Best Mountain Hotels

An Art Nouveau former sanatorium above Davos, reached by funicular and said to have inspired Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Atmospheric and old-world, without palace-hotel prices.

Box Canyon Lodge & Hot Springs is a small, friendly lodge in Ouray, the little Victorian mining town in south-west Colorado known as the Switzerland of America. Its great secret lies behind the building: four redwood hot spring tubs, terraced up the mountainside, filled with natural mineral water and reserved for guests alone. Soaking in them under the stars, with the jagged San Juan Mountains rising all around, is one of the great simple pleasures of the Colorado Rockies.

Browns Boutique Hotel is a small, stylish bed and breakfast in the centre of Queenstown, on a quiet street just two minutes' walk from the town's shops, restaurants and nightlife. With just 10 rooms, each opening onto a Juliet balcony with views across Lake Wakatipu to the Remarkables, it offers a warm, personal and affordable base in New Zealand's adventure capital.

Buckhorn Inn is East Tennessee's oldest inn, a peaceful country retreat on 25 acres of woodland and meadow on the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the United States. Founded in 1938, it offers a quiet, gracious alternative to the bustle of nearby Gatlinburg, with cottages and guest houses among the trees, sweeping mountain views and dinners that draw guests back year after year.

Heritage Hotel Hallstatt puts you in the heart of one of the most photographed villages on Earth. Hallstatt clings to a narrow ledge between a steep mountainside and a deep, dark lake in Austria's Salzkammergut, its pastel houses and slender church spire reflected in the water. By day it is crowded with visitors; at dusk, when the coaches leave, it becomes the quiet, magical place that made it famous, and staying overnight is the only way to experience that.

A simple hotel on its own little island, reached by footbridge, with one of the most famous views in Patagonia. The rooms are basic; the setting is unforgettable.