UrbanResorts made its name with The PuLi, in Shanghai. Its latest luxury hotel, The PuXuan Hotel and Spa, opened February 2019 at the north-east corner of Beijing’s Forbidden City. It is a fascinating concept, soaring up to the ninth floor rooftop, above Guardian Auction space – the owner of the 116-room hotel, Chen Dongsheng, is not only Beijing’s auction king but also one of China’s insurance supremos.

Winter is coming to New York, of course. But this year, for the first time, The Peninsula New York is going alpine. Head up to this luxury hotel’s rooftop for gluvein or Piper-Heidsieck, and hot snacks. This is definitely something, the gal predicts, that will draw the locale even more to a hotel that is already constantly full of surprises.

Wynn’s Encore Boston Harbor, which opened this June, is a few minutes from the centre of the city – it is also only 15 minutes’ drive from the airport. What a sensational complex this US$2.8-billion investment has produced. The serious spend includes significant art.

Want to experience Mexico’s Caribbean coast in a new way? Perhaps you have been meeting away and doing business deals in the frenetic hub that is Mexico City. You might have worn your proverbial socks off traipsing around Chichén Itzá, Cobá, Monte Albán, Palenque, Templo Mayor, Teotihuacán, Tlatelolco, Tulum, Uxmal, Xcaret … whatever, now take a few days’ break.

Shangri-La Hotel At The Shard, London, on the southern bank of the River Thames, occupies the top of what is, well, a shard-shaped sculpture, 310 metres, 66 floors, in all. The highest the traveller can venture is to the 52nd floor. From there, look straight down to the Thames, with, just the other side of Tower Bridge, the historic Tower of London (this side of the bridge is WWII battleship, HMS Belfast, which you can visit). You are also two minutes’ walk from London Bridge station, with excellent above-ground connections, and an underground station that gets you to Knightsbridge, for Harrod’s, and Oxford Circus, for Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, in under 20 minutes.

Shangri-La Hotel Paris attracts all ages, including the young upwardly-mobile, and already successful – many Australians of course already know the brand, says Guy Bertaud, GM of the 101-room. This is for travellers who want to stay in a luxury hotel that is also an authentic Parisian palace. It was built in the last decade of the 19th century for Prince Roland Bonaparte, a great-nephew of Napoleon. Current owner Shangri-La Asia worked with architect Richard Martinet, and with Pierre-Yves Rochon for interiors that skilfully include just a few valuable oriental urns in a theatre that is quintessentially of the ornate lacquer and gilding style. The hotel opened in 2010 and achieved the French hotel industry’s coveted ‘palace’ status four years later.

Some might remember the joy of seaside holidays. Others hanker after the kind of experiences portrayed in The Famous Five and other childhood books, and still another group might merely be fascinated by experiencing something that is so undeniably traditional English that it is worth a night away, next time in London. (Allow three hours’ driving time from Hyde Park Corner or take a train from London Waterloo to Poole, and then taxi-it.)

Like many who are increasingly time short, I needed somewhere to recover, or at least to catch breath. Host luxury Phoenician, in Scottsdale AZ, fitted the bill perfectly.

Chicago is renowned, and justifiably, for some pretty unfriendly winter weather but the rest of the year it is gorgeous. In summer the city moves outside, quite literally. You have great art and music. When the weather allows, do not miss an architectural boat tour along the Chicago River, alerting you to the history of such buildings as the 1919 Wrigley Building, and the 1926 Jewelers Building, built with an auto elevator and indoor parking to protect the jewellers and their loot.

Accor’s Co-Deputy CEO and head of the company’s luxury brands, Chris Cahill, beams when talking about luxury. To bring them up to date, some of the heritage Fairmont hotels have seen astronomical spend, which should result in double-digit increased rate but double-double customer satisfaction. I went to see two of Fairmont’s heritage ‘railway hotels’.

Yes, more news from the glorious Le Lyrial, sailing from Rome to Athens following last week’s column.

Time to see what a boutique-sized luxury hotel at sea is like. I chose Ponant – named for ‘look west’, the opposite of Levant – that is actually more like private yachting than standard cruising. Took a week-long cruise, Treasures of the Mediterranean World: a Family Learning Adventure, on the good ship Le Lyrial.