After winning several international awards last year, Ashford Castle and Ballyfin Demesne have been named in a list of the best 100 hotels in the world by influential travel magazine, Travel and Leisure.
Ballyfin (pictured) in Co. Laois was ranked 39th on the list, finishing ahead of Co. Mayo's Ashford Castle in 59th place.
Late last year, in a remarkable showing for Irish luxury hotels, Ballyfin was been named the world's best hotel at the Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards 2016, where it was joined in the top 10 by two other Irish hotels: Waterford Castle was in seventh place and The Lodge at Ashford Castle in ninth.
Elsewhere in the 'Travel and Leisure's 2017 World's Best Awards', Nihi Sumba Island (formerly Nihiwatu) in Indonesia was named as the best hotel in the world, with hotels in French Polynesia, USA, New Zealand, Tanzania, South Africa and Argentina making up the top ten.
A survey by Travel and Leisure invited readers to vote for their favourite hotels, cities, hotels, airlines, transportation and more between November of last year and March of this year.
