Alicekusv

Though it’s a sleek, modern hotel with impeccable high-tech hardware in its 185 rooms, Raffles’ address in Istanbul still channels the city’s Byzantine charm and mystery. Chalk it up to the gorgeous views from almost every room and lush Turkish textiles, handicrafts (like pierced metal-and-glass similar to those found in the Blue Mosque), and dramatic, oversized framed photos of its most famous sites. Set in the central Besiktas neighborhood on the European side, the Raffles puts guests right on top of an array of shopping and dining options, and you can see the Bosphorus from many of the rooms.

Spread across two buildings—20 suites in the beautifully restored 1911 Shanghai Club, 252 rooms and suites in the newly built tower—this hotel is a magnificent homage to Shanghai’s swank European past. In addition to opulent colonial-style suites (poster beds, walk-in closets, claw-foot tubs), the old building, now called the Waldorf Astoria Club, has a jaw-dropping 110-foot-long bar with Bund views. Rooms are neoclassical—pale-green linen wallpaper, matching silk bedcovers, and carpets with swirling flower motifs—but have all the mod cons, as well as a bathroom where a TV is embedded in the mirror and the Japanese-style toilet has water jets.

At this stately Vancouver Island hotel only three miles from downtown Victoria, it’s not uncommon to look out from your balcony or from the waterfront mineral pools and see pods of orcas swimming close to the shore. The 100-room hotel is inspired by an English manor house, complete with Tudor-influenced architectural touches and a charming pub serving halibut tempura and seafood chowder. While the property and the surrounding seaside village may evoke the old world, the Boathouse Spa is firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest thanks to treatments that incorporate seaweed and marine clay.

Perhaps the most celeb-beloved hotel in London, the building lives up to the hype: it’s a flouncy, fiery red-brick former fire station between trendy Marylebone High Street and Baker Street. The 26 rooms go all-out with retro British glamor, super-luxe beds with custom-made sheets, working fireplaces, and heated bathroom floors, and all but two rooms have working gas fireplaces. The restaurant—usually booked up months in advance—holds back tables for hotel guests (order the crab-stuffed donuts with wasabi and chopped egg).

Legend holds that on his pilgrimage across Asia, the Buddha stopped to rest where the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers merge, in the middle of what we now know as Luang Prabang. He prophesied that a rich and powerful metropolis would rise along these banks. Though that apex only lasted from the 14th to the 16th century, this Kingdom of a Million Elephants lived on for architect Bill Bensley, who celebrated this era at Rosewood’s low-slung riverside retreat. Minimalist it is not. Hilltop tents overflow with romantic touches—chubby camp beds, clawfoot tubs, silk and velvet accents. At riverfront villas, the rush of water somersaulting over time-smoothed boulders acts as nature’s alarm clock for an early morning meditation with monk-in-residence Sommaiy. Deep community ties mean guests take tea with Tiao Somsanith Nithakhong, a local royal turned patron of lost Lao arts, or join a procession of 800 saffron-clad novices gliding through rice fields and primary forests for a private blessing ceremony. Rosewood’s elephant figurine–festooned cocktail bar is a delightful aerie arched over the waterfall, and make sure to ask to see the secret boutique, stocked with finds like kaleidoscopic scarves woven by a cooperative of young disabled Laotians who are some of the town’s most promising artisans.

Pioneering female architect Lilian J. Rice drew on Spanish, Cuban, and Mexican adobe inspirations when designing the original 1923 guesthouse in the hills outside San Diego; in the intervening 90-plus years, the property has expanded into a 21-acre country retreat with new cottages, a spa, “coastal ranch” cuisine, and a whiskey bar inspired by the old Santa Fe Hunt Club. Guests can hit the tennis courts, join a yoga class, book a spa treatment, or play a round at the Max Behr-designed Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, which opened in 1929 and is set to complete extensive renovations this November.

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.