Art Hotels

Passalacqua occupies a villa built in the 1780s above Moltrasio, on the western shore of Lake Como. The house was designed for a Milanese family with musical connections — Bellini worked here — and it has kept the proportions of a private residence rather than acquiring the corridors of a hotel.

Frescoed ceilings, painted panelling and period furniture run through the public rooms. The restoration favoured repair over replacement, so the decorative schemes read as continuous with the building instead of applied to it. Rooms are spread between the main villa, an adjoining palazzo and a small lakeside building.

Seven terraces of garden step down towards the water, planted with cypress, citrus, magnolia and roses. A pool sits among them. The gardens are as much the point as the interiors, and most of what the hotel offers — meals, swimming, an afternoon with nothing scheduled — happens outdoors when the weather allows.

• 18th-century villa
• Terraced gardens
• Lakefront
• 24 rooms and suites

Domaine des Etangs sits on roughly a thousand hectares of woodland, meadow and lake in the Charente, inland from Cognac. At its centre is a castle whose oldest parts date to the eleventh century; around it, restored farm buildings and mills hold the remaining accommodation.

The estate was reworked as a hotel with an explicit interest in contemporary art. Commissioned and collected pieces appear in the castle rooms and outbuildings, and the interiors pair them with plain stone, lime plaster and unfussy furniture. Nothing competes for attention.

Much of the food comes from the property itself — a kitchen garden, cattle, and the lakes that give the domaine its name. Guests walk, swim, cycle or sit still. The distances involved mean the estate rarely feels occupied, even when the hotel is full.

• Medieval estate
• 1,000 hectares
• Contemporary art
• Farm and lakes

On the northern coast of Saint Barthélemy, this hotel faces the long white curve of Flamands Bay. A colonial-style main house anchors the property; bungalows, suites and villas are set behind it through palms and tropical planting, most within a short walk of the sand.

The interiors are light rather than lavish — pale timber, rattan, linen, and a quantity of framed work and photography that gives each room a specific character. French design sits comfortably against Caribbean materials.

Two restaurants, a spa and a beach club cover most of the day. The tone is unhurried; the hotel has been on this bay for decades and behaves less like a resort than like a very well-kept private house that happens to have guests.

• Flamands Bay
• Beachfront
• Colonial-style main house
• Caribbean