New year, new destinations

A long line of new luxury hotels opening in London began with the re-opening of the Savoy late last year, heralding a new era for the capital's classic hotels. This month the Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane re-opens with 1930s-inspired interiors by designer Pierre-Yves Rochon and a rooftop spa oozing high-end brands — Organic Pharmacy, Omorovicza and Espa (£265, fourseasons.com/London).

Hot on its heels, W's first London hotel, the striking 192-room W London — Leicester Square opens its doors on Valentine's Day on the corner of Leicester Square and Wardour Street in a 10-storey tower veiled in translucent glass that continually changes colour. It also features a curved nightclub space with an oversized mirror ball, screening room, SWEAT gym and 17 WOW suites (£323, whotels.com/london).

Overlooking Trafalgar Square, the grand Corinthia Hotel London opens in April in a Victorian city block that was once home to the Metropole Hotel and more recently used by the less glamorous MoD. The 294-room hotel will have a four-level ESPA spa and David Collins-designed bar (£450, corinthialondon.com).

Five minutes from Frinton on the Essex coast, a new contemporary holistic day spa with rooms, the Lifehouse, launches officially this month in the pretty village of Thorpe-le-Soken. Set in 130 acres of grounds and historic listed gardens of the former Thorpe Hall, the facilities include some 35 therapy rooms offering high-end Babor treatments, outdoor fitness circuit, gym and swimming pool, not to mention an
on-site spiritualist (£175pp with massage included, lifehouse.co.uk).

Although not strictly speaking a hotel, Alain de Botton's innovative Living Architecture project rolls out a new addition in July with The Long House, sleeping 10, on the edge of Cockthorpe, Norfolk, created by modernist architects Sir Michael and Lady Patty Hopkins (£760 per four-night break, living-architecture.co.uk).

Further afield in the Maldives, the 22-villa Jumeirah Dhevanafushi opens this month in the Gaafu Alifu Atoll with an over-water Talise spa, the first hotel to open outside of the Jumeirah group's existing markets (UK, Dubai and US). Jumeirah Vittaveli, a five-star deluxe family resort in the South Malé Atoll, is scheduled to open in March (£1,294 per villa, jumeirah.com)

Also this month, the 260-room Leela Palace Kempinksi New Delhi opens with three suites with private swimming pools, 24-hour butler service, heated rooftop swimming pool and Japanese, Indian & Italian restaurants (£360, theleela.com).

In April, the five-star all-inclusive, all-villa Buccament Bay Resort opens as the first luxury resort on the south-west of the island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, with a spa and football and tennis academies (£243, a week for £1,799pp with flights, kuoni.co.uk, buccamentbay.com).

Also launching in April is the 40-room Eccleston Square Hotel in Pimlico, whose handsome white Georgian front belies high techery within — LED televisions, 3D Blu Ray DVD, iPod docks and WiFi and £12,000 electronically-controlled massage beds (£250, ecclestonsquare hotel.com)

In Greece, a 79-room Yes! Hotel opens in Athens in May. This will be Brazilian design duo the Campana Brothers' first hotel project with a "live in" sensation along the lines of an art gallery experience (£154, yeshotels.gr).

The 100-villa Six Senses Laamu launches in May on the private Laamu Atoll in the Maldives with Altitude, a wine cellar rising out of the sea in a glass tower to compliment the resort's delicatessen. The spa will offer signature Asian treatments in rooms set among the trees with a yoga pavilion looking out to sea (£382, sixsenses.com/SixSensesLaamu)

The 138-room Mandarin Oriental Paris opens in June on Rue Saint-Honoré with an indoor swimming pool, spa and Michelin-starred restaurant by Thierry Marx and inner courtyard with year-round al fresco dining (prices unavailable at time of going to press, Mandarinoriental.com).