They’re the gold standard of travel: Sandy Lane, the Lake Palace, the Datai — the world’s top resorts, whose mixture of prestige and luxury is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel like a million dollars ... which is the sort of money you’ll need to stay in them. Most of us won’t get within a hundred miles unless our numbers come up on Euromillions.

Or will we? The Sunday Times can’t wave a wand and pop a few noughts on your bank balance, but we can guide you to places just around the corner from the wallet-busters that will deliver just what you’re dreaming of for a fraction of the price. They don’t have business centres, WiFi, uniformed flunkies or flatscreen TVs, but they do deliver on the essentials: the laid-back vibe of Barbados, the romance of Rajasthan, the blissed-out, Bounty-bar beaches of Malaysia.

We’re not pretending these offer the same experience as the five-stars. No, they’re often a lot more fun. Staff who are friendly rather than obsequious, food that’s authentic instead of fussy, buildings with atmosphere, not ostentation. And, on top of all that, the warm, smug feeling you get when somebody just up the road is paying 10 times what you are, and probably isn’t enjoying it half as much.

Unless stated, all prices are for the cheapest double room in low season, per night

MAURITIUS

Minted: the Royal Palm is what the Dorchester would be if you moved it to the Indian Ocean — three pith-helmeted staff per guest, personal valets, cocktail dresses at your poolside table in the evening, palatial suites reeking of discreet luxury and bulging bank balances.

There are plenty of younger pretenders to the throne of top hotel on Mauritius, and they’ve wheeled in trendy concepts and big-name designers, but the Royal Palm sees them all off with a barely audible sniff — all that faddish stuff is a little too trashy for an exceptionally well-heeled clientele that includes Michael Schumacher, Jacques Chirac and Boris Becker.

It’s unquestionably the island’s class act: whether it’s truly relaxing is a matter of taste.

Doubles from £510; visit www.beachcomber-hotels.com

Skinted: it’s directly across the water, on the other side of the island’s lovely Grand Baie, but otherwise Hotel 20 couldn’t be more different from the Royal Palm. When it opened, two years ago, it proclaimed itself Mauritius’s first boutique hotel, but don’t think it’s a trendy arriviste. The hotel’s heritage goes way back: in fact, it’s a stylish revamp of the old Colonial Coconut, one of the first hotels to attract tourists to the island, and some of the buildings date back to the 1920s.

It still has something of the old-world feel (as opposed to the Palm’s old money), with just 29 rooms, polished wood floors and four-poster beds, all tucked away in a coconut grove. Admittedly, the beach is tiny, but there’s a lovely pool and plenty of watersports. Good restaurant, too, where you dine at night on the terrace, accompanied by the gentle lapping of the sea on one side and the gentle tinkle of the house pianist on the other — cocktail dresses optional. Okay, 20 half as grand as the imposing edifice over the bay, but it’s altogether more intimate and desert-island-delicious.

Doubles from £85, half-board; call 00 230 263 5000 or visit www.20degressud.com

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