North Adams, Massachusetts was an industrial town. Then it became a museum town. With the recent opening of Tourists, it can now call itself a cutting-edge boutique hotel town.
Tourists Welcome
Big Things Are Happening in the Berkshires
Executive Decision
Our CEO Selects Her Top Hotels for 2021
On January 1, Lucy Lieberman took over as the CEO of Tablet. She wanted to take a moment to introduce herself via the thing we care about most: hotels. Here are a dozen new Tablet hotels that she’s most excited about for the coming year.
Cousteau
A Luxury Resort and Legacy of Conservation
Fiji is known for palm trees, warm crystal blue seas, coral reefs, and soft sandy beaches. It’s also known for the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, a luxury island experience and meticulous model of sustainability created by the son of legendary undersea explorer Jacques.
Arrival Date: 2021
New Destinations You Should Visit This Year
When a location gets its first Tablet hotel, it’s a good bet that something important is happening there — that a destination has been born. So when it came time to give our picks for where you should travel in 2021, it was only natural that new Tablet hotels drove our selection.
Bright Future
Our 20 Favorite New Hotels of 2020
Tablet doesn’t play favorites with the hotels on our site. But the writers of the Agenda have a little something called “editorial independence.” Here, as a signal to brighter days ahead for travel, are our favorite new hotels added to the Tablet selection in the past year.
Holy War
Sacred Meets Profane at Kruisherenhotel
A 15th-century Dutch monastery has been infiltrated by modernity: bursting with quirk, bordering on sacrilegious. But the old building has the ultimate defense. Should the government decide, every contemporary flourish in the hotel must be broken down and disappeared in just 90 days.
Room for a Day
Hotels Are Happy to Host Your Workday
You could be king for a day. You could be queen for a day. But what if there was something better? What if you could work from a hotel room for a day? And not just any hotel room, but a luxurious, high-design hotel room?
Modern Spin
Mexico’s Hotels Take a Fresh Look at Tradition
In so many of its most exciting hotels, Mexico has mastered the art of marrying traditional forms with modern designs, creating the perfect blend of old-world charm and present-day progress.
Presents of Mind
Gifts That Take You Where Your Body Can’t Go
While corona kept our bodies from going on any big getaways this year, there’s still time to send our minds on a trip to the destinations we most desire — via our stomachs. We canvassed our staff and correspondents around the world for the foods that remind them most of home.
Surf and Safari
An Inviting Variety of Hotels in Sri Lanka
The most remarkable thing about Sri Lanka might just be the incredible variety that’s packed into such a compact island. The hotels are no exception.
Torchbearers
The Next Generation of Hotel Designers
We’re profiling a handful of members of a new wave of hotel designers. They’re carrying forward the influence of the legendary boutique hotel visionaries who came before them — and they’re hoping to revolutionize hospitality in the same way as those earlier design pioneers.
Clear Eyes
A View of Venice Through Gardens and Gates
A year ago Venice was devastated by some of the worst flooding in the city’s history. At the time, we wrote about the rising tides and the raft of other problems plaguing the town. Our Italian editor recently paid a visit and what she saw left her hopeful for a future that we hadn’t been so sure about.
Lions in Winter
Small American Hotels With Big Seasonal Demand
For some in the U.S., winter is a chance to dive deep into the welcoming arms of colder weather. For others, it’s a chance to go south and get warm. And yet for another group, it’s a chance to (finally) find a room at off-season destinations. Here we’ve got something for everyone.
Cruel Summer
Inside the Halting of the Hotel Industry
Few industries have been impacted by COVID-19 like the hotel industry. As the virus spread, and confusion along with it, nobody was sure exactly what to do. We spoke with a handful of hotel owners and operators to find out how they handled what turned out to be an unprecedented summer.
Story Is Everything
Aman Knows the Power of an Idea
Among luxury hotel chains, Aman stands apart by offering much more than just unparalleled levels of service, quality, and detail. First and foremost, each Aman hotel tells the unique story of its setting and surroundings.
Unprecedented
A Hotel in Paris Was Never Meant to Close
On March 16, as France announced its COVID-19 lockdown, the C.O.Q. Hotel in Paris closed its doors. Thing is, not every hotel is meant to be closed. A city hotel like C.O.Q. is meant to welcome guests day and night through the workweek, weekends, and holidays. There was no precedent. “We aren’t supposed to cut off the water or electricity,” explained manager Florian Bitker. “We don’t even have a secure front door.”
Running Down a Dream
Diary of a First-Time Hotel Manager
Rebecca Schönheit is back to share part two of her story about leaving Berlin and starting life over on a tiny island in the North Sea. That’s where she and her husband decided to take on the job of managing a hotel — despite having no prior hospitality industry experience. Nevertheless, they have big dreams of getting their proud little place up to Tablet standards.
Passport Queens
Statement Junky’s Mission to Change the World
At Statement Junky, a nonprofit development organization for young women of color, founder Rashell Evans seeks to introduce participants to the benefits of seeing the world — and give them the tools to, ultimately, change it.
Life Less Ordinary
It’s Not Unusual to Stay at Unusual Hotels
At Tablet, when we call a hotel “unusual” it’s the highest form of praise. It means that there are no other hotels quite like it. It’s singular, and it stands apart from the status quo. It’s not unusual to want every hotel to be a little unusual — like the fourteen exciting examples featured here.
Falling in Love with Italy
A Black American Finds Home Abroad
Stranger’s Guide is a quarterly publication that reveals the intricacies of locales across the globe, through both local and foreign eyes. We’re big fans, and we’re excited to announce that we’ll be sharing some of their stories in the Agenda. We start with a unique perspective on Rome from Saneta deVuono-powell, which can be found in the latest Stranger’s Guide, dedicated to the Mediterranean.
Thrill Country
Camp Comfort Revives a German Utopia in Texas
In the 1870s, a group of German expats built an athletic club in the Texas Hill Country. In the current century, the property is home to Camp Comfort — a relaxed, rustic, and rural boutique hotel that’s ideal for the current moment.
New Normal
Hoxton Is What Higher Standards Look Like
The Hoxton hotels have taken the best bits of the best boutique hotels that came before them and crafted a group of properties that appear poised to stand the test of time. They represent the new normal of boutique hotels. And normal ain’t what it used to be.
Rejected
The Five Best Stories We Never Published
We’re constantly looking around for interesting travel stories to fill the pages of The Agenda. Sometimes we hit. Sometimes we miss. And sometimes, we abandon the idea entirely. Why? It’s hard to explain. Easier to show you.
Think Different
A Tech Titan Goes Crazy on a Medieval Farm
The story of Belgium’s Indrani Lodge is the story of a tech titan unimpressed with the status quo. Philippe Brawerman has always done things differently, a quality that took him from being the “crazy” president of Cisco Systems to the proud owner of a yoga-centric hotel and organic farm. As you’ll see, Brawerman’s is the kind of crazy that makes you wonder why anyone would want to be sane.
Accidental Tourist
A Story of Being Stuck Far From Home
In the midst of the global pandemic, stories of stranded travelers, aborted trips, and international uncertainty abound. Based in Manila, our French editor Manon Tomzig describes getting out from under a harsh lockdown in the Philippines only to wind up a trapped tourist in France.
Four Columns
The Roots of Farm-To-Table Dining in America
When Charles Mallory decided to buy the Four Columns Inn and bring it back to life in 2015, he knew the Vermont hotel was historic. He just didn’t know the extent of it. This place — one he’d driven by countless times — was home to what might be the first farm-to-table restaurant in America.
Small Plates
Less Is More in Spain
For the fifth edition of our Staying Small series we look to Spain, the land of tapas, where small hotels throughout the country combine to create a vision of hospitality that’s notable for its clear-eyed focus and lack of pretension.
The Pledge
Hotels Are Ready to Welcome You Back
As hotels reopen, it’s crucial that you know what steps they’re taking to increase cleaning protocols and implement social-distancing measures. That’s why we’re launching a new program to keep you informed about how our hotels are ensuring the safety of guests and staff.
Since We’ve Been Gone
The Most Exciting New Hotels of 2020
When COVID-19 grounded the travel industry earlier this year, we were in the process of adding a slew of terrific hotels to our selection. You might not be able to visit any of them for a while, but we figured you’d still like to see the ones we’re most excited about.
Starting Over
What It’s Like to Begin a New Life
Many people dream of dropping everything and starting a new life somewhere different. Rebecca Schönheit did it. She traded a law career and the familiarity of her home in Berlin for a tiny island in the Wadden Sea. That’s where she and her husband decided to start over as directors of a small hotel — with dreams of getting it up to Tablet standards.