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It doesn’t get much more British than Belgravia, the posher-than-posh London neighborhood where row upon row of cream-colored Georgian townhouses surround lovely green parks locked to anyone not landed-gentry enough to have a key and a double-barreled surname. Everyone seems like they should be called Gemma or Jemima or Jeeves, and they all look like they emerged from the womb in a Burberry trench, clutching a long black brolly instead of a rattle. None of them even has bad teeth.

In the classic 1942 film Casablanca, Ilsa tries to explain to Rick what happened in Paris that fateful day. "Can I tell you a story, Rick?" she asks. "Does it got a wild finish?" he replies with a sneer. It certainly does, and so did my recent trip to Aspen, Colorado, where I spent three blissful nights at the newly-renovated St. Regis Aspen Resort. 

Formerly under the direction of one Countess Mountbatten of Burma herself, the newly minted Mercer Street Hotel has been the beneficiary of a sleek and sexified makeover. It's still one of London's most gloriously located hotels, situated as it is in trendy Seven Dials--Covent Garden's fashion-forward village-within-a-city--where the likes of Helena Christensen and Alexa Chung pound the cobblestone pavements.

In one of those glorious twists of language, Le Crayon, translated to English, actually means "Pencil." But the wild color palette of this groovy Parisian boutique hotel suggests that it might have popped straight out of a Crayola box. Sister to the more avant-garde Hotel Le Seven, the new Hotel Le Crayon, at 27 rooms almost more a guesthouse than hotel, goes a bit heavier on the kitsch.

Yesterday I gave you the scoop on Palermo Soho's NY-inspired shopping scene. While this popular Bueno Aires neighborhood is bursting with delectable retail, it's their gifted gastronomy that reels in scores of visitors from around the world. One eatery partly responsible for this attention is Mott – the city's extraordinary answer to America's farm-to-table concept.

St. Barths represented so much pre-crash extravagance and profligacy. And though its glamour hegemony has been recently challenged by Mauritius and St Tropez, it's still really the place to vacation like a movie star. And since normal humans need a de-stress just as much as bright and glittery ones, the new Spa at Le Sereno, one of the island's most design-forward hotels, offers an experience more cosseting than intimidating.

What makes a legend? Opened in 1946, a beacon of optimism in the wake of world war, the Hotel Bel-Air attracted an endless parade of glittering humans; one time resident Tony Curtis famously called it, "the best wife I've ever had." But not content to rest on past glories, this fall comes the unveiling of an ever more glamorous new Bel-Air, now part of London's illustrious Dorchester Collection.

Having created the monster that is boutique hotel culture, Ian Schrager has now revived Chicago's storied Ambassador East hotel in a decisively anti-glamour manner. The debut of his new Public Chicago actually seems to take a cue from the Ace, with an atmosphere that encourages hanging about more than posing.

For the opening of the Scandic Grand Central in Stockholm last weekend, the large-scale hotelier brought out the biggest and the best for a black tie gala in Sweden’s capital city. The soiree included a meet and greet in the hotel’s well-equipped acoustic lounge, followed by a dinner in the hotel’s Teaterbrasseriet restaurant, and an intimate performance by Grammy-nominated, Brooklyn-born performer and producer John Forté. Party-goers included frontrunners in art, design, fashion, and music. Guests were were given free rooms for the night, and encouraged to indulge in everything the newly renovated space has to offer, including the photo booth and sweet swag bags. More on how the Swedish 'downtown' mafia parties after the jump.

There are few hotels in the world that are so prestigious that you feel intimidated just walking by. Beverly Hills Hotel is one of these hotels, and although I've driven by the property at least 500 times in my life, I've never had the courage to actually stay there, since I assumed you needed to be a SAG member or at least own a Black AmEx to even qualify. I mean, it's where friggin' Clark Gable and Carole Lombard would rendezvous in the 1930's and Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned with six of her eight husbands, so what am I really bringing to the table ? Still, I recently weathered my anxiety, booked a night's stay, and indulged in a decadent taste of luxury.