On the south side of an island off the coast of Africa, yet pleasingly accessible, the Ritz-Carlton Abama is one of the most dramatic resorts in the world, as DARIUS SANAI discovers

A perfect storm in the luxury travel world has meant the world is unrecognisably smaller than just 30 years ago. We have seen a combination of escalating numbers of high net worth individuals, a global burgeoning of high-quality airlines and operators (and private jet-friendly airports), rapidly developing destination countries and destination management organisations, spectacular new hotels and the internet to make it all transparent. And it means that what was unspeakably exotic a generation ago ? Thai beaches, or hotels on stilts in the Indian Ocean ? is mainstream now, and what was unimaginable ? bareback riding to the Angel Falls, hikes to meet isolated villagers in Papua New Guinea ? is quite feasible.
There is one destination I visited recently that could belong to both the ?hot discovery? category and the mainstream category simultaneously. I could write that I spent a week on an island mountainside, on a cliff above the ocean, facing a volcano across the sea on a quasi-uninhabited island off the west coast of Africa. That Charles Darwin took inspiration from, and wrote about, the natural wonders of the volcanic island I stayed on; that its climate is preternaturally sublime, never too hot, cold, or wet; and that stargazers congregate here for its clear, pollution-free skies.
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