Bathing beauties; Two new hotels get ready for the fashion set, reports Richard Alleman.

Byline: Richard Alleman

The debut of the Tortuga Bay hotel, on the beach-blessed east coast of the Dominican Republic, is making waves in all the right places. Situated within the exclusive Puntacana Resort & Club, an ultraprivate compound of glamorous villas owned by the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, this new boutique hotel boasts not only a perfect location but also interiors by Dominican-born designer and Puntacana home owner Oscar de la Renta.

"I wanted guests to feel as if they were in my home," de la Renta says of the property, where the challenge was "to keep things simple so as not to interfere with the beauty of the environment." To that effect, de la Renta has mixed locally crafted mahogany and rattan furniture with handsome fabrics of his own design. Guests are further pampered at Tortuga Bay by a personal villa manager and have the use of a golf cart throughout their stay to take advantage of the Puntacana Resort & Club's extensive facilities, which include a golf course, nine restaurants, a marina, stables, and some three miles of white-sand beaches.

The new hotel has its own elegant restaurant-also designed by de la Renta and featuring spicy Dominican cuisine-and the use of Puntacana's Six Senses Spa. For de la Renta, however, "our biggest asset is the friendliness of the Dominican people. Now that can be experienced in a luxurious but comfortable environment." Summer rates at Tortuga Bay start at $650 for a one-bedroom suite; (888) 442-2262, or visit puntacana.com.

A volcanic world of stark beauty tucked between Sicily and Tunisia-and a secret escape for Madonna, Julia Roberts, and Giorgio Armani-Pantelleria is virtually a natural spa with thermal rock pools, crater lakes, and cave "saunas." The exclusive Italian island also offers excellent diving, deep-sea ...