Galle, Sri Lanka

With a wonderful setting within the fortified town of Galle, the Amangalla is a heritage building built by the Portuguese as far back as 1684 as the military headquarters, which was subsequently used by the British Army to house their soldiers, and finally converted to a hotel during 1863. With pillared verandas, high ceilings and patterned 19th-century floor tiles, a generously proportioned atrium, cooled by ceiling fans, with antique trunks, potted palms – it’s setting feels like a movie-set backdrop that brings in honeymooners and couples who appreciate simple elegance. With only 31 rooms between a main building a modern annex, the beauty of it’s rooms is in their antiquity: lofty ceilings, four-poster beds, a chaise lounge, 150-year-old teak doors and floors that spring beneath the weight of history.