Though travel is currently restricted and the country is in lockdown, it hasn't stopped us dreaming about where we will be headed when this is all over.
Thankfully, Conde Nast (CN) has been providing some inspiration with their hot list for 2021 which names their favourite hotels from around the world for 2020.
And with Scotland sitting high on many people's travel hit list for when lockdown ends, they've named The Fife Arms in Braemar as the top Scottish offering.
The plush Highland destination was described by their reviewer as a "kind of chemistry experiment" in which "art, landscape, history, culture, fine art and a wild, occasionally surreal sense of humour are thrown together, with explosive results".
The striking hotel, which was built in the 19th century and is a category B listed building, has previously won several awards and was recently described by the Financial Times as “Scotland's Hottest Hotel”.
Designed by renowned Scottish architect Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, the former Victorian coaching inn was transformed over two years by Swiss owners Manuela and Iwan Wirth in 2018.
Featuring 46 rooms and thousands of pieces of artwork including an original Picasso and a watercolor by Queen Victoria herself, it's one of the UK's most unique hotels.
And as the CN reviewer points out, it's not just classic artworks that feature heavily, modern artistic creations play their part in the dazzling interior decor too.
They added: "The pub, the Flying Stag, actually features a flying stag – a taxidermied one with massive swan's wings – preserved in mid-leap across the counter."
Speaking about their decision to pick it as their winner, the magazine's team wrote that art-world heavyweights Manuela and Iwan, who have had previous success when they opened a gallery-restaurant-hotel in Bruton, Somerset, had "hit the bullseye again" with the Fife Arms.
They wrote: "The Fife Arms takes a familiar tartan-clad template and – with love and respect and even a kind of delicacy – blows it to smithereens.
"The Fife Arms is different, however, in that it’s primarily a hotel, not a gallery – though, with works by Picasso, Freud, Richter and so forth, you could be forgiven for thinking of it as one."
Currently closed due to the current travel restrictions and countrywide lockdown, the hotel team say they hope to reopen later this year when it is safe to do so.
