360˚ Leti
Uttaranchal, India

Views from this place are stupendous - rivers like vein; on your hand, glaciers, thick rhododendron forests. This ia an eccentric eyrie only an artist would dream of (lan McEwan is among the recent guests). Conceived by a Parsee psychoanalyst, it's a confidently modern eco-retreat in an unvisited part of the Kumaon Himalayas close to Nepal, sitting on a vertiginous plateau that can only be reached by a 30-minute hike. There are four guest cottages, a sitting room and a dining room with walls of glass crisscrossed with tons of Burma teak. Service is exceptional, food organic, the sense of peace at 8,000 feet as soul-stirring as travel ever gets.

Website: shaktihimalaya.com,

Uk Reservation: Cazenove + Loyd (tel: 020 7384 2332).

 Rates  Double, from £700, full board, with a three-night minimum stay