Treehotel, Sweden

An eco-based design hotel concept, each “room” is wonderfully individual with stunning design and even better views. With the plan to build 24 new treehouses over 5 years, a handful are already in place, and miles from civilisation offering the perfect, isolated getaway, just a touch south of the Arctic Circle. Although the nearby Britta’s Guesthouse, run by the owners of Treehotel, will serve up breakfast, lunch and dinner, and offers a spa, TV, internet, and a bunch of other home comforts you probably should go without. Pick of the bunch, the Mirrorcube, will set you back SEK4200 (around £420) a night, for two, which is somehow worth it.

We love Gio Ponti

I have built a hotel in Sorrento” wrote Gio Ponti “And, although there wasn't really any need, I wanted each of the hundred rooms to have a different majolica pattern on the floor". Besides, architects, especially the more imaginative ones like Gio Ponti, never do anything out of need, but are guided by a stronger and less tangible instinct. And so, inspired both by the legend of Villa Cortchacow and by the breathtaking countryside and seascapes, Gio Ponti conceived and created that jewel which is the Hotel Parco dei Principi on the enchanting Sorrentine coast, between the blue sky and the azure sea: white and blue outside and... white and blue inside, with white and blue fabrics, walls, glasses and tableware, the colours of the sky and the sea, and one hundred splendid majolica floors in the same colours but all different from one another.