The one-of-a-kind Hotel Capellán de Getsemaní finds itself not in a garden outside Jerusalem but in the city of Cartagena, Colombia, in a vibrant, fast-evolving neighborhood just outside the old city center. This is Getsemaní; and the Hotel Capellán is vibrant as well, a historical Spanish Colonial structure whose interiors display a contemporary French influence, alongside their well-preserved heritage architecture and the comforts of a modern luxury boutique hotel.

If you weren’t aware there was an Armenia in Colombia, you’re far from alone, but this inland locale’s relative obscurity is to Bio Habitat Hotel’s advantage — it sits on a mountaintop just outside the coffee-producing city of Armenia, surrounded by unspoiled native forest, affording an immersion in nature that’s entirely appropriate for an eco-hotel like Bio Habitat.

Walking down the quiet, tree-shaded streets of San Isidro, it’s hard to believe you’re just a quick train ride away from the noisy and traffic-congested center of Buenos Aires. For decades this leafy residential suburb has been synonymous with porteño wealth and exclusivity — it’s the kind of place where handsome polo players hang out at sidewalk cafes and socialites walk their dogs by the river, and San Isidro Plaza Hotel perfectly reflects the quiet refinement of the neighborhood.

As Argentina’s first female winemaker, Susana Balbo has a name that carries a bit of weight — and for her entry into the hospitality world she lends her initials to SB Winemaker’s House & Spa Suites, a stunning seven-suite luxury boutique hotel in the wine country village of Chacras de Coria, just outside of the city of Mendoza. Susana’s daughter, Ana Lovaglio Balbo, is her partner in hospitality, and whether or not they’ve got plans for further expansion, the Winemaker’s House is an auspicious debut.

Most wine-producing regions are known for their rustic style, their chateaux and farmhouses, and we do love a good farmhouse hotel. But we like a surprise as much as the next traveler. Entre Cielos is a working vineyard, producing Malbec a short distance outside the city of Mendoza, but it’s about as far from rustic as it gets. Arrive here and you’re greeted by a low-slung modernist structure in raw concrete, a Zumthor-esque monument where you’re probably expecting a ranch house. The effect is dramatic, to say the least.

Up north in Bahia is where you’ll find the wilder, rougher side of Brazil — which for anyone bored of the beach scene in Rio is not a warning but a positive enticement. Trancoso was one of the prototypical fishing-villages-turned-hideaways, and there’s still plenty of that mellow bohemian vibe about it. Which Etnia Casa Hotel trades upon quite liberally.

This tiny hotel almost stretches the definition of “off the beaten path” — Picinguaba is definitely not in the guidebooks or on any magazine’s list of Top Vacation Spots. Then again, its secretive charm is quite obviously the whole point; this small hotel is the creation of a young transplanted Frenchman, Emmanuel Rengade, who happened upon this spot by chance and bought it practically on a whim.

For a cosmopolitan city that sees so many international visitors, Santiago has a surprising shortage of worthwhile boutique hotels. Especially in comparison with — dare we touch on the age-old rivalry? — its sister city on the other side of the Andes, Buenos Aires. Then again, restoring beautiful old townhouses isn’t rocket science. Two can play this game, even if one has been a bit slow out of the blocks.

Ask a Colombian about his country, and you can expect the conversation to quickly turn to the subject of Cartagena de Indias. The beautifully preserved colonial city is a jewel in Colombia’s crown, an UNESCO World Heritage site — a point of national pride, and with good reason. So if you’re going to the trouble to make the trip, you’ll want to do it right. Which, in this case, means staying in the heart of the old walled city in an elegant historic house like Hotel Casa San Agustin.

For some of us, the words “Costa Rican boutique villas” are more or less all that’s needed. Throw in “Pacific coast” and “Nicoya peninsula” and the chance that you still need convincing drops by half again. For the rest of you, the short version: Costa Rica, one-time low-budget backpackers’ haven, has expanded its upscale offerings, and a place like Casa Chameleon Mal Pais is the perfect venue for acquiring some first-hand knowledge of this trend.

To be close to Machu Picchu in the first place is privilege enough; a hotel of Sumaq Machu Picchu’s quality feels almost gratuitous. In Aguas Calientes, the last stop along the way to the famous historical site, you’d settle for a lot less — likewise, a hotel as elegant and luxurious as Sumaq would be a hit even in a less spectacular location. With just 60 rooms and suites, it’s in no danger of feeling out of proportion with its surroundings, and thanks to the way it’s tastefully tailored to its setting — it’s full of Inca art and objets — it never feels anything less than wholly respectful.

Named for the four-leaf-clover figure that forms a common motif in Spanish Colonial Colombian architecture, the Quadrifolio is a bit of a time capsule. It’s a renovated colonial manor house on the Calle del Cuartel, in the historic walled old town of Cartagena, the port city where Colombia meets the Caribbean.

Hotel history in the Americas doesn’t get much deeper than this; Hodelpa Nicolás de Ovando occupies three stone houses dating back to the year 1502, on Santo Domingo’s Calle las Damas, the oldest paved road in the New World. As you might imagine, it’s been updated over the years, and today combines colonial-era atmosphere with contemporary luxury-hotel comforts — some rooms contain original stone walls or rehabilitated timber ceilings, and all feature tile floors and other stylistic nods to the building’s heritage.

“Gingerland, Nevis.” That’s Golden Rock’s address in its entirety. If you’re looking for a certain low-tech, low-fuss form of tropical seclusion, an address that simple is a pretty auspicious sign. Set on a hundred acres of jungle hills rising above the Caribbean, Golden Rock is not so much an inn as an aesthete’s playground, a collaboration between the artists Helen and Brice Marden, the providentially named landscape architect Raymond Jungles, and whatever gods are responsible for supplying the unerringly pleasant climate and topography.

Placencia, on the Caribbean coast of Belize, is almost comically blessed with travel-friendly attributes: with a perfect white sand beach on one side, and a mangrove-dotted bay and lagoon on the other, it’s ideally positioned for seaside lounging with a side of dolphin-watching and rainforest exploration. It’s got all kinds of hotels, from the merest shacks to impressive luxury boutique hotels like Itz’ana Resort & Residences.

The name gives it away: the Condado Vanderbilt isn’t your typical beach resort. The oceanfront hotel, financed by the Vanderbilt family in 1919, was considered Puerto Rico’s first luxury hotel. And the Vanderbilts, of course, spared no expense — they hired the same architectural firm responsible for New York’s Grand Central Terminal. After several iterations, including extensive recent renovations and new construction to the tune of $220 million, the Condado Vanderbilt has reopened its doors under new ownership.

Las Catalinas, an adorably tiny beach village set between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean on Costa Rica’s northwest coast, is that rarest of things: a new town. Planned by Douglas Duany, a noted professor of urban design and architecture, to accentuate views of the landscape, to eliminate the need for cars — and to leave most of the wilderness well enough alone, it’s the perfect venue for the second location of Casa Chameleon.

That the Cayman Islands are home to some impressive luxury hotels is far from a novel observation. But what used to be one of the most stylistically conservative places in the Caribbean is showing a newfound fashionable side — Palm Heights, on Grand Cayman’s celebrated Seven Mile Beach, makes most of Miami Beach’s boutique hotels look a bit dowdy by comparison. It’s aimed perhaps at an entirely different generation, eschewing many of the most obvious signifiers of “luxury” and instead opting for a subtler form of glamour, offering its guests a clean-lined, modernist-inspired backdrop for living a beautifully easy life.

Aruba is the sort of place that’s managed to get by without having to take much notice of the boutique-hotel movement — picture-perfect white sand beaches and an idyllic climate mean there’s little pressure to innovate. But there are exceptions, and Boardwalk Boutique Hotel Aruba is one of them: a vibrant, colorful, eclectic boutique hotel that makes no compromises on location, set as it is amid a coconut grove just a five-minute stroll from Palm Beach.

In a place as idyllic as the Honduran island of Roatán, between the verdant jungle and the spectacular Caribbean, you don’t need all that much from your lodging — which makes a place like Ibagari Boutique Hotel such a delightful extravagance. But this place is an absolute stunner, inside and out. Long gone are the days of floral bedspreads and wicker furnishings — though the colors are sunny and tropical, Ibagari’s interiors display a modernist simplicity, not to mention a gallery-worthy art collection.

With Colombian tourism in full bloom we’re seeing hotels in Bogotá that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. Among them is Casa Legado, which is evidence that the local boutique-hotel scene has skipped right past the tentative first steps and achieved a confident, fully realized maturity. The location is Quinta Camacho, an upscale neighborhood just to the south of the central Zona T district. And the immediate venue is something special: a 1950s Art Deco house that’s been transformed into a stunning seven-room boutique hotel.

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