Novelty isn’t everything, even here at Tablet. We admire a classic European seaside hotel as much as the next website, and Hôtel Les Mouettes, right on the Ajaccio Bay waterfront on the west side of Corsica, is nothing if not a classic European seaside hotel. This sort of thing is less about concept and more about execution, and the charm of Les Mouettes is in the details.

We know more or less what to expect from a castle hotel on the French mainland, but like everything in Corsica, Castel Brando is a little bit different. This 19th-century house occupies an aristocratic mansion in the old fishing village of Erbalunga, on the Cap Corse, the peninsula on the island’s north coast. Rather than dazzle you with its opulence, it’ll seduce you with its quiet charm.

It’s no secret that some of the most extravagant hotels in the world line the shores of Lake Como itself, but in the town of Como it’s possible to hide away in a hotel that’s a little less conspicuous. And while the Palazzo Albricci Peregrini is an exceedingly private place, tucked safely away from prying eyes, the experience it offers is no less extraordinary than that of its more ostentatious neighbors.

As long-haul jet travel grows ever less attractive, we’re rediscovering places like Normandy; an hour and change from Paris, easy enough to reach from London, it’s a place that never lost its appeal, or its dramatic natural beauty. Just inland from Honfleur, by the mouth of the Seine, Le Domaine d’Ablon offers a high-end, boutique-sized Norman country escape — an estate whose original buildings have been divided into suites or converted into self-contained cottages.

As a travel destination Mykonos is certainly no well-kept secret, its streets and beaches often crowded with throngs of tourists. Novelty isn’t everything, though, and the considerable natural charms of the Greek islands are still there to be experienced, if you know where to look.

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