­You won’t find many straight lines at Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation & Inn.  Perhaps inspired by the meandering vines that lace their way through the Costa Rican jungle and the gently curving rows of coffee plants that surround the inn, almost everything at this eco-pioneer of a hotel is rounded, soft, natural and brilliantly white-washed.  

­­I’m barely over the shock of seeing not one but two white Rolls Royces parked in front of Live Aqua Resort & Spa  in Cancun when an employee, dressed in oddly medical-looking uniform consisting of white capris and a white tunic, guides me into a plush chair in the resort’s enormous lobby and begins giving me a hand massage. A hand massage.

Can this be Cancun? Yes, but a fresh Live Aqua take on Cancun where, despite its size (371 rooms and suites all with ocean view and private balcony), nurturing, personalized touches more commonly associated with a boutique hotel abound.  

­­“If you don’t like espresso find another hotel,” says Roberto Sargogo, co-owner and chef of Casa ILB and Ristorante Il Bongustaio. But we are not in Italy. We are in San Salvador the capital of El Salvador where Roberto, an Italian transplant, and his partner Cristina Penalva, have created an unexpected but oh-so-welcome haven of Italian design, style and flavors at a price you won’t believe.

­Is there any point coming to Gleneagles if you don’t play golf? The answer is absolutely yes. Although this Scottish resort is synonymous with golf- it will host the Ryder Cup in 2014-- there is plenty to do for non golfers.  Think of Gleneagles as a grand, family resort in the tradition of The Greenbrier or Sea Island, where the vibe is unfussy and relaxed, and there’s something for everyone in the family.

­­Are you a design-junkie sybaritic self-caterer interested in seeing the lake that Aldous Huxley called “too much of a good thing” in his 1934 travel book Beyond the Mexique Bay? You are now.
Villas B’Alam Ya  (which means Water Jaguar in the local Mayan dialect) is a super-private collection of just four  villas crafted along a steep hillside on the shores of Lake Atitlan—the vast expanse of blue ringed by three perfectly conical volcanoes that inspired Huxley’s proclamation.

­­Don’t let the pepto-pink exterior of Rosas y Xocolate fool you. This 17 room boutique hotel in one or Mexico’s most vibrant cities is about more than just a flash of color (though pink and chocolate brown dominate, as the name implies). The hotel’s creator, Carlos Kolozs Fisher, is a hard-driving New Yorker who was in the textile business based in the Southern Mexican city of Merida. When he sold his business he “meditated on what to do next.”

While waiting for an answer, he came across a mansion on Merida’s Paseo de Montejo which is lined with massive homes built in the French style by rich sisal growers during the reign of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico’s Europhile President/dictator from 1876 to 1911.

­­There’s often kind of a nod nod, wink wink among ­devotees of the Four Seasons when they discuss the merits of the luxurious hotels. I’m spoiled enough to have stayed at three Four Seasons resorts in rather disparate parts of the world - Bali, Tokyo and now, Scottsdale - and I am always surprised to find how each property manages to be so particular to the region while maintaining uniformly indulgent service. And yes, as ridiculous as it sounds, I kind of want to collect them all. In my experience, once you arrive at a Four Seasons resort, it’s hard to leave. At The Four Seasons at Troon North, it wasn’t just because of the nice scenery, or the sunsets, or the heated pool.  Here, the expert staff keeps offering more thoughtful free stuff than you can shake a stick at.  

­­Forget the celebrity power behind Francis Ford Coppola’s Blancaneaux Lodge (just for a minute). The true star at this polished, remote resort is Mother Nature.
Located on 70 acres within the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve —which encompasses more than 100,000 acres and was one of the first nature preserves established in Belize--Blancaneaux is an oasis of luxury. Right on the banks of an elegant curve and dramatic tumble in Privassion Creek, the resort is surrounded by the rolling hills and pine forests that make this area so special.

My room at the Ace Hotel has an opinion. The mirror reminds you that “Love is meant to make us glad.” The record player (yes, record player) demands “Rock out” and the bedding says “Thanks for sleeping with me.” In fact, the entire hotel has a proud and loud POV that proclaims ‘I’m different and so are you so come on in!”

And they do. The lobby is perpetually packed with in and out of town  trend setters and early adopters tapping away on laptops (and, increasingly, iPads) and sipping brews from the Stumptown Coffee shop off the lobby. Hotel guest and neighborhood drop-ins mill about and look almost as cool as the lumberjack hipster staffers in their intentionally off-kilter plaids and school-marmy glasses.

­­London in late November isn’t usually considered a romantic destination. Nevertheless, that’s where we decided to spend our belated honeymoon. While my husband (for whom this was a first visit) was interested in the city’s history and tradition, I love London for its cutting edge modernism. So we decided to experience both by way of The Dorchester and One Aldwych hotels.