Resources

The sources we actually use.

We read a great deal before a trip, and most of it turns out to be useless. The five below are the ones we keep returning to.

5 sources

  1. A honey-stone doorway and olive tree in a terracotta pot at Kapsaliana Village, Crete

    01

    Restaurants and hotels

    The MICHELIN Guide

    It remains the most reliable single opinion in food, and the hotel side has quietly become just as useful. The inspectors stay anonymous and pay their own bills, which is more than most lists can claim.

    We use it for We book through it when a hotel is listed. On St. Lucia the Michelin rate came in under the property’s own. Kapsaliana Village in Crete, a restored 18th-century hamlet below the Arkadi monastery, is the sort of place it turns up.

  2. The terracotta entrance and lantern-lit doorway of Phaea Blue, Elounda

    02

    Independent hotels

    Small Luxury Hotels of the World

    This is a members’ collection of independently owned hotels, most of them under fifty rooms. That scale is what makes it useful, because the places tend to be run by the people who own them, in buildings that started life as something else.

    We use it for It is where we start when we want somewhere with a point of view rather than a brand standard. Phāea Blue in Elounda, forty-seven bungalows on the Cretan shore, is a good example of the type.

  3. Tella Thera terraced into the Cretan hillside above olive groves at dusk

    03

    Architecture and interiors

    Design Hotels

    The selection is made for the building as much as for the bed, which makes it worth browsing even when you have nothing to book. It is a quick way to see what somewhere looks like before you know anything else about it.

    We use it for We turn to it when the building is meant to be part of the trip rather than just the end of the day. Tella Thera in Kissamos is terraced into the hillside with olive trees planted on its roofs.

  4. An infinity pool at the edge of desert dunes at sunset

    04

    The splurge

    Auberge Resorts Collection

    The properties are small and expensive, and they are consistently very good at landscape. An Auberge hotel tends to sit somewhere with a view and then get out of its way.

    We use it for This is the one we price out when a trip warrants a real splurge.

  5. A sunlit lobby of travertine and palms above a patterned marble floor

    05

    Reporting and lists

    Travel + Leisure

    Of the big titles this is the one we find most useful for what is opening and what is changing. Read it for the reporting and the destination guides, and treat the annual awards as a starting point rather than an answer.

    We use it for It earns its place early on, when you are still deciding which country you are arguing about.