34 beach hotels worth crossing the world for.

Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe's 1954 beach club grown into a garden resort, low whitewashed pavilions scattered between old olive trees and the Mediterranean on the Golden Mile.

A whitewashed masseria-village of its own — piazzas, bougainvillea courts, and Puglia's Adriatic light.

Cliffside 1965 hotel on the Argentario peninsula with seawater pool, rocky beach club, and Michelin-starred restaurant, open April to October.

Family-run cliffside hotel in a former 1951 summer villa above Positano, with 58 antique-furnished rooms and Tyrrhenian sea views.

A 16th-century watchtower on Ischia's wooded tip, with thermal pools above a private bay.

Carved into the Amalfi cliffs, with a Michelin-starred table and a private beach reached by elevator through the rock.

A white villa above Marina Grande with Michele Bonan interiors, twenty two rooms and a pool terrace that looks straight back at the Bay of Naples.

Eleven artisan-restored fishermen's casas around Trancoso's historic Quadrado square, designed by Wilbert Das with reclaimed Bahian materials and craftsmanship.

Whitewashed farmhouse estate turned agritourism hotel among its own vineyards near Cala en Porter, with understated rooms and Menorcan countryside views.

Overwater lagoon suites threaded through mangrove canals on the Riviera Maya.

A manor-house beach estate on Montecito's sand, trains rolling past the lawn.

A 17th-century clifftop monastery above Conca dei Marini, twenty rooms and a cantilevered infinity pool suspended over the Amalfi sea.

Remote surf-and-wellness resort on Sumba's wild southwest coast, with thatched villas, the famed Occy's Left wave, and foundation-funded community work.

Seventeen cave houses carved into Oia's caldera cliff, whitewashed and silent above the Aegean.

Eight-room stone hotel built into a working olive estate on Dugi Otok island, with two restaurants and its own award-winning oil.

Rosewood's desert-meets-sea original in Los Cabos, all white stucco and serenity.

A 29-room social-enterprise inn on stilts over the North Atlantic, built by and for its island community.

An adults-only glass-and-cedar retreat in the Big Sur redwoods above the Pacific.

Aman's private Sulu Sea island — casitas on talcum sand, reached by private plane from Manila.

The original Andronis property, cave suites carved into Oia's caldera cliff with plunge pools hanging over the Aegean.

Adrian Zecha's 140-year-old merchant house reborn as a modern ryokan on the Seto Inland Sea.

All-inclusive private-island eco resort in the remote Anambas archipelago, reached by seaplane from Singapore, with overwater and beach villas.

An eighteen-suite Belle Époque mansion on its own gated peninsula between Nice and Monaco.

Adults-only hotel carved into a 19th-century clifftop fortress guarding the Bay of Palma, with 30 rooms, saltwater pools, and a private cove.

A duchess's former estate on Xpu-Há beach, grown into the Riviera Maya's most private hideaway.

Open-walled sanctuaries with private infinity pools, staring straight at the Pitons.

Fourteen bungalows across 300 private hectares of Benguerra Island dune forest and beach.

Eleven vast handcrafted villas on a private conservation island, its rehabilitated habitat home to giant tortoises and nesting sea turtles.

Treehouses and cliff houses twelve hundred feet above the Pacific on the Big Sur coast.

Sixteen whitewashed troglodyte suites by Kapsimalis Architects, stacked down six levels of the Oia caldera like a modern monastery.

Clifftop lodge above the Southern Ocean with 25 suites and all-inclusive dining and wildlife excursions, rebuilt and reopened in 2023 after the 2020 bushfires.

A 16th-century monastery turned Riviera legend in the hills above Portofino, with terraced gardens, a saltwater pool, and the harbour's yachts below.

Carbon-neutral private-island resort on Marlon Brando's Tetiaroa atoll, with 35 beachfront villas reachable only by plane, powered largely by solar and coconut oil.

Wellness-focused resort of standalone private houses above Livadia beach on Antiparos, with an organic farm, holistic spa, and muted Cycladic design.