Though it dates to 1861, Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland, is by no means fusty and old-fashioned. A recently completed million refurbishment—which spanned 12 years—has kept this Belle Epoque gem on the banks of Lake Geneva looking shiny and new.

The British monarch who ruled the largest empire in history would no doubt be pleased by the new 2 million ocean liner that the fabled Cunard Line recently christened after her. By any standard, Queen Victoria, known simply as “the QV,” is an imposing vessel.

Located 26 miles south of Cancún, the Mandarin occupies a one-mile-long, 150-yard-wide sliver of land that stretches from the region’s main highway to the Caribbean Sea. Reflecting pools line a thatch-roofed pavilion at the front of the property, where guests board golf carts for a ride through the jungle, past a cenote (a freshwater sinkhole), and along canals to their rooms.

The St. Regis Singapore is the first major luxury hotel to be built in this tiny island nation in 10 years.