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Travel experts curating the world’s most authentic hotels and experiences. Luxury hotels and villas rooted in local culture and heritage.

Stay where the story is.

18/08/2026

📍 Borgo San Felice, Tuscany, Italy

What if your hotel was an entire Tuscan village?

In the rolling hills of Chianti Classico, Borgo San Felice occupies a centuries-old hamlet of stone houses, winding lanes, courtyards and its own chapel - a place where the rhythms and architecture of rural Tuscany have been carefully preserved.

Today, the old borgo has been transformed into an intimate retreat, with rooms and suites woven through the former village buildings, gardens spilling between ancient stone walls, and long evenings spent over Tuscan food and wine beneath the stars.

Surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, it offers something increasingly rare: the chance not simply to visit Tuscany, but to live, for a little while, within one of its historic villages.

Photo credits: Borgo San Felice

17/08/2026

📍 The Swag, Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina

High in the mountains, at 5,000 feet and bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, The Swag offers a wonderfully different take on American luxury.

Built around hand-hewn log cabins, roaring fireplaces and wide porches overlooking the mountains, this intimate hideaway feels deeply connected to the landscape and traditions of Appalachia - rustic in spirit, but refined in every detail.

Days here are shaped by the mountains: hiking straight from the property into the national park, long lunches overlooking endless ridgelines, and evenings spent beside the fire as the cool mountain air rolls in.

The Swag is proof that luxury doesn’t have to mean polished marble and grand lobbies. Sometimes, it’s a log cabin, complete stillness and the wilderness at your door.

Photo credits: The Swag

16/08/2026

📍 La Dimora, Sorrento Coast, Italy

A hidden piece of Italian design history on the Sorrento Coast.

Designed by celebrated Italian architect and set designer Lorenzo Mongiardino, La Dimora is a 300-square-metre family villa where generations of history are preserved through its interiors.

Frescoes, artworks and collected furnishings fill rooms that feel wonderfully untouched by time, while outside, palms and camellias surround the villa’s secluded gardens.

Mongiardino was renowned for his richly layered, theatrical interiors inspired by the great houses and palazzi of Italy. Here, that unmistakable sense of drama sits alongside something much more intimate: a home whose history is still very much alive.

Within the grounds, Little Dimora, an independent two-bedroom annex with its own pool and garden, can be rented separately, offering a rare opportunity to stay within this extraordinary private estate.

And perhaps most special of all, guests can experience the main villa itself through private lunches and dinners, cooking classes and show-cooking, with a three-Michelin-star chef also available on request for exclusive private events.

A stay that opens the door not only to the beauty of the Sorrento Coast, but to a living piece of Italian design history.
place.

Photo credits: Villa La Dimora Raquel Reyes Diaz | Italian Villa Curator

13/08/2026

📍 La Divine Comédie, Avignon, France

Hidden behind high walls in the heart of Avignon lies a house that has lived many lives.

La Divine Comédie stands on the site of the 14th-century residence of Cardinal Amédée de Saluces, once right-hand man to the Popes of Avignon. Centuries later, traces of that history remain woven into the property: parts of the house date to the 18th century, while its surrounding walls were built using stones from the former cardinal’s palace. ⁠

Today, it is an intimate five-suite guest house surrounded by Avignon’s largest private garden - 2,600 square metres of century-old plane trees, cypresses and hidden corners, with a 15-metre swimming pool tucked amongst the greenery.

Inside, antique furniture, artworks and collected curiosities fill rooms that feel more like a private Provençal home than a hotel, the result of a seven-year restoration that brought the historic property back to life.

Just moments from the Palais des Papes, yet almost entirely hidden from the city beyond, this is exactly the kind of place we search for at The Libra Guide: somewhere you don’t simply stay in Avignon, but become part of its story.

Photo credits: La Divine Comédie Avignon

11/08/2026

📍 Temple Guiting Manor, The Cotswolds, England

A 15th-century Cotswold fairytale, hidden among some of England’s most beautiful countryside.

Built from the honey-coloured stone synonymous with the region, Temple Guiting Manor has stood here for centuries, surrounded by sweeping grounds, walled gardens and the gentle landscape of the Cotswolds.

Inside, centuries-old architecture meets beautifully considered interiors, while beyond the manor, days unfold between gardens, tennis courts, long lunches and walks through the surrounding countryside.

It is the kind of place that captures the romance of rural England without feeling staged - a historic home that remains deeply connected to the landscape and character of the Cotswolds.

Photo credits: Temple Guiting Manor & Barns

10/08/2026

📍 Villa La Cassinella, Lake Como, Italy

There are villas on Lake Como, and then there is La Cassinella.

Hidden along the lake’s western shore and reached only by boat, this 19th-century private estate feels entirely removed from the world beyond it.

Behind its ochre façades, rooms filled with quiet Italian elegance open onto terraces, cypress-framed gardens and uninterrupted views across the lake.

Lunch is served beneath climbing greenery, afternoons unfold beside the water, and evenings arrive with the mountains reflected on its surface.

Accommodating just fourteen guests across seven rooms, La Cassinella offers perhaps the greatest luxury of all: the feeling that Lake Como is yours alone.

Photo credits: Villa La Cassinella

09/08/2026

📍 Hampton Manor, Hampton-in-Arden, England

Built in 1855 by Sir Frederick Peel, son of former British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Hampton Manor began life as a grand Victorian country residence, later expanded with work by celebrated architect W. Eden Nesfield.

Today, the Grade II-listed manor has been thoughtfully reimagined, preserving the character of the original estate while giving it a distinctly contemporary life.

Historic wood panelling, tiled floors and Gothic details sit alongside beautifully considered interiors, while the gardens and walled kitchen garden reconnect the house with the land around it.

There is history here, but Hampton Manor doesn’t feel frozen in time. Instead, it captures what we love most: a historic place whose story continues to evolve, while remaining unmistakably rooted in where it came from.

Photo credits: Hampton Manor

08/08/2026

📍 Palazzo Santa Croce, Positano, Italy

Imagine waking up inside a 17th-century palazzo suspended above the Amalfi Coast.

Perched high above Positano, Palazzo Santa Croce began life as a monastery before becoming the residence of the Bishop of Amalfi in the early 18th century. Centuries later, its rooms and terraces would welcome artists and writers including Pablo Picasso, John Steinbeck and Alberto Moravia.

Today, the palazzo is a private villa, but much of its extraordinary character remains. Baroque architecture, hand-painted ceilings, antique furnishings, majolica tiles and frescoed spaces sit alongside terraces cascading towards the Mediterranean.

It is Positano at its most storied: not simply a beautiful view of the Amalfi Coast, but a chance to stay within a piece of its history.

Photo credits: Palazzo Santa Croce

07/08/2026

📍 Titilaka by Andean, Lake Titicaca, Peru

What if your hotel could be a gateway into one of the oldest living cultures in the Andes?

Perched on a private peninsula on the shores of Lake Titicaca, Titilaka sits within a landscape that has been sacred to Andean civilisations for centuries, surrounded by high-altitude plains, ancient archaeological sites and communities whose traditions remain very much alive.

This is a stay designed to take you beyond simply admiring the lake. Days can be spent visiting the islands of Titicaca and their living traditions, exploring Inca and pre-Incan sites such as Aramu Muru and Sillustani, or discovering local folklore through music, dance and ancestral celebrations.

And then there is the setting itself: vast skies, reed-filled wetlands, grazing sheep and the extraordinary blue of Lake Titicaca stretching towards the horizon.

A beautiful example of contemporary luxury that doesn’t separate you from its surroundings, but draws you deeper into them.

Photo credits: Titilaka

06/08/2026

📍 The Fox at Oddington, Cotswolds, England

Some of England’s most memorable stays aren’t grand country houses. They’re village inns that have been welcoming travellers for centuries.

Nestled in the heart of the honey-coloured village of Oddington, The Fox is a beautifully restored coaching inn that captures everything we love about the English countryside. Think roaring fires, oak beams, locally sourced food and rooms that feel more like a country home than a hotel.

Step outside and you’ll find winding footpaths, ancient dry stone walls and some of the Cotswolds’ prettiest villages waiting to be explored. It’s the kind of place where long pub lunches turn into slow afternoons, and every season has its own charm.

Rich in history yet effortlessly relaxed, The Fox reminds us that authenticity is often found in the simplest places.

Stay where the story is.

Photo credits: The Fox at Oddington

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