Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby Episode Rating Graph

Return of the series exploring extraordinary hostelries. Giles Coren and Monica Galetti explore one of the world's most luxurious eco resorts on the small island of Tetiaroa in French Polynesia. Surrounded by a beautiful coral reef and an abundance of marine life, they work alongside staff of the exclusive Brando Resort to serve five-star luxury to guests paying up to £11,000 per a night.

Monica Galetti and Giles Coren visit Jade Mountain, a hand-built hotel in St Lucia where each room has no outer wall and so is open to the ocean view - as well as having its own private infinity pool. Giles finds that room service here is tougher than it seems, and Monica dives for lionfish, which they both serve to guests visiting especially to have their wedding on the beach.

Giles Coren and Monica Galetti head to the foothills of the Swiss Alps to experience a very different type of travel - health and wellness tourism. The Grand Resort Bad Ragaz houses not only multiple restaurants, spas and golf courses but also Olympic-standard sports facilities - and a high-spec clinic boasting 80 medical staff, who offer guests everything from sleep therapy to dietary advice and surgery.

Monica and Giles hop across to Ireland to scale the imposing and ancient ramparts of Ashford Castle. Founded 800 years ago & set in 350 acres, it later became the family home of the Guinness family. With the help of hotel historian, Fintan, Giles discovers that the castle has had a rollercoaster journey through the centuries, sporadically reaching moments of real jeopardy, only to be saved by a turn of events or new owners. As recently as 2011, the hotel went into receivership but was bought in the nick of time and, after undergoing a £50 million restoration, has the ambition to be the best hotel in the world.

Giles and Monica discover a unique hotel in Kenya where giraffe, guests and staff all co-exist. They then visit the Sasaab Lodge a 6-acre plot set within 82,000 acres of land owned by the Samburu tribe who receive a fee for each guest.

Giles Coren and Monica Galetti visit a hotel in South Africa that has been built into a 187-foot tall former grain silo and which also incorporates a museum of contemporary art. They are challenged to wash the building's 96 windows inside and out, and discover how staff have coped with the challenge of keeping the place clean in the wake of the worst drought to hit Cape Town in a century.

Giles and Monica join the 9,500 staff working at one of the world's largest hotels. As well as viewing some of the facilities on offer they go behind the scenes to see the parts of the hotel guests never see.

Monica Galetti and Giles Coren stay in the city they live in to work at the Shangri-La Hotel, in Britain's highest hotel. Their expectations of a standard business guest experience are blown away by discovering a hotel that makes guests' personal moments special. From bath butlers to marriage proposals, the hotel is a resort for celebrations in the clouds.

Giles and Monica visit Mashpi Lodge in the Ecuadorian rainforest which features a gondola cable car to transport guests through the forest canopy. The pair learn how eco-tourism is saving endangered species.

Monica and Giles travel to the self-governing Chinese city of Macau, which is the gambling capital of the world, welcoming millions of Chinese visitors every year. Joining the 6,000 staff of its newest super-hotel, the MGM Cotai, Monica gets special access to The Mansion, a secret VIP world of huge suites where even money can’t buy a stay. Giles flies through the air in one of the world’s most technologically advanced theatres and helps create the floral displays for Chinese New Year.

Giles Coren and Monica Galetti travel to South America to work in Vira Vira, a hacienda hotel that overlooks an active volcano near Pucon, the adventure capital of Chile. Giles and Monica prepare a meal for guests, go trekking through the Chilean forests on horseback and hear how the chef has an abundance of Chilean produce for his recipes. Last in the series.

Get ready to experience luxury, glamor and contemporary chic. If you can find it. As Monica Galetti and Giles Coren learn in this unique travel documentary for BBC Select, Croatia's Grand Park is a design classic that blends into the incredible scenery that surrounds it. Art and high cuisine come with a Croatian edge. But will Monica be able to learn how to clean Europe’s biggest glass window?

Nusfjord Arctic Resort is a 200-year-old cod fishing village in the Lofoten Islands of Norway. Working alongside the dedicated team, Monica and Rob learn to appreciate the difficulties of running a high-end resort in such an extreme environment in this revealing travel documentary. Battling snowy paths, facing huge waves on fishing boats and chasing the Northern Lights is all in a day's work.

Genuine Berber hospitality and spectacular views of the breathtaking landscape make to Kasbah Tamadot in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco unique. And as Monica Galetti and Rob Rinder discover in this opulent travel documentary, they also have Sir Richard Branson as their boss! Monica helps the chef source local produce while Rob mucks out the hotel stables and guides guests on a mountain trek.

The astonishing Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort, deep in a Middle Eastern desert, conjures up many questions. How do you build a luxury hotel in such an inhospitable place? And why? In this envy-inducing travel documentary for BBC Select, Giles Coren and Monica Galetti investigate unmitigated splendor amongst the sand dunes and scorching heat. But how do the staff cope in this harsh environment?

How you deliver a genuine version of Italy in a carefully designed replica? Monica Galetti and Rob Rinder go behind the scenes of Borgo Egnazia, a hotel modelled on Puglia's historical local villages in this travel documentary. Monica makes focaccia for the cherry festival with chef Rocco, while Rob meets the decoration team who work hard to deliver an experience that blends reality with theatre.

The highlands of central Sri Lanka are a forbidding landscape, but guests can still get a luxury experience. In this charming travel documentary, Monica and Rob learn about the Ceylon Tea Trails; a series of bungalows that have been renovated by a local family. Monica works with the tea pickers and learns the importance of the industry, while Rob tracks leopards in the surrounding plantations.

Giles and Monica's final stop-off takes them 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle into Swedish Lapland. Giles joins the artists who craft the rooms from huge blocks of ice while Monica meets the hotel's 82-year-old reindeer-meat supplier.

In the second episode, Giles and Monica travel to the Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar in Oman. It is the highest five-star hotel in the Middle East and a resort seeking to blend local tradition with modern tastes. Built to resemble an ancient Omani fort, and situated 2,000 metres above sea level on the rim of a dramatic canyon, the hotel has recently made the most of its location by constructing a jaw-dropping via ferrata and zip-wire rope course along the cliff edge. Led by the hotel's mountain guru Maher, Giles and Monica undertake a test-run of the stunning adventure course before it opens to guests, facing 30-metre drops and Giles's prolific fear of heights.

Joali offers guests a luxury experience despite its remote location, but how does the Maldivian resort manage it? Monica Galetti and Rob Rinder travel by seaplane to find out in this fascinating travel documentary. Rob discovers hidden workers in the island’s center, while Monica uncovers how food is supplied to the chefs. They realize that delivering paradise is like a giant theatre production.