As my team and I were updating our hotel rating definitions, it got me thinking about the properties at the very pinnacle of our recommendations. We have five establishments rated at 99 points, as close to perfection as a hotel can get. These are “the rare hotel[s] where I could happily spend the rest of my life.”

What strikes me about the properties in this august group is how disparate they are. These remarkable hotels and resorts would seem to have little in common with one another. Their styles and surroundings are all completely different. Yet to me, they each seem like a patch of heaven on earth.

Here is the list, starting in Morocco and working our way east.