We are working through The World’s 50 Best Hotels list one stay at a time, and writing down what we actually think.

No hotel pays for a review here and nothing is written from a press release. We book the room, we pay the bill, and we tell you what the money bought: the bed, the bathroom, the breakfast, the service when something goes wrong. Then we do the part most reviews skip. For every hotel on the list we name an alternative we would happily book instead, somewhere that gives you the same feeling for a fraction of the price, and we say plainly what you give up by choosing it. When a hotel is worth every dollar, we say that too.