The St. Regis Marsa Arabia Island, The Pearl Qatar

Our take

Marooned on its own slip of land inside The Pearl, this is Qatar's answer to the question nobody modest should be asking. Butler service that actually means something, a spa built for the long afternoon, and an address that closes doors everywhere else in Doha. Come for the theatre of it — the scale, the water views, the deliberate remove from the city. If you want walkable streets and neighbourhood texture, you'll feel marooned in the wrong sense. This is a destination unto itself, and it demands you treat it that way.