San Francisco always reminds this traveller of the Grand Old Duke of York – the old one, note, not the current one. This is a city of marching up the hill, Nob Hill, and marching back down again, although this time helped by Uber.

It was time for an update on Vancouver, and the best place to start was its iconic hotel, Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. What a trophy it must have been when the four-floor building, with 60 bedrooms, was finished in 1887 (that building was replaced in 1912, and it, in turn, was to be demolished to give way to today’s towering 17-floor ‘castle in the city’, officially opened by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939).

Mandarin Oriental Jumeira is a Dubai hotel that does things differently – and it is not only spelling Jumeira like that (everyone else seems to use Jumeirah). For a start it has an Austrian GM, Werner Anzinger who has a passion for Napoleon, and a wife from Melbourne. It has, as we will see, Dubai’s only tree-sculpted lobby, and a proper beach-set jogging track. And next Friday, 14 February, for one night it will be serving an anti-Valentine cocktail, ‘Leaving you behind’, Shōchū, vermouth, noisette and herb-flavoured liqueur with a dash of artichoke liquor.

Australia Day 2020 was duly celebrated last Sunday at a Thai-themed resort in Dubai. Does that make sense? Honestly, the 293-key Anantara Dubai Palm Jumeirah Resort & Spa is indeed a property that makes you think you are in Chiang Mai rather than the stress-overload creation that is Dubai. It is little wonder that an increasing number of locals, both expats and Emirati, drive over to The Palm for staycations, sometimes every weekend, without fail. And long-haul travellers appreciate the resort for a recovery layover en route to, or back from, Europe.

Before starting on a tour of two remarkable hotels, let us look at sachertorte, universally the world’s best-known cake. Ever since Viennese pastry cook Franz Sacher created it in 1832, the cake has grown in popularity.

The closest luxury beds to The Tower of London are at Four Seasons Hotel London at Ten Trinity Square – it is about 300 metres away from where mediaeval royalty, sometimes imprisoned, used to stay. The hotel is the same distance from Tower Hill underground tube station, which makes it most agreeable for many reasons.

First-time visitors to Rio de Janeiro should probably take an organised tour all day, to see Corcovado Mountain with its Christ The Redeemer statue, and Sugarloaf Mountain, Selarón Steps, Maracana Stadium, and the Sambadrome. Others might head straight to the four-kilometre-long Copacabana Beach, justifiably rated one of the world’s best, with absolutely clean, pale yellow sand and, from daybreak on, a magnet for the fit and healthy, sports people and sun worshippers.

Of course everyone imagines themselves on the red carpet in May at the annual Cannes Festival, formerly called the International Film Festival. Any time of year, however, Cannes is a delight.  Even in mid-winter the sun just might be shining, and as long as it is not raining local residents, usually immaculately coiffed and groomed, will be walking their poodles or other miniatures along Boulevard, or Promenade, La Croisette.

Let’s have an update on the ‘town and country’ pairing.  Here is the ultimate suggestion that is absolutely right for the 2020s. What do they have in common? Eccentricity, no gyms, ultra-enthusiastic workforces, and uniqueness.

Sanya, on Hainan Island, is China’s answer to Hawaii, and foreigners should take note – for a start, 59 nations do not need a typical China visa: get one on arrival. And the weather is extremely pleasant, year round. Girlahead stayed at two of the many really top resorts in the Sanya area.

Hong Kong’s Upper House gained an immediate world-luxury following the moment it opened October 2009: this was one of the first marsupial hotels as it is slotted into the JW Marriott, though it has its own entrance, and the only connection is at the seventh floor, used by anyone who cannot access Upper House’s upper lobby by escalator. This was also the hotel that put André Fu on the global luxury map (it would be tempting to say that the names of Champalimaud, Fu and Pushelberg are ‘everywhere’ these days, but only at luxury level and in select locations). André Fu, born in Hong Kong, has depth, like a three-dimensional light installation stretching to infinity: to this Master of Architecture, from Cambridge, true luxury is experience and not just aesthetics.

Amanyangyun, 45 minutes’ drive from the centre of Shanghai, is unique for many reasons. Other properties are converted from traditional houses. Amanfayun, near Hangzhou, is a re-use of an entire one-street village. Its houses, now individual villas, are still surrounded by tea plantations. But Amanyangyun all began because an entrepreneurial developer, Ma Dadong, then only 26, was so appalled that villages in Fuzhou were being completely submerged by a forthcoming dam that he bought 13 of their traditional stone mansions. Each is 300-500 years old, dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.