Hip Hotels Beach

The latest volume in this coffee-table, ultra-chic hotel series (Hip Hotels: Ski, etc.) expands readers' horizons beyond the mainstream to the sandy shores of the world's quirkiest-and most beautiful-resort properties in such escapist paradises as Greece, Turkey, India, South Africa, Polynesia and the Seychelles. Along his sun-dappled journey, author and photographer Ypma exposes rare gems like The Chedi hotel located in the Sultanate of Oman. (""While neighboring Dubai offers a flashy gold-chain-and-Gucci version of the Middle East, the Chedi Muscat gives you Lawrence of Arabia...without the tent."") And in Italy's Aeolian islands, the author suggests trying the Hotel Raya, ""a day's boat ride north of Sicily."" Ypma also offers up a few non-tropical surprises, such as The Lugger in Cornwall, England, a converted smuggler's fort now catering to the sybaritic pleasures of its guests. The azure-rich photographs in this elegantly designed paperback give readers a peek at the lush interiors of the ultra modern getaways that are Ypma's focus, while dozens of detail-rich thumbnail shots help capture each hotel's interior mood. Ypma's prose also bares his trademark flair for conjuring vivid images, as in this description of the Hotelito Desconocido in Jalisco, Mexico: ""As you pass through the nearby pueblo-a place straight out of El Mariachi-and descend towards the distant palm trees that tell you the Pacific is not far away, nothing can compete with your first glimpse of this palm-fringed lagoon and its long strip of unending beach."" While this slick, immensely readable compendium is not intended as a traditional travel guide, it will serve as an inspiration to spur adventures in lesser-traversed lands. 511 illustrations, 396 in color