Hotels worldwide, priced by a human

Ubud's rice terraces and temple mornings, Uluwatu cliff surf and beach clubs along the Seminyak sand.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, tapas in the Gothic Quarter and the Barceloneta city beach ten minutes off the metro.

Turkey's golf capital: championship fairways, pine-backed sand and the highest concentration of five-star all-inclusive resorts.

Greece's biggest island: pink sand at Elafonisi, the Samaria Gorge and family resorts along the Chania coast.

Sky-high views from the Burj Khalifa, Jumeirah Beach mornings and desert dune drives an hour from your hotel.

Kitesurfing flats, Giftun Island boat days and big all-inclusive resorts strung along the Red Sea coast.

Overwater villas, house-reef snorkelling straight off the deck and seaplane hops between coral atolls.

Tramuntana mountain villages, the Palma cathedral right on the seafront and quiet calas like Cala Deia.

Long-tail boats to Phang Nga Bay, the sand at Kata and Karon, and Sino-Portuguese shophouses in Old Town.

The Colosseum, the Vatican Museums and Trastevere trattorias, all walkable in a city built in layers.

Whitewashed Oia hangs over a flooded volcano: sunset caldera views, Red Beach swims and cliffside cave suites.

Ras Mohammed reef walls, Naama Bay diving schools and all-inclusive resorts on a year-round warm Red Sea.

A Roman harbour town where the Temple of Apollo sits at the end of the beach and the ruins run straight through the restaurants.

Cleopatra Beach below a Seljuk castle, the best value all-inclusive rates on the coast and a bazaar that never really closes.

Antalya's themed mega-resort strip — replica palaces and Venetian canals on a long sand beach, twenty minutes from the runway.

Stay inside the old city walls: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Topkapı are all within a ten-minute walk of the tram line.

The Taurus mountains drop straight into the sea here: pebble coves, pine forest and cooler evenings than the Antalya plain.

White cubic houses around a Crusader castle, the country's best beach clubs and a peninsula of very different bays.

The Acropolis above a living city: Plaka tavernas, the Acropolis Museum and rooftop bars facing the Parthenon.

The modern half of the city: İstiklal Street, rooftop bars over the Golden Horn and metro links to both airports.

Tram 28 through Alfama, pasteis de nata in Belem and miradouro terraces over the Tagus at golden hour.

The Blue Lagoon itself: a sheltered turquoise inlet under Babadağ, and the busiest paragliding launch site in the country.

Cave hotels carved into volcanic rock, underground cities and a hundred balloons lifting off over Göreme at first light.

A working harbour town with Lycian rock tombs above the rooftops and gulet boats leaving daily for the Twelve Islands.

A pine-walled bay with a long marina promenade, Bar Street behind it and daily boats to Rhodes across the water.

Positano stacked in pastel above the sea, lemon terraces at Ravello and the coast road down to Amalfi.

Little Venice balconies over the water, Psarou beach clubs and a whitewashed maze of lanes behind the windmills.

Winter sun at 22 degrees: the Teide crater, black sand in Puerto de la Cruz and whales off Los Gigantes.

Ottoman mansions turned boutique hotels inside the old walls, with the Roman harbour and Hadrian's Gate a few minutes away.

The cruise gateway to Ephesus: Ladies Beach, a busy bazaar and the best-preserved Roman city in the Mediterranean 20 km inland.

A hillside of white villas with private infinity pools above a small harbour — Turkey's honeymoon and villa-rental capital.

The quieter half of the Lara resort belt, built almost entirely from large family all-inclusives with private beach sections.

Sunsets at Cala d'Hort facing Es Vedra, the walled Dalt Vila old town and beach clubs along the west coast.

A city beach with the Beydağları range as a backdrop — walkable restaurants, tram links and hotels you can actually leave on foot.

Charles Bridge at dawn, the astronomical clock on the Old Town Square and beer halls under Prague Castle.

A walled medieval Old Town, the long sands of Faliraki and the Lindos acropolis white above St Paul Bay.

Golden cliffs at Ponta da Piedade, boat trips into the Benagil cave and championship golf around Vilamoura.

The village core of the Belek golf belt — same fairways and beach clubs, noticeably lower rates than the beachfront giants.

Aegean thermal springs, Ilıca's white sand and the windsurfing bays that draw Istanbul down the motorway every weekend.

A continent in miniature: the Maspalomas dunes, pine forest in the highlands and swimming weather in January.

Turkey's diving town: a bougainvillea-hung centre, sunken Lycian ruins offshore and boutique hotels instead of all-inclusives.

White travertine terraces filled with warm mineral water, with the ruined Roman spa city of Hierapolis on the plateau above.

Stone houses and blue shutters turned into boutique hotels, plus a shallow windsurf bay that is a world-cup venue.

The smoking cone of Etna, the Greek theatre at Taormina and street food markets in Catania and Palermo.

The gardens of Schönbrunn, Klimt at the Belvedere and coffee houses where one Melange buys an afternoon.

A flat, shallow-entry sand beach between Side and Manavgat that families with small children keep coming back to.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Yas Island theme parks along a calmer Gulf corniche.

Thermal bathing at Szechenyi, the Parliament lit up over the Danube and ruin bars in the Jewish Quarter.

Golden Mile beach clubs, the yachts of Puerto Banus and sixty golf courses within half an hour of the hotel.

Hotels built around a pine-ringed lagoon a short walk from Side's beach, popular with the German and Russian package market.

Superyacht territory: Palmarina's designer row, hillside villas and the most expensive room rates on the Bodrum peninsula.

Side's western beach strip: wide sand, a walkable hotel row and the ancient site twenty minutes down the shoreline.

Granite coves on the Costa Smeralda, Caribbean-clear water at La Pelosa and nuraghe stone towers inland.

Six marinas, twelve islands and no mass-market hotels — the yacht-charter base of the Turkish Riviera, 25 minutes from Dalaman.

A seafront city built around the Kordon promenade, with Ephesus, Çeşme and Pergamon all inside a ninety-minute drive.

Grand Palace mornings, Chao Phraya river ferries and rooftop bars high above Sukhumvit and Silom.

Venetian arcades in Corfu Town, olive groves inland and the turquoise cove of Paleokastritsa in the west.

Riad courtyards off the medina lanes, Jemaa el-Fnaa at dusk and the Atlas foothills an hour up the road.

Granite boulders at Anse Source d'Argent, the Vallée de Mai palm forest and short ferries between islands.

The river town behind Side — waterfalls, a working Turkish market and hotels that cost noticeably less than the beachfront.

Marmaris's quieter sibling four kilometres west: cleaner water, mountains right behind the beach and a calmer evening scene.

River boats pass under carved Lycian tombs on the way to İztuzu, a protected loggerhead turtle beach with no buildings on it.

A self-contained resort pocket halfway between Side and Alanya, built for people who plan to stay inside the hotel.

Home of Incekum's famously shallow, fine-sand bay — the stretch of coast Turkish families pick for toddlers.

The Giza pyramids on the skyline, the Grand Egyptian Museum and Nile-side hotels in Zamalek and Garden City.

Chaweng's long beach, Ang Thong marine park day trips and hillside pool villas above Bophut village.

Flat and bike-friendly: the shallow water at Tigaki, Roman ruins in town and Kefalos bay on the windy south.

Levada walks through laurel forest, the cable car above Funchal harbour and lava pools at Porto Moniz.

Le Morne's lagoon under a UNESCO basalt peak, the Black River gorges and reef-sheltered swimming all year.

Clear water, ancient Phaselis on the doorstep and a cluster of the largest garden resorts in the Kemer district.

Turkey's main ski mountain, two hours from Istanbul, with ski-in hotels at 1,800 m and a cable car up from Bursa.

Nungwi's turquoise shallows, spice-farm walks and the carved doors of Stone Town's old harbour lanes.

The first resort strip south of Antalya: pebble beach, mountain shade by late afternoon and the shortest Kemer-area transfer.

Alanya's western suburb: quieter pebble-and-sand beaches, big all-inclusives and a fifteen-minute dolmuş into town.

A seven-kilometre sand beach backed by pine forest and a handful of large family resorts, twenty minutes from Dalaman.

Long-stay territory east of Alanya: apartment-style hotels, a big Saturday market and the lowest weekly rates on this coast.

The peninsula's west coast, where the sun sets behind the Greek islands and a large marina anchors the seafront.

A protected turtle beach with no high-rises: small pensions, treehouse camps and the Chimaera flames burning on the hillside.

Railay's limestone climbing walls, longtail boats from Ao Nang to the Hong Islands and hot springs inland.

Dugongs and turtles in Marsa Mubarak bay, Elphinstone dive drifts and quiet resorts far from the crowds.

Kemer's northern neighbour, best known for the canyon walk that starts a few kilometres inland from the hotel row.

The budget bay directly over the hill from Bodrum town: watersports all day, and the cheapest beds on the peninsula.

A pine-shaded sandbar where the water stays waist-deep for a long way out, ringed by mid-range family all-inclusives.

A shallow tangerine-grove bay with beach clubs on wooden decks — the calmest swimming water close to Bodrum town.

The valley resort above Ölüdeniz — cheaper beds, a dense bar strip and a ten-minute shuttle down to the lagoon.

Orange groves between the mountains and the sea, with large garden resorts and far less traffic than central Kemer.

A single crescent bay closed off by pine ridges — boat trips, family-run guesthouses and no resort chains at all.

Bentota River mangrove safaris, a long golden sandbar and Ayurveda retreats an hour south of Colombo.

A lagoon town of bridges and marinas, Egypt's best kitesurfing bays and an 18-hole desert golf course.

Jomtien's calmer sand, day boats out to Koh Larn and the teak Sanctuary of Truth two hours from Bangkok.

Sao Beach's white sand, pepper farms and fish-sauce sheds, and the world's longest over-sea cable car.

Quiet Al Marjan Island beach resorts, the Jebel Jais zipline and Hajar mountain trails without Dubai crowds.

A four-kilometre promenade facing due west, which makes it the sunset beach for everyone staying around Fethiye.

A Black Sea boulevard, the botanical garden out on the cape and Georgian wine bars a short walk inland.

Eighteen kilometres of protected dune beach behind a Lycian capital, with a building ban that keeps the shoreline empty.

A six-kilometre crescent beach, Atlantic surf schools up at Taghazout and three championship golf courses.

Flat sandy beaches at Sidi Mahrez, the El Ghriba synagogue and palm-shaded market alleys in Houmt Souk.

Whitewashed medina walls above the beach, the Roman ruins of Pupput and thalasso spas an hour from Tunis.

A six-kilometre city beach, the Po Nagar Cham towers and mud-bath spas below the Hon Ba highlands.

Flame Towers over the walled Old City, long evenings on the Caspian promenade and mud volcanoes nearby.