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Tasked with transforming disused mid-century Caledonian Sleeper cars into Britain’s only private train, interior designer Sara Oliver set about creating a portal to the golden age of travel 

St Benedict, a B&B on the East Sussex coast, has become a shrine to Victorian design thanks to its antiques-obsessed owners, Aleksandr Groves and Paul Oxborrow

For centuries now, mosques in some of Turkey’s most isolated settlements have been calling worshippers to prayer – and to admire their supremely charming interiors. Join us as we marvel at the folky, motif-heavy mihrabs and minbars

Though close to glitzy Marbella, this Andalucían farmhouse offers a laid-back retreat shaded by olive trees and magnificent palms. Designed by the late Jaime Parladé, the richly layered Alcuzcuz aims to evoke the 19th-century house built by the eminent decorator’s great-grandmother that once stood in its place

In a chic flat overlooking Central Park, decorator Thomas Jayne pairs Donald Judds with Egyptian Revival stools for a collector client

Illustrator Craig Chapman and his partner, artist Mandy Moon, run a tight ship over in their Penzance antiques shop, perennially trawling for new nautical rarities. And the couple’s home just behind it is just as appealing

The countryside of beekeeping capital Slovenia is dotted with centuries-old apiaries, often painted with satirical tales of mourning animals, shrewish peasants and ridiculed tailors

Designed for an industrialist, Casa Batlló in Barcelona shows the fiercely talented architect Antoni Gaudí at his most fantastical, with a twisting spine of a staircase, mushroom-shaped inglenooks and nary a flat surface save for the floor. First published: September 1986

What to do when the book you’ve had your eye on is out of print? Beyond the UK’s familiar high-street chains there’s a host of rare specialist shops offering first editions, signed copies, antiquarian volumes and centuries-old manuscripts

Selfridges has created a members-only shopping playground in central London, designed with fun in mind by The Future Perfect

Crawling with spiral-shelled gastropods, these vans on the Tangier seafront, sell spicy snail soup to hungry locals drawn by twinkling fairy lights

Averting his eyes from Gran Canaria’s high rises, Mr Bowles day-trips to pretty 18th-century villages and Columbus’s lodgings

Every year at the end of Ramadan, thousands of people in Nigeria’s second city show their support for the emir in the most spectacular way

Whether you’re in the market for postmodern provocations or heady scents once donned by Tsars, this is WoI’s guide to the best perfumers in Paris