The Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, which opened in CityCenter in December, is a serene sanctuary located in the center of the bustling Las Vegas strip. From the moment you enter the non-gaming hotel’s 23rd-floor lobby with soaring views of the city, it is clear the hotel has a different point …

After dining at the Bangkok home of James H.W. Thompson in 1959, British writer Somerset Maugham sent a thank-you note to the American silk entrepreneur. "You have not only beautiful things," he wrote to Thompson, "but what is rare you have arranged them with faultless taste."
Thompson’s taste—as well as …

Ultimate homes are more than habitations; they are personal theaters conceived to evoke a mood, make a statement. This is particularly true of the world’s most extravagant residences, its palaces, whose majestic interiors have been designed to serve as backdrops to every imaginable form of political drama—as Dowager Empress Tzu …

While most African safaris allow adventurers the chance to see animals from a relative distance, Baobab Expeditions—a leader in adventure expeditions throughout Africa’s remote and tribal areas—is taking exploration a step further with a private gorilla and rhinoceros trekking safari through Rwanda and Kenya for a closer observation. Offered in …

Opened last november, the Hullett House in Hong Kong has almost as many restaurants as it does rooms. Each of the 10 guest accommodations at the hotel—which is located inside Hong Kong’s former Marine Police Headquarters—has at least 800 square feet of living space and 13-foot-high ceilings. The three-story compound …

Opened last november, the Hullett House in Hong Kong has almost as many restaurants as it does rooms. Each of the 10 guest accommodations at the hotel—which is located inside Hong Kong’s former Marine Police Headquarters—has at least 800 square feet of living space and 13-foot-high ceilings. The three-story compound …

A tall, smartly dressed man captains the seven-minute ferry between his home island of Antigua and Jumby Bay, the 40-room private-isle retreat located just offshore. The 300-acre Rosewood Hotels & Resorts property, which closed to guests in 2008, reopened in December following a million overhaul. During the renovation, the resort …

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain had already hosted a PGA Tour event by the time the resort opened in December. The 253-room property, which is set on 850 secluded acres outside Tucson, Ariz., features 27 Jack Nicklaus–designed holes that debuted in early 2009, in time for that year’s Accenture Match Play …

In February, James Manley, owner of the Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana, spent a relaxing vacation at the 40-suite Amanyara beach resort in Turks and Caicos. The 56-year-old Connecticut businessman enjoyed his stay, but it was not an experience he cared to replicate back on the ranch. “No one …

Guests arriving at the St. Regis Deer Crest Resort in Deer Valley make their way to a welcome center just inside Park City, Utah. While valets and bellhops lighten worldly burdens by taking charge of vehicles and luggage, the fortunate pilgrims enter a leather-upholstered, climate-controlled private funicular and smoothly ascend …