City hotels worth crossing the world for.

Kerry Hill's final work, minimalist pavilions in a secret forest garden of moss and stone paths near Kinkaku-ji.

London's first hotel, opened in 1837 across eleven Georgian townhouses in Mayfair, where Kipling wrote The Jungle Book and afternoon tea still anchors the Drawing Room.

Thirty-one-room boutique hotel occupying three whitewashed 17th-century mansions in Cartagena's walled old city, retaining original frescoes and colonial aqueduct.

The castle on Sunset — Hollywood's discreet, storied hideout since 1929.

Thierry Gillier's intimate 32-room hôtel particulier — fashion-house Paris, done quietly.

LVMH's Maison atop the restored La Samaritaine at Pont-Neuf, seventy two keys with Peter Marino interiors, three Michelin stars at Plenitude and the Dior Spa's thirty meter pool.

A 1540s cloister beside Arequipa's San Francisco basilica, eleven monastic suites carved from white sillar stone and lit by candlelight and volcano views.

Mayfair's Art Deco landmark since 1856, the hotel of royals and couturiers, crowned by a new rooftop wing and painting studio suites.

Kit Kemp's first New York Firmdale on a cobbled SoHo lane, English maximalism, a sculpture garden and a screening room of its own.

Belmond's hillside bungalows above Santa Barbara's American Riviera.

Vanessa Branson's art-filled riad of interconnected courtyards, bold interiors and a rooftop bar beside the Koutoubia in Marrakech's medina.

Parisian brasserie glamour transplanted to Tribeca.

Behind a wall on Borgo Pinti, the 15th-century Palazzo della Gherardesca and its Conventino — the Giardino della Gherardesca runs to eleven acres behind them, the largest private garden in central Florence.

The 1928 Golden Triangle landmark where three Michelin starred restaurants share one address, famously dressed in some nine thousand fresh flowers.

A modern hotel with a ryokan's soul in the Higashiyama temple district, built around Shakusui-en, an eight hundred year old pond garden from the Heian era.

Kit Kemp's theatrical Firmdale village off Piccadilly Circus, ninety one rooms around a tree filled courtyard with a 1950s Texan bowling alley below.

The Wirth family's grande dame above the Spanish Steps since 1893, where the Michelin-starred Imago looks out across every dome in Rome.

The pink Mission-style hideaway of Stone Canyon since 1946 — twelve garden acres and a swan pond folded into a Bel-Air hillside, with the terrace that remains Hollywood's favourite discreet lunch.

Paris's velvet-dark scene-maker on rue Saint-Honoré — candlelight, courtyard, and that soundtrack.

A Louis XV palace on the Place de la Concorde reborn under Rosewood, with suites by Karl Lagerfeld and a courtyard that hums at aperitif hour.

Rocco Forte's Roman flagship between the Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, built around Valadier's terraced secret garden.

A Roman grande dame since 1889 near the Spanish Steps, remade by Dorchester Collection, with rooftop tables at La Terrazza looking clear across the city's domes.

On Via della Penna a few steps off Piazza del Popolo, open since 1925 and tied ever since to Rome's artists and film-makers — Bar Locarno pours downstairs and Terrazza Locarno sits above it.

A villa on the Fiesole hillside above Florence, rebuilt by the Bardi family in the 15th century and frescoed for Alamanno Salviati in the 16th — Italian gardens step down toward the city below.

An all-suite hideaway on residential Burton Way, Beverly Hills at its quietest — oversized rooms done like private apartments, and a rooftop pool looking from the Hollywood Hills to Century City.

A palace hotel since 1923 set in centuries old royal gardens of roses, olives and citrus beside the medina walls, with four restaurants and a spa built around twin hammams.

An 1854 mansion off the Champs-Elysees dressed by Jacques Garcia in oxblood and velvet, home to the three Michelin starred Le Gabriel.

The grande dame of Faubourg Saint-Honoré — three-Michelin dining and a rooftop pool over Paris.

On rue de la Verrerie in the Marais, Martin Brudnizki's play on French classicism in color and pattern — an eight-meter pool frescoed by Jacques Merle below, and Boubalé serving Levantine cooking at street level.

On avenue Hoche near the Arc de Triomphe, open since 1928 and rebuilt by Philippe Starck — more than three hundred contemporary works hang through the house, and a 99-seat cinema runs its own film club.

On boulevard Raspail in Saint-Germain, built in 1910 for the owners of Le Bon Marché — an Art Nouveau facade turning to Art Deco within, and the only Palace distinction on the Left Bank.

A seventeenth century residence facing the Colosseum across the remains of the gladiators' training ground, with Aroma's rooftop tables set directly opposite the arena.

A low-slung hideaway on the Higashiyama slopes beside the stone lanes of Ninenzaka — rooms look out over old Kyoto's tiled roofs, and the Yasaka Pagoda fills the windows at dusk.

Walled-garden boutique hotel of red sandstone haveli buildings and modern pavilions directly beneath Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur's old city.

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.

Alda Fendi's palazzo beside the Arch of Janus, reimagined by Jean Nouvel as part arts foundation, part apartment-style suites — raw travertine and steel inside, the Palatine filling the rooftop view.

A ten room riad beside the Dar el Bacha palace where Napoleon III furniture from the owner's family chateau meets tadelakt and cedar around three quiet courtyards.

An Edwardian belle-époque headquarters building on High Holborn, entered through its own carriage courtyard — Scarfes Bar pours whisky beside a working fireplace, and Covent Garden is a short walk south.

Napoleon III château-hotel with private club heritage in the 16th arrondissement, offering around 50 rooms, a Guerlain spa, and rare gardens.

In the Myohoin temple quarter of Higashiyama, a modern reading of the Heian era when Kyoto was the capital — a 504-piece Rakuyaki tile screen inside, and the lantern-lit lanes of the old city at the door.

The first Six Senses in Italy, a Patricia Urquiola reworking of a fifteenth century palazzo with Roman baths below and a rooftop over the centro storico.

Restored century-old Gion teahouse turned 23-room boutique ryokan, blending sukiya-style architecture with modern comforts and acclaimed dining.

A 1929 Art Deco apartment tower on the Sunset Strip turned Hollywood's discreet clubhouse — the Tower Bar keeps its old-school table service below, and the pool deck looks clear across Los Angeles.

The Pink Palace — banana-leaf wallpaper, the cabana pool, and a century of Hollywood.

Downtown's moody lobby-fireplace clubhouse on the Bowery.

Mayfair's quietest grand hotel, home to Helene Darroze's three Michelin stars and the Connaught Bar's legendary martini trolley.

Europe's original grand hotel, opened on Portland Place in 1865 — Palm Court has poured afternoon tea for a century and a half, the Artesian shakes London's most decorated cocktails, and Regent Street begins two minutes from the door.

Jacques Grange's black and white striped 1927 landmark on the Upper East Side, the hotel that stages the Met Gala.

Tadao Ando's nine room ryokan on the Shirakawa stream in Gion, cedar and washi outside, Jean-Georges downstairs.

Yves Saint Laurent's former clifftop villa, reimagined by Jasper Conran as a 12-suite hotel with gardens overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar.