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Opened in 1910 as the Bellevue Hotel, the downtown Beaux-Arts building has a long history of welcoming visitors to San Francisco. But when it re-opened in 2018 with a fresh redesign by Perkins + Will, a new era began. The rooms are decorated with expressive pops of color, statement walls, and a collection of furniture that seems to know no decade. Active travelers will be glad to hear that each room comes with its own yoga mat, and free bike rentals help you cruise around and explore the city with ease.

Surrounded by the most splendid gardens on the Amalfi Coast, this historic Ravello property can trace its origins back to the 11th century. The villa was largely rebuilt in the early 1900s by Lord Grimthorpe (an English co-designer of Big Ben), and it soon attracted the likes of Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo, and E.M. Forster. The sumptuously decorated suites include vaulted ceilings, Majolica tile floors, and cheerful frescoes. Michelin-starred restaurant Il Flauto di Pan serves elegant twists on homestyle local dishes, such as white rabbit ragù and marinated Cetara anchovies. But the villa’s simplest delight is also its most spectacular: Gore Vidal once said that the view from the garden’s belvedere was the most beautiful place in the world.

After a three-year renovation, the former Austrian Hungarian Monarchy Bank headquarters located in Vienna’s Goldenes Quartier was transformed into the first Hyatt hotel in Austria. The 143 rooms are some of the largest in Vienna, and the location—within walking distance of St. Stephen’s Cathedral and surrounded by some of Vienna’s best shopping—makes this a luxury hotel that guests can certainly bank on.

Powder hounds got a new reason to cheer when Gravity Haus, a 60-room ski-in/ski-out boutique hotel, opened in 2019 at the base of Breckenridge Ski Resort’s Peak 9. The lobby has an Alpine-sleek aesthetic: hardwood herringbone floors, a roaring fire in a clean-lined hearth, lofted ceilings with pendant lights, and wood-paneled walls. Guest rooms have a modern lodge appeal, wood and plaid throws, a simple desk for the unavoidable work check-in, and an emphasis on eco-awareness, like WinkBed mattresses and natural bath products from EO Essential Oils. The hotel is part lodging, part social club, and 100 percent focused on catering to a certain type of hard-charging, outdoor enthusiast. There’s a fitness and sport-recovery center and lanes for duckpin bowling, plus a co-working space, coffee shop and restaurant, and even a Japanese-inspired onsen.

Beautiful Lake Como is surrounded by the Alps, and the villas along the shoreline are amazing feats of architecture. You can take a boat trip around the lake to learn about the history of the estates, which belong to the likes of the Heinz family, Versace, and, of course, George and Amal Clooney. If you don’t have your own megamansion, Villa d’Este is the place to stay: It’s a classic hotel with 25 acres of gardens that are absolutely immaculate, and it’s so treasured in Italy that it was declared a World Heritage Site. A favorite feature is the hotel's pool, which sits on a platform in the lake and is a major place for Italians (and Hollywood heavyweights) to see and be seen.

Tucked away amid the quiet, tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession, this is much more than a luxury hotel. It’s actually a cultural preservation zone—an innovative restoration of the Xuhui District’s last remaining cluster of 1930s-era shikumen townhouses, where traders and expats dwelled in the city’s golden era. In preserving this piece of Shanghai’s cultural heritage, Capella Hotels & Resorts has created its own gateway to the city’s cosmopolitan past. Under the auspices of Jaya International Design, the complex of over 200 townhouses, connected by tiny lanes, has been transformed into an urban resort of 55 luxurious villas and 40 private residences, still linked around shared courtyards and secret gardens, and now enclosing a transformative spa and wellness center (named Auriga, for the constellation in which the Capella star sits).

This hotel has the ability to transport you to a relaxing oasis miles from the hustle and bustle of busy Dallas, despite being in the middle of Uptown. The spa and pool make it hard to beat, while a 2018 renovation has left the rooms and suites with incredible interior design and abundant natural light, via floor-to-ceiling windows. Food and drink is on point with the Dallas outpost of Nobu and stellar cocktails at Beau Nash.