Le Saint Hôtel A Paris

Paris, France

 

Rarely has the concept “more than the sum of its parts” been demonstrated so clearly in the world of hospitality. Hôtel Le Saint, in the Left Bank district of Saint-Germain, is stitched together from three smaller hotels, but proprietor (and decorator) Bertrand Plasmans has preserved the identity of the three distinct buildings, while connecting their interiors and redesigning them in a style that pays tribute to their 19th-century genesis.

 

Six Senses Douro Valley

Lamego, Portugal

 

Traditionally Portugal hasn’t needed much more than a sunny climate (and maybe a bit of golf) to woo tourists by the tens of thousands. There are places, though, that go above and beyond the basic formula: Six Senses Douro Valley, named for and situated in the wine-making region in the north, is one of these.

 

Hotel Healdsburg

Napa / Sonoma Valleys, CA

 

Northern California’s wine country has no shortage of lodgings—seemingly every third house is a bed and breakfast. Hotel Healdsburg, though, is something unique; this full service luxury hotel bucks the faux-rustic trend in favor of sleek modern design.

 

Loden Hotel

Vancouver, Canada

 

Many hotels in Vancouver can boast breathtaking views — this town is nothing if not topographically gifted. However, the district of Coal Harbour on the north edge of downtown has a slight edge on the rest. Think of it as stadium seating for the panorama that unfolds across the Burrard Inlet. Coal Harbour itself is a tony spot well worth an evening stroll; recently redeveloped with parks and a marina, the neighborhood boasts a sophisticated collection of towers with a level of design not commonly found in North American cities, and in one of these sleek glass towers you’ll find the Loden Hotel.

 

Myconian Avaton

Mykonos, Greece

 

The Myconian Collection is a smallish, homegrown, locally owned hotel chain, and fully a third of its hotels happen to be located in the hills above Elia Beach, which ought to tell you something about how spectacular this place is. The Myconian Avaton Resort is the highest of the three, with the panoramic views and the relative seclusion that that implies. And its rooms, suites and villas are among the group’s most luxurious — though, to be fair, that’s drawing the distinctions pretty finely, as the others are not exactly rough.

 

So/ Berlin Das Stue

Berlin, Germany

 

Hotels these days have a few problems in common; among them, all too often, is a distinct lack of grandeur. It’s not the sort of thing that springs naturally from what is typically little more than a box, jammed with as many beds as it can reasonably hold. That’s why, if it’s grandeur you’re after, you might be better off converting an existing building into a hotel, rather than building your own bedbox from the ground up. Das Stue, in Berlin’s Tiergarten district, is a case in point. This Thirties embassy building was built, at least in part, to convey a grand impression — and its atmosphere, after a massive architectural overhaul by Annette Axthelm and an interior renovation by the renowned Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, is about as far as you can get from the boxes-and-boxes sameness of the typical contemporary hotel.

 

B.O.G. Hotel

Bogota, Colombia

 

It sounds more mellifluous in Spanish. Here, in one of northern Bogotá’s hipper districts, the B.O.G. Hotel might just touch off a design-hotel revolution. This is a town whose lodging options have been fairly undistinguished, up to now, if you’re in the market for anything more inspiring than corporate business hotels — but the emerald-and-gold-clad B.O.G. changes all that in an instant. With interiors by the celebrated Portuguese designer Nini Andrade Silva, a woman whose name might already be familiar to Tablet devotees, this is a hotel that’s not afraid to make a statement.

 

Hotel Pulitzer Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain

 

Straddling the border between the old city and the Eixample, Hotel Pulitzer Barcelona is as modern as they come, fitting effortlessly into Barcelona’s already expansive cohort of high-design hipster hotels. It’s a 2004 renovation of a Twenties building, and its carefully preserved facade offers little hint of the striking Art Deco-influenced spaces within — again, in true Barcelona style.

 

Casa Chameleon Las Catalinas

Las Catalinas, Costa Rica

 

Las Catalinas, an adorably tiny beach village set between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean on Costa Rica’s northwest coast, is that rarest of things: a new town. Planned by Douglas Duany, a noted professor of urban design and architecture, to accentuate views of the landscape, to eliminate the need for cars — and to leave most of the wilderness well enough alone, it’s the perfect venue for the second location of Casa Chameleon. The mini boutique chain, with a flagship location down the coast on the Nicoya peninsula, has a formula that works: spacious and sustainably built villas with private terraces, saltwater plunge pools, and hammocks with ocean views. They’ve repeated it at Casa Chameleon Las Catalinas, and it works at least as well as the first one.

 

Bay of Many Coves

Marlborough, New Zealand

 

First, a point of clarification: Bay of Many Coves is the name of both the hotel and the body of water alongside which the hotel is located. If the shores here were crowded with resorts, you can imagine the sort of who’s-on-first confusion that might ensue — fortunately, this is one of those New Zealand hotels where your room comes with a generous, serene expanse of the natural world and practically no one to share it with. No danger of your helicopter, seaplane or ferry arriving at the wrong hotel on the Bay of Many Coves; there’s just one here, and like its setting, it’s a stunner.