* The Datai Resort has doubles from £250, room only

The Caves, Negril, Jamaica

On holiday, dusk is the sexiest hour, and Negril, the beach resort in the far west of Jamaica, holds the Guinness World Record for the best-ever sunsets. (OK, there’s no such entry, but you get the idea.) To appreciate this fully, check in to The Caves: a scattering of 11 totally tropical wood-and-stone thatched cottages and one-bedroom suites dotted about a cliff face, each oozing a laid-back luxury that admirers such as Sadie Frost and Beyoncé apparently can’t get enough of.

Decor-wise the resort gets its groove (bamboo, walls and fabrics in vivid West Indian shades) from its owner, Chris Blackwell, the famously cool founder of Island Records. For views, it can thank the Caribbean, which is beautiful to behold at any hour, as calm and preternaturally blue as Listermint. But for a perfect moment, get here in time to watch the sun melt into the water, leaving clouds streaked across the sky like hearth embers.

The Sunday Times Travel Magazine - December

BACKGROUND

• Race to 2008's best places to stay

• The world's 20 best hotels on a budget

• Britain’s best restaurants with rooms

• Europe's coolest hotels

BACKGROUND

• The hottest hotels for winter sun

• The world's best colonial hotels

• Britain's best country house hotels

• Britain’s top 10 hotels

Related Internet Links

• More ideas for great hotels in our Where to Stay section

The Caves has a particularly dramatic cliff’s-edge location and, if you’re feeling bold, you can take a nine-metre plunge from one of the resort’s diving platforms. If you don’t think your insurance will cover such James Bond antics, save yourself for dinner à deux in its flower-strewn volcanic grotto instead: sipping a glass of champagne, with a plate of shrimp in savoury coconut sauce to demolish, and Bob Marley jamming gently in the background is a very special way to toast the end of the day.

* The Caves has doubles from £247, all-inclusive

Blue Palace, Plaka, Crete

Yes, yes, hotels need a great location, trendy design and attentive staff. But what owners get down on their knees and thank the Lord for is an association with a bestseller. The proprietor of the Blue Palace must have recited his prayers in Latin under a cloud of incense for its unique selling point – the hotel overlooks The Island of Victoria Hislop’s soaraway-success novel.

The melancholic sandcastle silhouette of Spinalonga, a fortress islet rising above the glittery waters of the Gulf of Mirabello, dominates the view from the hotel’s Moroccan-inspired lobby bar (as well as from its 142 cool infinity pools, smart rooms and pebbly beach). Spinalonga might once have been a leper colony, yet its imperious Venetian walls look rather romantic from this distance, and you can take a boat trip over from the Elounda and explore crumbling alleyways that still look much as they did when abandoned in 1957.

There are no hotels here, but with the Blue Palace across the waters, why would you want to stay? Instead you can return, bronzed and relaxed, to stretch out for a thalassotherapy treatment in its glamorous white-on-white spa.

* Blue Palace Resort & Spa has doubles from £165, B&B

The Tides, Miami

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?