In the forested hills above Luang Prabang, architect Bill Bensley has conjured something wonderfully eccentric: a 23-room resort that reimagines a 19th-century French colonial hill station, complete with safari-style tents perched in the treetops. The property sprawls across both banks of the Nam Dong River, connected by a bridge that …
From the street, El Palacito Secreto looks unassuming, just another modest colonial facade tucked into the historic heart of Merida. You would never guess what awaits inside. But the moment you step through the entrance, the ordinary world dissolves. What emerges is something far more extravagant: a sprawling, meticulously designed …
A neoclassical church with 60-foot vaulted ceilings and patinated copper doors now houses one of Washington DC's most distinctive hotels. The LINE DC transformed a century-old First Church of Science into a boutique property that actually feels like it belongs in its Adams Morgan neighborhood – complete with an in-house …
Wake to manta rays gliding through turquoise water 150 meters below your bamboo bed. This is glamping at its most audacious – a sustainable bungalow perched on Nusa Penida's dramatic eastern cliffs, where you can shower with ocean views, lounge in a net suspended over the void, and watch nature's …
Imagine an island where 50,000 pieces of bamboo were woven into villas perched among granite boulders, where dolphins occasionally drift past at breakfast, and where the biggest decision you'll face is whether to watch the sunrise or sunset from your private plunge pool. This is Cempedak, a 17-hectare Indonesian hideaway …
Spain's 98th parador took nearly two decades to build, rising from the ruins of an environmental catastrophe to become something genuinely special. Perched above a white sand beach on the Costa da Morte – the "Coast of Death," named for its countless shipwrecks – this glass and zinc structure disappears …
A place that opens with "We're not a wellness fortress with animated breakfast buffets" is making a specific promise. At Zu Kirchwies, a small chalet village in Laion, South Tyrol, you won't find golden taps or petting-zoo charm. What you will find: Scottish Highland cattle wandering the property, a family …
In the 1890s, this building on Robertson Quay was ground zero for Singapore's red-light district, a hub for opium dens, gambling houses, and Chinese secret societies who demanded 36 sacred oaths from new recruits. The street was known in Hokkien as "Chiu Long Lo" – Spirits Shed Street – after …
Standing a mere 20 feet from the Grand Canyon's edge, El Tovar has been perched on this precipice since 1905, when the notion of building a luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere was either visionary or mad. Theodore Roosevelt stayed here. So did Albert Einstein. The dining room still …
Forget the beaches – Thailand's landlocked Khao Yai National Park offers something the coast can't: a transparent rooftop pool where you swim seemingly suspended above forested peaks. Hotel MYS Khao Yai, a five-star property on Thanaratch Road, brings Scandinavian minimalism to the heart of the country's oldest national park, a …
Sea Containers London isn't trying to be your typical boutique hotel. Housed in what looks like an unremarkable 1970s office block on the South Bank, this 359-room property goes all-in on its transatlantic cruise liner theme, complete with copper-plated walls that curve like a vintage ship's hull and four new …
In Marrakech's fashionable Golden Triangle, a towering Japanese bonsai tree rises from the center of a circular lobby, setting the tone for one of the more intriguing hotel experiments in North Africa. Nobu Hotel Marrakech took over an existing building in 2022 and transformed it into something that sits comfortably …
Sitting on a hillside above one of the world's smallest capitals, Hotel Føroyar doesn't just offer views of Tórshavn – it practically is the view. This is where international football teams crash after matches, where visiting musicians decompress, and where you can walk barefoot through rain and drizzle to reach …
There is a small wooden cabin perched on the edge of the forest on Mount Fløyen, above the rooftops of Bergen, Norway, and it will cost you absolutely nothing to spend the night in it. The catch? You have to have a child under 12, you can only stay once …
Imagine sipping a gin and tonic by the pool when a herd of elephants ambles up to drink from it. This is the reality at Somalisa Camp, tucked into a private corner of Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, where the line between luxury and wilderness blurs in the most spectacular way. …
There's a button on the door of your room at Huus Quell that cuts the Wi-Fi. It's a small thing, but it tells you everything about what Jan Schoch is going for here. The founder of Switzerland's first tech unicorn, a former Goldman Sachs man who spent years on Wall …
Sitting on the edge of the Indian Ocean in Umhlanga, The Oyster Box is the kind of place where you can start your morning with unlimited oysters and sparkling wine at breakfast, spend your afternoon learning to make proper Durban curry, and end your evening with a cigar in a …
In the shadow of the Valley of the Kings, on Luxor's west bank, sits a hotel that feels like stumbling into someone's private fantasy. Al Moudira sprawls across ten hectares of palm groves and gardens, a maze of 54 suites scattered around ten courtyards, each one different from the next. …
There are places that make you question why you ever settled for ordinary vacations, and Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island is one of them. This nine-suite retreat sits at the foot of two volcanic peaks that tower over the world's southernmost coral reef, on an island so pristine that …
The road in has 29 switchbacks and occasionally gets buried by snowstorms. The walls are covered in autographed photos of skiing legends. There are no televisions in the rooms. And yet people come back here, year after year, for generations. Hotel Portillo, the iconic yellow and blue fortress perched at …