From a French château to a private island in the Maldives (shown here), the luxe getaways you’ll want to hop a plane for.

It wasn’t a vintage year for hotels. Major projects stalled, big renovations failed to impress, and the industry as a whole had a serious moment of reckoning (more about that on page 194). But those setbacks just allowed the exceptional properties to rise proudly above the rest and remind us that, every so often, a wonderful hotel is more than just a fine place to stay. It can bring you closer to nature—as with Shinta Mani Wild, an innovative resort that graces the treetops of Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom National Park—or take you into uncharted waters, which is literally the case with Guntû, a new floating hotel on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Of course, not every winner on our list goes to such extremes: A few, like the Rosewood Hong Kong and Los Angeles’s reimagined Sunset Tower Hotel, stand out more simply for their scrupulous attention to detail and impeccable service. Each of these properties, however, whether in an exotic jungle or a concrete one, on an island or in the middle of the African savanna, proved that the pleasures of a truly remarkable hotel can make the difference between a good trip and a great one.