Batan Island
Batanes, Philippines
The Philippines’ smallest province and northernmost island group, the Batanes lie at the confluence of the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea and process a rugged, elemental beauty that many have likened to the landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. Its inhabitants, the Ivatan, call their gale-blown islands the “Home of the Winds,” and over the centuries since the Spanish introduced them to masonry, they have constructed solid limestone houses to keep the elements at bay. The Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge (63-921/7795-8153; doubles form US$125) follows suit. Overlooking the sea from its hilltop perch on the main island of Batan, the mansion was built as the studio and home of the late Pacita Abad, one of the Philippines’ most acclaimed contemporary artists. Refurbished by her brother into an art center and the island’s first luxury hotel, it comes replete with handmade furnishings, native wood floors, and works by Ivatan painters, some of whom share in the benefits of the lodge’s community-development and conservation programs.

This article originally appeared in the June/July 2014 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Away from It All”).