La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel, Mallorca

Set on a shoulder of the Serra de Tramuntana above Deià, La Residencia occupies a pair of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manor houses that were knitted together and restored rather than rebuilt. Thick stone walls, worn tiled floors and beamed ceilings survive intact, and the terraces step down through olive terraces and citrus trees toward the sea. The hotel keeps a working relationship with the village below, which has drawn writers and painters for more than a century.

The art connection is not decorative. Several hundred works by Mallorcan artists hang through the public rooms, and there is a studio on site where guests can paint under supervision. Dining runs from El Olivo, in an old olive press, to the more relaxed Café Miró, and the spa borrows heavily from the estate's own olive oil and herbs.

The property spreads over roughly thirty acres, with two outdoor pools, tennis courts, and a mule that still walks guests down the lane to the village. Deià's small pebble cove at Cala Deià is a short drive or a steep and rewarding walk away.