Heritage Suites Hotel

A super-stylish hotel with magical suites and a salt-water pool, where privacy abounds

Everything here is a treat. This sublime hotel blends French colonial cool with slick contemporary design and adds a layer of Indochinese chic for good measure. Inside, airy high-ceilinged interiors reveal a brushed chrome bar backed by sparkling mirrors and a galleried restaurant wrapped up in glass. Wander through perfectly manicured grounds (banana leaves are fanned out exquisitely on whitewashed walls) and discover a fabulous pool, with a bar on one side and padded loungers flanking the water, where you can eat out in good weather.

Best of all are the rooms. Most are suites – and you really want to try for one of these as they were the loveliest rooms we saw in town. They come complete with very private gardens where you can shower in the shade of palm trees, and with contemporary stone baths standing in the middle of each room. The hotel also has its own tour company offering tailor-made adventure trips. Try mountain-biking through the forest into Angkor’s secret temples or live it up with a Champagne cruise on the Tonle Sap, Asia’s largest freshwater lake.

Highs

• The bungalow suites are seriously spoiling: fabulous beds, steam rooms and power showers, private gardens and massive stone baths
• The pool terrace, with its smart loungers, lush gardens and staff on hand to fix you a drink.
• This is a very private place: if you’re looking to be left in peace, you will be here

Lows

• You’re not that far from centre of town, but you’re not really close enough to walk and the immediate residential area is somewhat ordinary
• Rooms come without TVs (available on request), music systems (bring your own, although the hotel plays music throughout) and mini-bars (they bring everything to you)
• The façade of the main house is pretty enough, but somehow it conceals the scope and style of what lies beyond