer and
mid-50s in the winter, when a glorious
dusting of white snow lends an elegant
mantle to the surrounding woods.
The hotel’s colonial heritage is reflect-
ed everywhere, from the teak floors,
hand-knotted rugs and marble baths of
the rooms and suites to the rich furnish-
ings of the welcoming bar. The restau-
rant serves dishes inspired by the cui-
sines of Asia, Europe, and the Indian
subcontinent, while the spa treatments
also find their roots in these traditions
(including Ayurvedic therapies).
Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya in
Mexico
The Mandarin Oriental chain brings
its
distinctive
Asian
atten-
tion to service
and devotion to
pampering to
the incompara-
ble beauty, ro-
mance, and leg-
end of Mexico’s
Maya country.
Set in its own 36
acres of tropical
forest and Car-
ibbean beach-
front, the hotel is an easy drive to the
archaeological wonders of the Yuca-
tan Peninsula, including Chichen Itza,
recently voted one of the New Seven
Wonders of the World.
East meets West in the spa as well,
where Asian-influenced therapies such
as Rasul and Watsu are offered along-
side the pre-Hispanic Temazcal ex-
perience of Mayan Central America.
Guests have an impressive choice of
accommodations: two-story and bun-
galow–style villas housing deluxe and
premier rooms, quarters adjacent to
the spa for those who have come pri-
marily for holistic treatments, and suites
and casitas with private pools. Most
rooms have water views, either of the
cenote, the lagoon and its tributaries,
or the waves of the Caribbean.
Amandari in Bali
No one does Indonesia like Aman,
whose five resorts are all located in
that tropical island nation. Physically
and spiritually, Amandari is located in
central Bali, at a remove from the tour-
isted beaches and just minutes away
from Ubud, Bali’s creative, artistic,
and cultural center. In tribute to grace-
ful Balinese architecture, the open-air
lobby, 30 free-standing suites, and
the Amandari Villa employ Javanese
marble, volcanic stone, and local
teak and coconut wood as recurring
motifs, while river-stone walkways link
the thatched-roofed suites and all com-
mon areas. Each single-storey or du-
plex suite comes with private garden
courtyard and sunken tub open to the
sky and framed by large stone planters
of ferns and heliconia. The duplexes
have four–poster beds with beautifully
woven canopies.
The resort’s restaurant, open to cooling
breezes, as well as its signature 32-me-
ter swimming pool, both overlook the
Ayung Valley, with its sweep of fertile
rice terraces.
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