Art Hotels

Pink walls, white shutters, green tiles. The building is Portuguese colonial in style and would stand out anywhere. Here it stands inside Iguaçu National Park, a short walk from the falls.

It is the only hotel within the park on the Brazilian side. That matters most at the edges of the day. Guests can walk the falls trail before the park opens to day visitors and again after it closes.

Verandas, a pool set among the trees and a dining room that looks onto the forest complete the picture. The park itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location is the whole story. The lodge sits just outside the entrance to the Inca citadel, high above the Urubamba valley.

Everyone else arrives by bus from Aguas Calientes, down in the valley. Staying here means the ruins are a few steps away, early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when the site is at its quietest.

The lodge is small, with stone terraces and gardens planted with native orchids. Mountains fill the view from most windows.

Opened in 1891 on a clifftop above the Atlantic, Reid's has spent more than a century as Madeira's grand hotel. The name comes from William Reid, a Scot who settled on the island; his sons finished the building.

Winston Churchill stayed in 1950 and spent his days painting along the coast. George Bernard Shaw came too. Their photographs still hang in the corridors.

Terraced subtropical gardens run down towards the sea. Afternoon tea on the terrace is the house ritual, and it has been for generations.