Anantara Phuket Resort and Spa in Thailand, which officially opened its doors in October, is giving guests the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the hotel’s local community. This winter, guests who register for a stay at the resort are offered the opportunity to take part in a day-long excursion to Baan Talay Nok, one of the villages hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami, to work side by side with tsunami survivors in a handicraft cooperative involving soap making, batik painting, and palm weaving. The activities are set up to help create self-sufficiency and autonomy in Thailand’s fishing and farming communities, and proceeds from the day’s efforts will go to a fund for survivors.

After a day of work, guests may look forward to retiring to one of the resort’s 83 private pool suites along Mai Khao Beach, on the north end of the island. Each villa is unique, featuring walled gardens, hardwood decks, and private pools. A traditional Thai spa incorporates five treatment rooms, including a couples’ suite that can be reserved by the day, and a yoga guru roams the grounds of the resort, offering group and private yoga classes. Winter 2009 rates begin at ,300 per night. (www.anantara.com)

—Alexandra Foster

An apothecary with access to more than 20 native Hawaiian plants and minerals is at the core of the custom healing and relaxing blends of elixirs, lotions and oils available for guests at the newly reopened Four Seasons Resort Hual?lai. The five-diamond, 243-room resort on the Big Island’s Kona Coast reopened in mid-December following a million expansion and renovation of the spa. In early 2009, the facility will add the Waiea (Water of Life) Garden; couples’ hale with a private plunge pool; and relaxation salons. Guests who desire something more active than a spa treatment can discover a range of exercise and recreational opportunities from open-air gyms to outrigger canoe paddling. Located within the larger Hual?lai Resort at Historic Ka‘?p?lehu resort community, the Four Seasons also has tennis courts and two 18-hole golf courses—one by Jack Nicklaus, the other by Tom Weiskopf. (808.325.8000, www.fourseasons.com)

—Debra Ryono

Apreamare’s new 82 Maestro combines the nautical heritage of the 150-year-old shipyard with a modern Italian interior. Unveiled at the Cannes boat show in September, the Italian shipyard maintained a classic-looking, expedition-style exterior while inside it’s designed with a surprising sense of openness achieved with details such as a picture window in the master suite and sleek, off-white furnishings.

Depending on engine choice, the blue-water hull can deliver a top end of 31 knots and cruising range of 400 nautical miles. It’s a yacht that is designed for ocean running but is faster than many other explorer yachts in its class.  In addition to spacious interiors, the designers also maximized the exterior three decks: The bridge has three lounges, sun platform, Jacuzzi, and wet bar, while the teak-laden cockpit area below is a good spot for al fresco dining. The new Maestro series will include 51 and 65 models. (www.apreamare.it)

—Michael Verdon

Visitors arrive at the Peninsula Tokyo in green Rolls-Royce Phantoms, the Hong Kong–based hotel group’s signature cars. Managers then usher their guests into the hotel’s cavernous lobby, where Japanese businessmen from the neighboring Marunouchi financial district and women in high heels drink cocktails beneath a transfixing concave light fixture that sparkles with 1,313 bulbs.

It took the Rosso family, the owners of several small, exclusive hotels in Italy, several years to convince Milan’s city government to approve their plans to develop the Town House Galleria. Beyond the usual difficulty in getting past one of Italy’s labyrinthine bureaucracies, the boutique property required special consideration because of its proposed location: inside one of Milan’s most famous landmarks, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a massive, architecturally stunning indoor arcade compl

The St. Regis Singapore is the first major luxury hotel to be built in this tiny island nation in 10 years.

Located 26 miles south of Cancún, the Mandarin occupies a one-mile-long, 150-yard-wide sliver of land that stretches from the region’s main highway to the Caribbean Sea. Reflecting pools line a thatch-roofed pavilion at the front of the property, where guests board golf carts for a ride through the jungle, past a cenote (a freshwater sinkhole), and along canals to their rooms.