The world’s best hotels, according to the experts

Says Gregor Nassief, owner of Secret Bay, named World’s Best Boutique Hotel 2016: “The best boutique hotels transport you to a place totally unexpected and new, yet comfortable and familiar. A home you never knew you had.

“More often than not, someone else’s love story becomes entwined in your own.”

Here are the rest of the winners’ responses.

Gregor Nassief is the owner of Secret Bay, a multi-award-winning eco-luxury resort Dominica. In 2003, he and his wife spent their long-postponed honeymoon in Valparaiso, Chile.

“We chose a small hotel called Luna Sonrisa, a renovated 100+ year old house in Cerro Alegre.

“We stayed in the only room with its own bathroom, a tiny room painted in raspberry red with a vanilla painted ceiling.

“We loved to have breakfast at the communal table where the owner’s wife would bring her just-baked bread from her own bakery Pan de Magia.

“Everything was served in beautiful locally made clay plates and had the magic touch that only love can put on things.”

“Janak, the owner, and author of the ‘Footprint’ guide to Chile, brought the outside world in by telling us of all the wonderful and authentic things to do in Valparaiso and his beautiful, extravagant wife brought constant laughs to all of us, besides her magic bread.”