Maçakızı Bodrum, Turkey
Tucked away in a glittering corner of the Bodrum peninsula, Maçakızı does the chic-seaside-scene thing to a T. Yes it’s glamorous and sexy and fabulous. But it’s also very laidback, which means the charming staff couldn’t give a monkeys if you’re Kate Moss (a regular) or just an average Joe. The beach deck is the hotel’s heartbeat flop on a sun lounger, toes tickling the turquoise Aegean, and peer over your paperback as the bronzed and beautiful swan around clutching icy mojitos. Now put that book away and order a cocktail. Things get amped up at sundown as pit-stopping superyachts arrive to get their pre-dinner groove on (spot the DJ hidden in the hot-pink bougainvillea); the music and the drinks flow until the early hours. Snaffle up plates of ocean-fresh seabass in the restaurant (a foodie destination in itself), then float back up the hillside. Big, breezy bedrooms are spread around cottages with cooling stone floors and powder-white sofas: the perfect, head-clearing antidote to all the happens, down by the water.