No matter how hot the weather - and when I was last in Israel last month it was well into the nineties - or how wearying the antics of other Israeli hotel chains, the minute one steps into a Dan Hotel, everything feels cool, calm, collected.

My favourite is the Dan Tel Aviv, where I've stayed four times now.

As with all the best rendezvous, being there makes you feel excited and tranquil, both at once.

Situated on the most beautiful beachfront in the world, you enter the Dan on Hayarkon Street, across from where one of the most stunning reconstructions of Bauhaus architecture is taking place. (Much of it, as it happens, is a Dan project). And such is the welcome, it's pretty sure you'll return.

The history of the Dan Tel Aviv - it was the city's first luxury hotel in 1953 - never weighs heavy on the guest, as I find it can at the Dan Tel Aviv's elder brother in Jerusalem, the King David, where stopping for the night can sometimes feel like schmoozing at a sacred site.

From the start the Dan TA has welcomed world leaders, and most recently stars of the magnitude of Madonna and Rihanna. Spacious guest rooms, restaurants and lounges offer all the amenities one needs for a comfortable stay. I've stayed at so-called seven-star hotels in other parts of the Middle East, but compared to the Dan Tel Aviv they were little more than flop-houses. This is that rarity - a place where style and substance work in perfect harmony.

RATES: from $360 (£223) per night
TEL: 00972 3 5202525