The Bamboo House: Sustainability is the watchword at Phu Chaisai Resort & Spa, in the mountains near Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand. A labour of love by owner and designer Sudavdee Kriangkrai, the resort is built entirely of natural materials (bamboo and mudbrick), the food is delivered straight from the garden, and the views from the Mountain of Clear Heart, Phu Chaisai, are breathtaking. Story by Lee Mylne

Peterson's Guesthouse: There are some places you go to escape the cold, and some places where you go to embrace the cold.  Armidale, in the New England tablelands a good six-hour drive north-west of Sydney, is definitely the latter. Which makes it the ideal place for a weekend away, snuggled up by a fire with a good book, bottle of wine and lover at the very grand Peterson's Guesthouse. Story by Lee Atkinson

Australian hotel reviews
International hotel reviews

Australian hotel reviews

Bank on it: Check in to the Bank Guest House, a beautifully restored guesthouse in the former Bank of NSW building in the centre of Wingham, and you’ll discover fine lodgings in a back-road country town that’s brimming with good eating opportunities.
Story by Lee Atkinson

Byron on Byron: In a town famous for blocking resort development (when Club Med tried to develop a resort at Byron Bay several years ago, the locals took the streets in protest and halted the $85-million project) the Byron on Byron is a stunning new addition to the accommodation options available in one of the county’s most popular coastal holiday destinations, that had, until now, lacked a five-star resort facility.
Story by Lee Atkinson

High on the Gold Coast: At the Gold Coast's new Q1 tower there's a real sense of being above it all - and you really are. The 322.5 metres tall tower dwarfs even the tallest of Surfers Paradise's famous skyscrapers, giving its stylish apartments uninterrupted views of the beach and hinterland. On the 77th floor, the new Observation Deck is drawing in the crowds - and at which other hotel can you order a cake designed in its honour?
Story by Lee Mylne

@VDL: world-heritage wilderness, wildlife and world-class art are all just outside your door at VDL, a beautifully-renovated B&B in the 1843 bluestone Van Diemen's Land Company Store on the waterfront beneath Stanley's iconic Nut in north-west Tassie.  Story by Lee Atkinson

The Islington Hotel, Hobart: The Islington is one of those hotels where you wish you could stay "just one more night". With only 11 rooms, Hobart 's newest luxury boutique hotel is intimate and welcoming, effortlessly giving you the feeling of staying in someone's home. Someone wealthy. And when a place charges $600 a night and boasts a former footman to the Queen as its “houseman”, you might expect some snobbery…but there is none at all. Story by Lee Mylne

Wine Country B&Bs: 10 great places to stay amongst the vines in some of Australia’s prettiest wine regions. Story by Lee Atkinson

The Boathouse at Birks Harbour: It’s almost impossible to tear yourself away from the view at Birks Harbour, a beautifully-restored boathouse and marina on the edge of the Murray River in the historic river port of Goolwa, the last of the Murray’s great bends before the river seeps into the sea.  Story by Lee Atkinson

Henry Jones Art Hotel: Henry Jones' former 1820s jam factory in Hobart has been transformed into a fabulous 50-suite hotel, with a beautiful original staircase, restored manufacturing machinery, and a magnificent glass atrium. The metre-thick walls of the recently renovated building are now adorned with work by Tasmania 's best and emerging artists to create Australia 's only dedicated art hotel. While some the changing exhibition of 250 original contemporary works - all of which are for sale - are in the stunning guest rooms, much of it lines the corridors, making an interesting contrast between the historic building and the modern art. Story by Lee Mylne

Camp it up: Let’s get this clear from the start.  I love the bush and I love our native wildlife.  I just don’t like it in my hair, in my bed or lurking under my toilet seat.  I also love camping – well at least in theory – but these days, I’m not ashamed to admit, I’m all for a spot of comfort when I camp, and certainly appreciate the luxury of hot showers, flush toilets, comfortable insect free beds and nicely chilled champagne to toast the sunset with.  So when faced with the prospect of heading to the Top End for an extended camping trip, you can imagine my relief when we stumble across Minjungari Safari Camp.
Story by Lee Atkinson

Bluestone bungalows: The water tank against the back wall of our bluestone cottage is not what it seems. The only water in it flows from the shower or basin, for this cunning addition to each of the Mt Sturgeon Cottages houses a bathroom. The eight one and two-bedroom cottages, run by the Royal Mail Hotel at Dunkeld, in Victoria 's Southern Grampians, were built by Chinese workers in the 1870s. Set on a working sheep station 5km from the hotel, they are a peaceful retreat with no television, no phone and no mobile reception.
Story by Lee Mylne

Whitsunday Idyll: There's no glass in the cabin windows, no key for the door, and no phone on my bedside table. And – best of all – no mobile phone reception. South Long Island Nature Lodge is an exclusive and idyllic getaway for a maximum of 14 guests, tucked in a cove aptly called Paradise Bay and looking out to the green hills of Conway National Park.
Story by Lee Mylne

Palazzo Versace: You'll either love it or loathe it. In the somewhat unlikely location of Queensland's Gold Coast, fashion designer Donatella Versace has created a tribute to her late brother Gianni, in the form of an over-the-top opulent resort, furnished exclusively by Versace, of course. Despite myself, I found I kinda liked it. Story by Lee Mylne

Desert camp: A resort at Uluru in Australia’s red centre is changing the concept of outback camping forever.  Ayers Rock Resort’s Longitude 131 is a trail of tents stretching along the side of a sand dune a stone’s throw away from Uluru – well at least close enough to have unimpeded views from every room.
Story by Lee Atkinson

Orpheus Island: When the tide is in at Orpheus Island , the small white seaplane which delivers guests to the resort can land almost on the beach. But when I land, the tide is out and we moor instead at “ Orpheus International Airport ”, a pontoon floating offshore.
Story by Lee Mylne

Hidden Treasure: “Where are the walls?” asks an American businessman emerging from a limousine at Thala Beach Lodge, in the rainforest outside Port Douglas. Story by Lee Mylne

Good Mail on Sydney: A red pillar box stands in the courtyard of Sydney 's Westin Hotel, a brilliant splash of colour against the sandstone walls behind it. The post box is an almost unnecessary reminder that for more than a century the building at 1 Martin Place was Sydney's General Post Office. Story by Lee Mylne

International hotel reviews

Suite Dreams: Bangkok’s newest luxury boutique hotel, the Dream, is an excursion into the surreal. Think Dali meets Conrad Hilton; where Jimmy Choo bling rubs up against Jim Thompson Thai silk, giant plastic pink leopards and Siberian tigers lurk behind curtains of crystal beads and bedrooms glow eerily blue in the dark. Story by Lee Atkinson

River Birches: This elegant lodge is just a stone's throw from New Zealand's Tongariro River. Don't try it though, or you are likely to hit one of the rubber-clad fishermen wading silently in the flow just below the riverbank. Story by Lee Mylne

Chateau Tongariro: Sitting at the base of Mount Ruapehu, this Georgian-style icon of New Zealand's tourism industry has been welcoming guests since the 1920s, during which time it has survived three major eruptions. Story by Lee Mylne

A Château of your own: stay in a beautifully-restored 17th century château, complete with towers and turrets, in the shadow of the region’s highest volcano, Puy-de-Dôme, deep in the heart of the untouristed Auvergne in central France. Story by Lee Atkinson

Hidden Splendour: Like most of Wellington, the Museum Hotel wears black. But the somewhat muted exterior of this unusual hotel belies the riches within, including an extensive contemporary art collection, theatrical interiors and a compelling story of survival from the wreckers' ball. Story by Lee Mylne

Culloden House, Scotland: Culloden House Hotel, outside Inverness , is “the best hotel in the north” says my taxi driver. “It's a very old and famous place.” Bonnie Prince Charlie made it so, staying often, including the two nights before the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Will you be sleeping in his bed, or his room? Unfortunately not. Story by Lee Mylne

Hilton Auckland, New Zealand: Book the ritzy Premier Suite if you want the same room and views which the likes of President Clinton, Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kiwi stars Sam Neill and Rachel Hunter have enjoyed. From the water, the three-year-old 160-room hotel looks like a sleek cruise ship berthed alongside Auckland 's Princes Wharf . From inside or your balcony, there are stunning views of the Waitemata Harbour and Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Story by Lee Mylne

B&Bs French style: If you’re looking for a value-packed holiday in France, B&Bs are the way to go. When you stay at one of these B&Bs you get more than just an inexpensive bed for the night and breakfast next morning.  You get a genuine welcome from people who enjoy talking to their guests (that’s not to say it will be in English) and sharing with them the attractions of their local area and best local restaurants, where they will usually book a table for you.  This local knowledge is priceless – we threw away our guide books and discovered forgotten villages and local back roads and managed to spend almost our entire month of travelling avoiding other tourists – an insider’s tour of rural France. Story by Lee Atkinson

New York 's Hottest Hotel: Nicole Kidman moved in the day before we moved out. Jack Nicholson had just slipped away from the suite most favoured by the rich and famous, in one of New York 's most illustrious hotels, The Carlyle. Story by Lee Mylne

Waking up in a strange bed: Finding the average motel a little mundane? Bored of frocked-up B&Bs and fed-up with five-star hotel rooms that all look the same? What you need is a room with a different type of view – try one of these ten out-of-the ordinary places to stay.
Story by Lee Atkinson

Living in a longhouse: At the longhouse-style Hilton Batang Ai, in the heart of Borneo, the guest rooms run off a wide corridor, but there is no view of the lake. It is a lesson in traditional Iban life - the balcony of the longhouse is the front, and it would offend the spirit of the lake to have the "back" of the house turned towards it. Story by Lee Mylne

Hotel Jerome: More than any other hotel in the celebrity-studded alpine village, Hotel Jerome evokes the days when Aspen was a booming silver mining town. Built in 1889 by Macy's tycoon Jerome B. Wheeler, the original three-story terracotta brick hotel has been renovated and extended but retains much of its colonial raffishness. Story by Lee Mylne

Between Sri Lankan sheets: Wherever you stay in Sri Lanka's many welcoming boutique lodgings, personal touches abound. My favourite: the “goodnight” message spelt out in fern fronds on my bed at the remote Boulder Garden. Use this guide to some of the loveliest and most unusual places to stay. Story by Lee Mylne

Hotel on the Park, England: The elegant Hotel on the Park in the Cotswolds town of Cheltenham provides every guest with a teddy bear to tuck up with at night, and a rubber duck for their bath. Even actors Kenneth Branagh, Dame Maggie Smith and the late Richard Harris got them when the cast of Harry Potter stayed while filming nearby. Story by Lee Mylne

Hard Rock Hotel, Bali: Big names in the Australian and international music world are often on the guest list at this music themed resort. For the best chance to lay your head on their pillows, book a luxury, King or family suite. Hard Rock Hotel Bali has 418 “tribute” rooms in six themed wings to choose from – Rock 'n' Roll, Reggae, Blues, Psychedelic, Alternative or Pop.
Story by Lee Mylne

Who's been sleeping in my bed?: That's a question worth asking as you travel the world. Chances are someone famous has slipped between the sheets of your particular hotel bed before you. Story by Lee Mylne

A Room at Rua Reidh: The boot drier in the laundry at Rua Reidh lighthouse is a welcome find; the peat bog has found the chinks in mine and I'm walking in soggy socks. A clifftop walk is one of the less strenuous delights of a stay at the lighthouse, one of 97 built around the Scottish coast over 150 years by the "lighthouse Stevensons", the family of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Story by Lee Mylne

Leaside Manor, Newfoundland: Built in 1921 for one of St John's most prominent merchant families, Leaside has been a five-star B&B run by Newfoundlander Elaine Hann for the past decade. This elegant heritage Tudor style home, full of character and history, gives you the choice of unabashedly romantic rooms or those with a colourful contemporary look. Story by Lee Mylne

Terraces Hotel, Lake Taupo , NZ: Stunning views of New Zealand 's Lake Taupo and – even more dramatic – Mount Tongariro are to be had from the wide verandas and every room at the front of this historic hotel. The back rooms, also with verandas, have equally interesting outlooks over a gently smouldering thermal valley. Built in 1889 and named after the black silica terraces that once surrounded it, The Terraces Hotel is one of only two hotels in New Zealand still remaining from that era. Story by Lee Mylne

Dornoch Castle Hotel, Scotland: There's been a castle in the postcard-pretty Royal Burgh of Dornoch since the 1550s. As I curl up in my carved wooden four-poster bed to read up on its history, I'm hoping for some spooky tales - and I'm not disappointed. The history of Dornoch Castle is one of poisonings, kidnappings, treachery, pillage, beheadings and other bloodshed. Oh, and witches. Despite all this, I sleep untroubled by the ghost of a sheep-stealer once said to roam the corridors. Story by Lee Mylne

La Playa Hotel, California: Artist Christopher Jorgensen built La Playa as a luxurious home for his bride, a member of San Francisco's famous Ghirardelli chocolate clan, in 1905. A hotel since the 1920s, it retains the romance of its origins and is known as the "grand dame' of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Story by Lee Mylne