Mandarin Oriental Taipei

Forget modern, forget skyscrapers, forget the trend of Asian luxury hotels in gleaming glass towers. The Mandarin Oriental, Taipei may be a new build, but in spirit it’s straight out of the Thirties. In this it may be even more impressive than the typical Mandarin Oriental — which, it scarcely needs pointing out, is not an unimpressive thing to begin with. They don’t just vaguely gesture in the direction of Art Deco, in the way a more pedestrian luxury hotel might — here they practically bow down before it. Instead of a sort of modern-translation equivalent of a classic luxury hotel, this is absolutely the genuine article.

And when you add to this stunning, opulent atmosphere the sort of dependable luxury-hotel details at which all the Mandarin Oriental hotels excel, you’ve got a result which is almost beyond criticism. The 300-plus rooms and suites are the city’s largest, and it must not be close — move up at all from the most basic accommodation and you’ll soon be in real danger of getting physically lost in your own bedroom, with nothing to console you but the enormously lavish comforts and the spectacularly attentive service.

Needless to say, the royal treatment isn’t limited to the rooms and suites. A hotel like this comes with an expansive spa and wellness program as a matter of course, as well as enough events space to host a small (yet impeccably dressed) convention. Add three restaurants — one Cantonese, one Italian and another French — as well as a tea lounge, a cocktail bar, and a cake shop, and you’ve got everything you could possibly need, and then some, all under one exceedingly elegant roof. Don’t let anyone tell you they don’t make them like they used to.