Hugging the Big Island's volcanic Kohala Coast, The Fairmont Orchid offers an opportunity to be as far away from the real world—both physically and mentally—as you can allow yourself to be. To aid in that mission, the Orchid provides a healthy dose of luxury with a warm serving of hospitality.

The Orchid is a quick 20 miles north of Kona International Airport and encompasses...

This quaint resort on the secluded island of Saba, in the Dutch Caribbean, is the ultimate green getaway. It's made up of 12 cute, colorful cabins (with names like "Bird of Paradise" and "The Tree Frog") tucked into a dense, oceanside rainforest. The relaxation of guests swinging in hammocks on their cottage porches is only intruded upon by singing birds and chirping frogs. Private porch hot...

Speechless. The place leaves wordsmiths without words for days on end. Why? Because we're too busy being quiet and communing with nature to think in words. Not to overstate it, Amangiri (which means "peaceful mountain") transports guests to another plane. Senses are heightened at every turn and in every moment. You watch the morning light take its color from the rocks in a slow-motion...

Utila Lodge is a discerning diver's getaway on a tiny island in Honduras that lives and breathes scuba diving. Like most dedicated dive resorts, Utila Lodge offers clean, casual comfort rather than over-the-top amenities, and almost every aspect of a stay here revolves around the diving. Dive trips depart from the lodge's private dock, just outside the open-air lounge/dining room, and hearty,...

This all-inclusive, private-island dive resort off the southeastern tip of Sulawesi, Indonesia, offers diving every way imaginable. However, it's quite a haul to get here. All guests must fly into Bali and spend at least one night there before flying into the resort's private airstrip on a charter flight.

Once at the resort, guests choose from one of 26 lodging options, which are split...

Inn Serendipity is a quaint, century-old homestead on a five-acre organic farm amid the undulating green of rural Wisconsin. Its comfy Writing Room, where guests can add to an ongoing journal, is one of just two guestrooms at the B&B (the other is the laidback, funky Music Room). Visitors will be drawn out from under their soft, organic cotton linens by the smell of zucchini-feta pancakes,...

In the 1980s, the land that is now Phinda Private Game Reserve was ravaged by the ill effects of pineapple plantations, big-game hunting, and cattle ranches. Safari company CC Africa, now known as &Beyond, bought the land and, with the help of its conservationists and scientists, painstakingly resuscitated it over 17 years. Now the 57,000-acre reserve, sandwiched between the Indian Ocean and...

Safaris may be synonymous with spotting charismatic cats and marquee mammals, but you won't see any predators at one of the best and most distinctive safari lodges in South Africa, Bushmans Kloof. Situated in the Cederberg Mountains about 170 miles from Cape Town, the lodge is a pinnacle of luxury surrounded by unique wilderness.

It wasn't always so. This area, part of the Western...

Founded in 2004 by Lisa and Warrick Goosen, Tintswalo feels like a private family bush retreat, probably because the Goosens have personally attended to every detail, from the prints hanging in the suites to the books on the coffee tables in the main lodge. The sum is a chic neo-colonial lodge that is extravagantly luxurious yet eminently welcoming.

Connected by boardwalks, the seven...

At Sanctuary Swala, guests barely need to lift a finger to witness some of Africa's most stunning wildlife: Right from the decks of its 12 tented suites, they can spot lions, kudu, impala, and herds of as many as 50 elephants frequenting the watering hole just a few dozen paces away. The tents are so close to the pond that it's not uncommon to hear an elephant's stomach gurgling as she slurps...