Malta
27
Palazzo Consiglia
A 13-room hotel on Valletta's Grand Harbour side, with a heated cave pool, a rooftop pool and a cellar spa. Room sizes, the airport bus, what is on foot.
HOLM Boutique & Spa
A pink outdoor pool looks over the sea and valley at this 29-room St Julian's hotel, with an indoor pool and a spa. Some terraces have outdoor spa baths.
Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz
Three outdoor and two heated indoor pools among 30,000 square metres of gardens, near Dwejra Bay in the west of Gozo. Spa access comes with your stay.
Cesca Boutique Hotel
A 350-year-old converted farmhouse with 18 rooms and a top-floor infinity pool over the valley. Berta's Restaurant serves dinner Wednesday to Saturday.
66 Saint Paul's Boutique Hotel
A restored 17th-century palazzo around a courtyard. Some rooms look across the Grand Harbour to Fort St Angelo, others inward, so choose when you book.
AX The Saint John
You check in and eat breakfast at sister hotel Rosselli, 40 metres along Merchants Street, then sleep here. Four room categories, adults only.
Casa Ellul
Choose your suite with care on Old Theatre Street: Suite 8 has a terrace hot tub facing the Carmelite Church, while Suite 9 is reached by stairs only.
Domus Zamittello
Your terrace looks at City Gate and the old Royal Opera House. The street is pedestrianised, so taxis stop at Castille Square and you walk to the door.
Iniala Valletta
Book a harbour-view suite on St Barbara Bastion and you look across to the Three Cities. ION Harbour by Simon Rogan holds two Michelin stars.
Palais Le Brun
Stay in a Baroque palace from 1606, once home to the knight Claude LeBrun. Rooms face the city or a courtyard, so choose your view when you book.
Rosselli AX Privilege
25 rooms and suites in a 17th-century palazzo on Merchants Street, with a rooftop plunge pool. Choose a Maltese balcony or a spa bath when you book.
The Coleridge Boutique Hotel
Ask for Fayette: two roof terraces and a hot tub for four over the Valletta skyline. Reception closes at 8pm, so tell the hotel if you land late.
The Embassy Valletta Hotel
81 rooms on Strait Street, with a heated rooftop pool and breakfast on level 7. The pool is guests only; parking is at the MCP car park outside the walls.
The Gomerino Hotel
Swim with the Grand Harbour in view on the roof, or indoors beside the sauna, in a 17th-century Baroque palace on St Paul's Street with 44 double rooms.
The Phoenicia Malta
Almost three hectares of gardens, an infinity pool over Marsamxett Harbour and a spa built around a 16th-century wall, all just outside Valletta.
Hotel Juliani
Book a Deluxe Sea View room for a balcony over Spinola Bay. The pool is for guests only; in summer the rooftop lounge opens to the public from 8pm.
Hyatt Regency Malta
Book a High Floor room for the sea view or a View room over the old priory square. A rooftop pool, an indoor spa pool, and St George's Bay is a walk away.
Malta Marriott Resort & Spa
Book a Deluxe Room for a balcony over Balluta Bay in St Julian's. The top-floor pool is seasonal, and a heated indoor pool sits in the fitness centre.
The Westin Dragonara Resort
Most balconies face the sea on Dragonara Point, with a beach lido in summer and PADI diving all year. The Reef Club pool closes from November to April.
Lure Hotel & Spa
From your balcony you see Mellieħa's square and its Baroque-style church. Guests must be 16 or over; the rooftop infinity pool opens June to September.
Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Malta Golden Sands
A lift takes you from the hotel to the sand at Golden Bay, with no road to cross. Over half of the 338 rooms and suites have an unimpeded view of the bay.
The Duke Boutique Hotel
Rooms are sold by their view: Citadel View faces Gozo's hilltop fortress, Garden View looks over Villa Rundle Gardens. A public car park sits just behind the hotel.
Cugó Gran Macina Grand Harbour
Sleep in the Macina, a 16th-century building in Senglea's fortifications, where a crane lowered masts into galleys. The rooftop pool faces the harbour.
Murella Living
Hand-painted murals and Maltese tile patterns set each room apart at this family-run Marsalforn hotel. The bay's sandy beach is a short walk away.
The Xara Palace Relais & Châteaux
Seventeen rooms in a 17th-century palace whose walls form part of Mdina's bastions. No visitor cars inside; the summer pool is a free transfer away.
Verdala Wellness Hotel
A 1,500-square-metre spa with a hammam and a salt cave, and an infinity pool above the Rabat valley. Mdina is just over a kilometre's walk away.
Il-Logga Boutique Hotel
Book the Superior Room for a private south-facing terrace. Every room at this Xagħra hotel includes the rooftop pool, and Ġgantija is in the same village.
Montenegro
20
Mamula Island by Banyan Tree
You reach the 32 rooms and suites by boat or helicopter, inside a battery at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor. Open May to October, with food and a spa too.
Heritage Grand Perast Hotel
Sleep in a restored palace on the Perast waterfront, with a beach club and pool on the sea. Non-guests can buy a spa day pass. The hotel closes in winter.
Aman Sveti Stefan
In summer you sleep in a fisherman's-style cottage inside a fifteenth-century island village. A key card opens the causeway gate; winter closes the island.
Astoria Budva
Twelve rooms at Njegoševa 4, inside the walls, with a rooftop restaurant between the sea and the ramparts. The town is car-free, so ask where to park.
Avala Resort & Villas
All 303 rooms, suites and villas have a balcony or terrace, with Budva's walls beside you and the hotel's own stretch of Ricardova Glava Beach below.
Dukley Hotel & Resort
Stay on the Zavala Peninsula, about 2 km from Budva Old Town by boat shuttle or taxi. Hotel balconies face the town or the gardens, so ask when you book.
Lazure Hotel & Marina
Book the Historic Building to sleep inside the old quarantine house: 24 rooms and suites, each different, with the spa, a large beach and marina nearby.
One&Only Portonovi
Jean-Michel Gathy designed the 122 rooms, suites and villas at Kumbor, where every suite faces the bay. Herceg Novi is about 10 minutes by car.
Hotel Astoria Kotor
Nine rooms fill the Buća Palace on Trg od pošte, inside Kotor's walls, and your window may face the bay, a square or the ramparts. Book ahead.
Hotel Cattaro
Three old buildings on the Square of Arms make one hotel, just inside the Sea Gate. It opens all year, but with no parking: you walk your bags in.
Hotel Forza Mare
Stay in Dobrota, 3 km from Kotor Old Town, about 40 minutes on foot along the water. Ten custom-designed rooms, your own beach, open through winter.
Hotel Conte
Pick the main palace for the bustle or the annexes for a pool and jacuzzi. Eleven rooms are family suites, and same-day bookings are by phone only.
Hotel Per Astra
Suites run from 49 to 107 square metres across two houses, and the indoor pool covers days when the bay is cold. Perast has no beach, so plan for one.
Villa Geba
Ask for a terrace over Sveti Stefan Island, since other suites face the open Adriatic. Seven rooms, a top-floor restaurant, about 40 minutes from Tivat.
Hotel De'Andros
Rooms here are sold by view, so book a lake-view category for a balcony over Lake Skadar. The national park's boats leave from the harbour outside.
Hotel Pelikan
The hotel takes you onto Lake Skadar in its own boat from the water in front. Back ashore: a fireplace dining room and a history museum in the attic.
Bianca Resort & Spa
Back from Kolašin's slopes or trails, you have a year-round indoor pool, a Turkish bath, a spa open until 21:00 and free parking for every guest.
The Chedi Luštica Bay
Stay on the Luštica peninsula, 13 km from Tivat airport, with sunbeds and towels included on The Chedi Beach. Ground-floor pool rooms go out on arrival.
Kulla e Balshajve
Wake to the Adriatic from your own terrace in Ulcinj's old town. You park about 300 m away and climb a stepped path, so ask ahead about your bags.
Hotel SOA
A four-star house of 16 units on the first kilometre of the Black Lake road, inside Durmitor National Park. Allow about 2 h 40 from Podgorica airport.
Bermuda
5
Grotto Bay Beach Resort
Few Bermuda hotels sell an all-inclusive plan, and this one covers three meals, bar drinks, afternoon tea and the non-motorised water sports off the dock.
Newstead Belmont Hills
Staying for the city more than the sand?
Cambridge Beaches
Calm water is the reason to choose Cambridge Beaches.
The Reefs
Staying here means dinner on the sand at a hotel small enough to feel private.
The Loren at Pink Beach
Book three nights or more for summer, the minimum stay from May to August, and plan to eat at The Pink Beach Club: Marée is now a lounge for cocktails…
Poland
3
Hotel Gdańsk Boutique
Stay here to sleep in a 17th-century granary on the Motława, then step out of the door and into Gdańsk's Old Town within minutes.
Hotel Polonia Palace
Best if you want to sleep in one of Warsaw's oldest hotels, opened in 1913 and still keeping its original Louis XVI interiors.
AC Hotel Wroclaw
After a day in the Old Town, you come back to a nineteenth-century tenement on plac Wolności, where some rooms come with a terrace of their own.
