Dubrovnik Palace

Class: Deluxe

Style: Icon

Rooms: 308

Until recently Croatia was on nobody’s list of hot travel destinations. All this is changing now, as these things do, and fast — if you’re thinking of Dubrovnik as an undiscovered paradise, you may be a bit late.

But this is still a good moment to visit; early adopters, for example, would have missed out on the newly renovated Dubrovnik Palace, just outside the city proper, on the spectacular Adriatic coast. With sea views from the balconies of each of its three-hundred-plus rooms, it doesn’t lack for drama; this terraced Seventies monument stands on a wooded hillside overlooking the Elafiti Islands, yet is less than three miles from the old walled city — something of a city hotel and a seaside escape in one package.

The new-look Dubrovnik is contemporary, not flashy, just handsome — it’s no design expo, concentrating its efforts instead on the creature comforts. Rooms come with the usual flat-screen televisions and high-speed internet as well as the aforementioned balconies, every one facing out to sea. Business facilities are first class, and you’re spoiled for choice among several restaurants and bars. And the seaside location is well used — from the pool down on the beach you’ll be hard pressed to think of this as a city hotel.