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Imagine if you had your own little design hotel, a small bespoke bolthole of creative luxury, our Dinky Luxe finds.
With just a handful of rooms and suites, these small boutique hotels and guesthouses of considered style and local charm are all about free-flow linens, design interiors, personal artefacts and creature comforts.
An individual in style, these little hubs of cool-kid glam are about moments where you feel utterly there with the interiors influenced by the heritage, the view, or way the sunlight streams in.
While many may only offer bed and breakfast each goes well beyond the B&B - this is a realm of simple luxury, designer touches and bundles of character – this is your Dinky Luxe Collection found in Sri Lanka to Finland.
A restoration den of raw genius – a weathered Tuscan house close to Montefollonico that has been allowed to expose her weathered elements and complemented with chic salvaged interiors. An imaginative retreat of utter, rustic romance.
Farmstead aesthetics slip seamlessly into bed with a contemporary cousin at this bucolic commune of guesthouse and creative venue space known collectively as the DENHARTEN.
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Set against the forested Beskydy (Beskids) range in the Carpathian Mountains, this 200-year-old designer hideaway fosters modern Czech country living whilst giving heritage a hug, decked in whites, linens and twisted rafters.
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Limewash, straw and timber headline at this patiently restored farmstead, where historic bones meet sharp design thinking and rural grit is distilled into a tight edit of quietly confident holiday apartments.
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A 1720 Chianti estate of three stone farmhouses, reborn by Austrian architect Nina Mair as a creative sanctuary of craft, olive groves and unhurried Tuscan soul.
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Built into the original Medieval town walls of Hall, this former guilders’ house of traditional Tirol style has stood here for well over half a century with records dating back to 1450. Today, behind the rose petal façade, lies the small Kontor Boutiquehotel.
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Two thousand years of vines, empire and river commerce, written into the slate and stone of western Germany. Rhineland-Palatinate does not perform its history. It simply continues it.
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Architect crafted timber villas above the Arctic Circle, offering lake views, Nordic minimalism, Sámi heritage, private saunas and serene immersion in untouched Lapland wilderness.
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Barefoot brutalism meets citrus calm. Hospedaria is the crash pad for design lovers, where vintage finds, art, and concrete cool rewrite the rules of rural Algarve stays.
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Fabulous holiday apartments with panoramic views and an interior palette that borrows from the surrounding beauty and captures the purity of nature with a modernist hand.
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A short drive northwards from the wild sandy beaches, the eco-design guesthouse lies secluded within the Horn Head peninsula. Created to blend seamlessly in with its surroundings of County Donegal’s mountainous yet green landscape.
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A curated style jungle of mid-century furnishings, abstract modernism and bespoke pieces are flavoured by the original pine panelling dating back to 1848 - and all this cuteness is wrapped in a canvas of wild herbs and mountain eye candy.
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Ayiopetra is a design-led boutique hotel in Naxos, beside the 6th-century BC Temple of Demeter, blending Cycladic architecture, agricultural heritage and curated interiors into an adults-only retreat.
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A tiny weathered Scottish farmhouse plays host to Scandinavian contemporary design and Scottish crafted pieces from the Highlands - an irresistible combo of old and new, heritage meets the design - affectionately known as the 'Scandi-Scot'.
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A fabulously humble basecamp of good design for kindreds of style, Brücke 49 is a collection of rooms, suites, studios and apartments in the high-in-the-mountains creative enclave, Vals.
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Set beneath the Hochkönig peaks, stieg’nhaus is Austria’s newest design hideaway. A modern Alpine retreat of soft luxury, sculptural calm and quiet hospitality shaped by light, craft and stillness.
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Tucked away in nature, this design-led hideaway blends style and seclusion. Think sleek interiors, epic views, and slow mornings by the fire. A place you won’t want to leave.
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Ditch the noise. Chase altitude. High above Kandersteg, Chalet Arva is a raw, fuss-free alpine escape where wild nature rules, simplicity thrives, and adventure meets tranquility. Let the mountains pull you in.
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A contemporary private den for discerning design purists, Ʌerli’s allure is a harmonious marriage of tradition meets modernity, continuing and furthering the strong architectural alpine remit of Tyrolean design.
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Wonderfully humble, this authentic exclusive-hire farmstead hideaway dating back to 1885 comes with the mandatory choc-box appeal of a rural alpine chalet besieged by the hush rhythms of lush green pastures, ancient forests and hum of the mountain waters.
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Just 80 steps from the sea, this design outpost of style is a fabulous townhouse hotel-guesthouse decked in antiques, designer pieces and curios with just a handful of boutique bedrooms.
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Éros Kéros Villas, on the slow-pace Cyclades island of Koufonisia, come drenched in Aegean blue vistas – a sun-kissed boutique retreat of four cubic Cyclades-style merchant houses that lazily gaze onto the island of Keros.
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Where Japanese rice country meets French culinary rigour. Auberge Né is a one-suite eco design house and restaurant born entirely from the soils of Niigata.
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A Highland hideout reworked with ecclesiastical swagger – this bold church conversion near Crieff spins heritage into cinematic cool. For the design-set, the curious and the culturally attuned.
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Where history meets high design – Doornberg is a colonial masterpiece turned private villa, where Palladian columns, mid-century flair, and tropical gardens frame Galle’s most storied retreat.
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Perched above Lake Walen, Hasenberg Lodge is a reawakened 1970s chalet by architects Michelle Corrodi and Roger Zogg — a soulful private-hire retreat where design, light and Alpine poise converge.
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.