Beach hotels worth crossing the world for.

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.

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

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 colorful boutique palace a short stroll from the Piazzetta, its salons layered with vintage travel ephemera, jewel tones and the island's sharpest cocktails.

An eleventh century palace at Ravello's highest point, a thousand feet above the sea, with frescoed salons, lemon terraces and the coast's most photographed infinity pool.

A white minimalist retreat above Praiano where art glass and all white rooms frame the blue of the Tyrrhenian, a quieter counterpoint to Positano ten minutes along the coast.

On Chileno Bay, a protected cove on the Los Cabos corridor known for calm swimmable water and coral reef — tropical fish and sea turtles a short way out, over rocks you can reach from the beach.

Auberge's cliff-edge resort at Punta Ballena, casitas facing the Sea of Cortez above ocean-carved rock coves — infinity pools on the bluff, and gray whales passing below through the winter months.

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

The 1929 Hotel Formentor reborn under Four Seasons in 2024, one hundred and ten rooms in pine forest above Formentor beach, every one with a sea view terrace.

A Belle Epoque grande dame run by the Fiorentino family since 1834, perched on Sorrento's cliff edge amid orange groves, with a lift carved down through the rock to the sea.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Terraced suites stepping down to Santa Maria Bay — one of Los Cabos' rare swimmable, snorkel-calm coves — with the desert mountains behind and whales offshore in winter.

Forty three suites and villas carved into Oia's caldera cliff, cave style with private terraces and plunge pools hung over the Aegean.

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.

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

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

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

A Le Corbusier designed 1920 villa on the Punta Tragara promontory staring straight at the Faraglioni, in Manfredi family hands since 1968, with two pools carved into the rock.

Santa Monica's newest grand hotel, directly across Ocean Avenue from the sand — sunset-facing rooms, a pool court built for late light, and the pier a short stroll up the boardwalk.

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.

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

Richard Branson's sixteenth century finca on an 810 acre Tramuntana estate with three miles of private coastline, twenty seven rooms and Tower Suites in the old turrets.

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.

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

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

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

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