Every villa is perched on stilts above calm, crystal clear waters, so you're never more than a few steps away from a refreshing swim

There are only two rules at the Soneva Gili resort in the Maldives and, trust us, after a few minutes here you won’t mind following either: 1) No shoes allowed and 2) No news of the outside world.

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Visit the site of the Whitepod ski resort in the Swiss Alps between April and November and what you’ll see of it is . . . nothing.

You’ll see no roads. No electrical wires. No place to stay. Just a 19th century farmhouse and a pristine alpine meadow that’s just begging for some von Trapp kids to twirl around in it Sound Of Music style. The views of the snow peaks from this place 1,700 meters (5,600 feet) above the oceans might be the grandest untouched mountain vista in Europe. “Untouched” being the key word.

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Spot Cool Stuff loves a good safari lodge, one that’s inviting and is in tune with its natural surroundings. Somehow candlelit dinners are more romantic when they are on a wood deck overlooking a river with crocodiles and hippos. Cold drinks taste better when you are looking out at lions and giraffes in the heat of the day. Beds are more comfortable when they double as a refuge in the middle of an animal-filled wilderness.

Spot Cool Stuff also loves South Africa, a wondrous country that has more diversity of culture and landscape than most people imagine.

So it was an easy decision to write up two posts that combine our twin passions for South Africa and safari lodges.

In this, the first of our two-part series, we check out seven luxurious safari lodges. If you’re looking for a resort to celebrate a special occasion, or if you have access to an expense account or a Visa Black card, consider a stay at one of these WOW-inducing digs that combine luxury with some of the best game viewing in Africa.

In our next South Africa post we’ll focus on our favorite budget safari lodges. To stay updated on that (and all the other travel goings at Spot Cool Stuff) get an Amazon Kindle subscription or subscribe to our RSS feed and get our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator.

And with that, here’s to luxury in the middle of South African wilderness:

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We’re not sure what the antithesis of a freewheeling Caribbean beach experience would be, but a faux European castle has to come close. Yet, somehow, those two opposites successfully come together in the unlikely Blue Cave Castle Resort.

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Were you to spot the plane from the beach below you could be forgiven for believing it had crash-landed there, like a scene from some Costa Rican version of 'Lost'

At the Stockholm airport there’s a hotel in a refurbished Boeing 747. An airplane hotel at an airport—we can see some logic in that. But what’s a Boeing 727 surrounded by thick jungle, overlooking the Pacific in Costa Rica, doing doubling as a hotel?

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You are planning your honeymoon, or a trip celebrating some other special occasion, and you are looking for a hotel room that is as special as the reason for your travels. You want to find a resort with accommodations that cause you to gasp WOW, that will make you say to yourself “I’ve never stayed in a room this nice before. I might never stay at a room this nice again.”

In the Caribbean, the room you are looking for is at the Jade Mountain Resort.

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You like camping but your partner does not. The Treebones Resort, on California’s Big Sur coast, offers the perfect romantic getaway for you both. Accommodations here are in yurts, large circular tents originally the domain of Central Asian nomads and made of sheepskin.

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The resort also has a massive indoor pool complete with waterfalls, jet massages and a beach with heated sand.

You know a swimming pool is big when an average swimmer is unable to complete a single lap within it. And when this swimmer is likely to be passed by a sailboat while trying.

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