360˚ Leti
Uttarakhand, India
Built on an 8,000-foot Himalayan plateau close to Nepal, this is thrills delivered right up at the tippy-top. One day the air is so crystal-clear you can see the drops of dew on the grass from your window, the next, mist pushes in like a slab of stone. This is a modern eco-eyrie conceived by a Parsee psychoanalyst for committed travellers (Lan McEwan has stayed)-because, boy, it's a sweat to get here Four glassy cottages are kept warm by wood-brining stoves and the food from the Tibetan chef is exquisite - Welsh cakes slathered in butter. There are long walks, dipping into the glacial waters if you can hack it, and guides with informed chat about everything from local micro-societies to fungi facts. A searing experience to charge the synapses.
Website Shaktihimalaya.com
UK RESERVATION Cazenove+Loyd (tel: 020 7384 2332)
Rates Double, from £680, full board.

The Serai
Jaisalmer, India
Frontier decadence. This is the first tented camp to set up in the bathed-in-honey no-man's-land of Jaisalmer, the last town - and high-security Zone before your arrive in Pakistan. The Serai is dramatically elemental but with a glamorous kick. The 21 crisply cream tents are tall and airy, with campaign-style furniture, colourful durries and vintages suitcases. Seven of the tents come with their own plunge pools and the main infinity pool is a dreamy mirage. Come here to depressurise and reconnect - just you and the stars and the ground beneath your feet. And a pretty little spa thrown in. Your luggage is swept to your room on a camel-drawn cart, you can order warm foie gras for lunch and chill-spiked curry for supper. At night the whole place is ablaze with candles and lanterns. Hot water bottles keep you toasty. And all against a backdrop of those spectacular all-to-yourself sand-dunes-so wonderfully nomadic.
Website the-serai.com
UK reservations  Greaves Travel (tel: 020 7487 9111).
 Rates  Double, from £350, including breakfast.

...' Garzon is a charming small town near Jose Ignacio in Uruguay, where the streets are lined famous Argentine/Uruguayan chef Francis Mallmann has opened an exquisite restaurant, EL Garzon,