Just back from the newly opened Aman Sveti Stefan (www.amanresorts.com) in Montenegro, which is  such an iconic and beautiful place.  The hotel is on the island of Sveti Stefan, which is attached to the mainland by a narrow isthmus.  A fortified fishing village in the 1400s, it was converted by Tito into a hotel in the 1950s and became a high-profile destination amongst celebrities from the fashion and entertainment worlds, graced by the likes of Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  Amanresorts have been painstakingly restoring the island since 2007.  Above is a view of the island.

Here’s a peek at one of the resort’s  suites:

The resort has Aman’s trademark understated elegant style combined with original walls and features that have been carefully preserved during the renovation so guests still get a strong sense of the island’s history.

We did managed to tear ourselves away from the resort’s cliff-top swimming pool to visit Skadar Lake, which is a huge inland lake bordering Albania.  The countryside was mountainous and completely unspoilt.  We kayaked through the lily pads and swam in the lake.  Look at this – it looks like remote China.

Writing in the Financial Times on 4 June 2011, here’s what Claire Wrathall said about Aman Sveti Stefan:

“I found Sveti Stefan a place of strange enchantment.  I loved the fig-scented air; the pellucid light; the peace (except when the wind howls and the waves crash); the sense of history, of all this rock has witnessed and endured.  But most of all I loved the optimism that seemed to abound.”