Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Raffles hotel in Singapore is the stuff of legends. Since opening in 1886, the last Singapore tiger was shot underneath the Bar and Billiards room (1902), the first Singapore sling was mixed at the Long Bar (1915), and beauties Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor have called it home. All the writers that you might associate with the waning years of the empire—Joseph Conrad, W Somerset Maugham, and Rudyard Kipling—have lived here. English colonels gathered here to sing “There Will Always Be an England” after Singapore surrendered to Japan in 1942. In short, Raffles embodies all that was glamorous about the Far East in colonial times.

The extraordinary economic successes of modern Singapore have perhaps slightly dented its legendary style and soul. Since the 1991 renovation, the new Raffles has mixed old-world charm and new-world comfort. You don't stay at Raffles for the near-perfect imitation Victorian decor, you stay at Raffles for the intangibles — for its history, its reputation and the fact that it's probably one of the only bits of old Singapore left standing.

At Raffles, you are located in the middle of street vendor heaven. Try the curries, the noodles, and the satays, for Singapore is one of the only cities in Asia where you can eat the extremely tasty street stall food and not have your stomach suffer the consequences.

Service is predictably exquisite. It's obsessively perfect and at 2.5 staff members per guest, you won't be wanting. Besides, you can't leave Singapore without sipping a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar, the place of its origin. Actually, it's pretty foul — a cloying mix of brandy, pineapple juice, gin and Cointreau. But after a few, you might just see Raffles as the imperial paradise that it once was.