Five villas we'd book ourselves this summer
People ask us the same question every June: if you could go anywhere in the collection, where would you actually go? It's a harder question than it sounds. We spend all day looking at the best villas on the coast, but here are five that keep coming up, again and again, when the team talks about where they'd go themselves.
For the once-in-a-decade gathering: Angeli
Some houses are for a week. Angeli is for a wedding, a big birthday, a reunion that has to be perfect. A thirteen-room estate above Perugia in the Umbrian hills, sleeping eighteen, with its own private chapel and a garden built for exactly this kind of event. If the guest list is long and the occasion matters, start here.
For golden-hour people: Bali Infinity Plus
Built to catch the light over Jávea. Floor-to-ceiling glass, a sea view from almost every room, a private gym and hot tub downstairs, and a garage for three cars if you're driving down the coast. It sleeps ten, and the terrace at sunset is the reason the villa exists.
For a slower kind of luxury: Piero
Not everyone wants the party house. Piero is a single-storey villa above Santa Teresa di Gallura in northern Sardinia: modern, comfortable, unfussy, with a private pool and hot tub and the beach a fifteen-minute walk away. Porto Cervo is close if you want it; most days, you won't. This is the one for couples and small families who measure a holiday in unhurried mornings.
For the group that wants space to spread out: Nathalie
If the brief is a big group, a pool, and somewhere to actually cook, Nathalie answers it in the Luberon countryside near Grambois: nine rooms, sleeps fourteen, a lake just down the road, and a caterer or private chef bookable on request if nobody feels like cooking that night.
For the ones who want the mountains, not the coast: Carinthia
And then there's the antidote to all of it. Carinthia looks out over open country above Velden am Wörthersee, close to one of Austria's best-known lakes and its golf course, with a private pool of its own. It sleeps ten, and it asks nothing of you except that you slow down.
Five very different summers, one thing in common: we'd happily pack our own bags for any of them. If one of these is speaking to you, the concierge can check dates in a minute, or tell us what your trip looks like and we'll point you to the right door.