Hotel Palafitte - Japanese Minimalism In Over-Water Bungalows

When most people picture Santorini hotels, they imagine pristine white buildings cascading down cliffsides like sugar cubes. Kivotos Santorini throws that postcard image out the window with a dramatic flourish. Painted entirely in volcanic black and charcoal gray, this boutique retreat in Imerovigli looks like Batman's vacation home - and …

Step off a Shinkansen bullet train in Kyoto and you can find yourself, two minutes later, in a lobby that feels like a meditation retreat designed by a modernist architect. The Thousand Kyoto, which opened in 2019, sits practically next door to the city's main railway station (Kyoto Station), yet …

Walking into HOTEL TAVINOS Kyoto feels like stepping through the pages of a manga. The walls explode with illustrations of sumo wrestlers, traditional bathhouses, and moon-viewing scenes - all rendered in the bold, playful style that has made Japanese comics a global phenomenon. This isn't your typical business hotel. Since …

Picture this: you're sipping a cocktail surrounded by whitewashed walls and blue-domed architecture, but instead of the Aegean Sea stretching before you, it's the Indonesian waters where Komodo dragons patrol their ancient territory. The Loccal Collection Hotel in Labuan Bajo has committed fully to this geographical identity crisis, and somehow, …

What started as a house-hunting expedition in 2002 has morphed into one of Morocco's most photographed properties. Howell James and Vanessa Branson thought they were buying a holiday home in Marrakech's ancient medina. Instead, they accidentally acquired a string of crumbling buildings that would become El Fenn – a maximalist …

Iceland's tourism innovations never cease to amaze. What could possibly be better than watching the colorful Aurora Borealis from a comfy, traditionally designed room in a log house? An environmentally friendly houseboat that can be "installed" anywhere without harming nature! So, you can get up close to places where you …

The world's largest coral reef system is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef consists of 2900 reefs and 900 islands, and it's one of the biggest natural spectacles in the world. At this natural wonder, Cruise Whitsundays launched a unique pontoon in 2019, right before …

Going off the grid is today's hype and a natural evolution of human civilization into self-sustainability. So producing your own energy by going off-grid is great, but how about going off-land? Yes, the Australian Lilypad, about an hour north of Sydney, has just done that. They took a cute cottage, …

The solar-powered and self-sufficient capsules by Athenea float on water. It's the brainchild of naval architect Jean-Michel Ducancelle, who was inspired by the floating saucer in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. These eco-luxe pods take hotel suites to a whole new level. They can be installed …

The Rijnhaven, with its floating forest and the iconic Rijnhaven Bridge, is one of the oldest ports of the Nieuwe Maas River, dating back to 1895. Wikkelboats launched a small hotel with just four tiny floating houses in this quirky part of Rotterdam. The sustainable water houses offer unique accommodation …