Where can I find a comprehensive list or guide to small, luxury hotels throughout the world?

There are very few publications that incorporate global hotel guides, as most are country or continent specific. However, Hip Hotels Escape and Hip Hotels City by Herbert Ypma (Thames and Hudson £18.95) and A Place to Stay by Shelley Maree Cassidy (Conran Octopus £12.99) all contain some extraordinary and wonderful hotels across the globe. The hotel marketing group Relais & Châteaux has members in over 30 countries, all of which are independently owned hotels. Their recent marketing alliance with Leading Hotels of the World has incorporated an even wider choice of international hotels. Look at their web site www.relaischateaux.fr. Small Luxury Hotels of the World also has a great selection of hotels in over 20 countries and their website can be found at www.slh.com.

Now the skiing season has started, could you direct me towards ski sites on the Internet?

The following sites offer a wide range of information for skiers worldwide. www.complete-skier.com is packed with useful tips on the best resorts throughout Europe and the United States, as well as travel tips and up-to-the-minute snow reports. www.myswitzerland.com is the official Swiss tourism site and has a large section devoted to winter sports and Swiss ski resorts. www.Iski.com covers all the American ski resorts and has useful sections dedicated to the family and skiing equipment. Interactive magazine's web site, www.interactivemagazines.com, covers the main resorts in Europe with accommodation, travel and snow reports. For a general report on the world's top ski resorts read the Extravagance feature.

I am looking for interesting places to visit in 2001 and I particularly want to time my visits with special events and festivals. Do you know of a reliable source of information that could help me plan an itinerary?

The best place to look is on the Internet and the most reliable source of information I have found is the www.whatsonwhere.com web site. It lists events from all around the world and includes dates, details and contacts. It should be an extremely useful aid from which to plan your itinerary.

I would like to find out information and rates for hotels in Germany