You haven’t lived until you’ve slept beneath the stars

There are few lovelier spots in the world than the impossibly velvety sand shores you find on the Mozambique side of Lake Malawi. Add the opportunity to drift off under the celestial skies on one of the Lake of Stars beds at off-grid Nkwichi Lodge (named after the squeak the sand makes when you tread on it), and you’ve got the makings of a pretty perfect night. There are three Star Bed spots, including one on a deserted beach, where the staff will rustle up dinner before leaving you to luxuriate in your lovely, large bed-on-the-beach (don’t worry, princess-worthy mosquito nets come as standard).

Three different shapes collided in the making of the Sky Den, a quirky wooden cabin in a Northumberland forest that feels part treehouse, part art installation. There’s a square living room with a wilderness-facing balcony, a circular kitchen with a wood-burning stove, and a triangular-shaped bedroom with a roof that opens up to reveal the inky black night sky in all its glory.

Thanks to some of the clearest skies on the planet, the world’s first radio astronomer started broadcasting from Tasmania in 1955. Today, stargazers can head to Pumphouse Point on Australia’s deepest lake, St Clair in the central highlands, to appreciate the epic nightscapes. This extraordinary 18-room lodge inhabits a ’40s hydro-electricity pumphouse in the middle of the lake plus a lakeside building. Check into one of the 12 stylishly simple pumphouse bedrooms and watch the stars bounce off the glassy lake through floor-to-ceiling windows.