Our friends at Hotels Above Par have taken a look through the Tablet selection and picked out their favorite boho-chic hotels from destinations where the style truly sings.
“What’s boho-chic?” you ask with wide-eyed innocence. It’s short for bohemian-chic, and if you’ve spent any time watching HGTV lately you’ve probably seen it mangled and misapplied a time or two, perhaps conflated with its déclassé cousin, shabby-chic. Boho-chic is basically the opposite of greige, another staple of home makeover shows that seems created expressly to ruin interior design for the next couple of generations.
Boho-chic has strong coastal vibes and connections to nature, and works especially well in beach-adjacent environments. Think earthy shades with surprising pops of color, rattan fixtures, burlap-laden chairs, wall-hanging macrame, June rugs, raffia lamps, antiques, leather, driftwood, and the occasional Polynesian surf board. It combines eccentricity and elegance, like a hundred-dollar haircut that’s intentionally messy. It tells the world, I’m a free spirit, but I still like to enjoy the benefits of a free market.
The fine folks at Hotels Above Par are just as obsessed with cool boutique hotels as we are, and they were kind enough to reach deep into the Tablet selection and pull out the boho-chic hotels they love best — each one located in a destination where the decor feels most appropriate, from Mexico and Greece to Portugal and California. If you don’t know, now you know.
Our Habitas Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Our Habitas Atacama sits smack in the middle of its namesake location: Chile’s Atacama Desert. Exterior walls contain clay, whereas homespun furnishings and tapestries sourced from local artisans pack spaces interiorly. Neutral tones bedeck guestrooms, from the linen bedding to the dangling raffia lamps. Thatched roofs shelter portions of loungers beside the pool for hot summer days. Guests can get their boho-spa life on with one of the hotel’s Temescal tent treatments, which grasps energy from the next-door Lincanbur volcano.
Nomad Mykonos
Mykonos, Greece
Rugged minimalism dominates the design narrative at the oh-so-calm, trés chic Nomad Mykonos. White walls, neutral fabrics, driftwood furnishings, curvaceous tubs, well-worn sinks, and statement vases fill the 14 rooms. Other highlights include the onsite Greek eatery Kukulu Restaurant and the orthogonal pool excavated within a patio lined with Boeotian marble.
Hotel June Malibu
Malibu, CA, USA
Right off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, one of the USA’s unofficial boho-chic capitals, is this 13-room boutique hotel. At its 1949-built Malibu outpost, marked California-retro via its unmissable road sign, midcentury modern bungalows here take center stage: an assemblage of potted succulents and vertical cacti front the hotel’s cracked-pepper exterior, then burnished concrete floors, timbered ceilings, and a white-cum-beige palette fill interiors; light millwork makes several appearances, from bunkbed frames to cantilevered desks. While there are no ocean views but rather vantage points peering out at Malibu’s sun-drenched hills, the beach is a short walk away.
Menorca Experimental
Menorca, Spain
An erstwhile finca and farmhouse repurposed into a 43-room hotel, Menorca Experimental blends Art Deco design with boho-chic undercurrents. Guestrooms sport bedding with swerved lines resembling abstract illustrations and headboards laden in muted colors. Across the room, zigzag-patterned pillows lay atop banquettes, and rattan baskets invoke a beachy mood. Stone-assembled walls cocoon the main pool, the perfect place for a nap when the seasonal hotel opens from March to October.
Be Tulum Resort & Spa
Tulum, Mexico
Tulum wrote the book on boho chic—and the 64-key Be Tulum Resort & Spa is show & tell of it. The design harnesses the relationship between inside and outside: a narrow pool lies right beside sandy grounds dotted with gangly palm trees and tables that are a tiny fraction of their towering height. Whether it be the burlap lamps dangling from the hotel bar & restaurant’s ceilings to rooms’ earthy color palette (say “yes” to the Aire Suite and its private-plunge pool), this place oozes beach bohemian at every corner.
The Agora
Pano Lefkara, Cyprus
Situated in Cyprus, the 18-key Agora Hotel is boho-chic to its core. From the lobby to guestrooms, wood finishings and vintage vestiges populate spaces, rattan-laced furniture appears ubiquitously, then earthy tones—beiges, browns, and olive greens—lather walls, bed headboards, and textured pillows. The courtyard swimming pool magnetizes guests and those unbothered about skipping out on the nearby beach. Chef Edward Guk serves Mediterranean fare at onsite restaurant Novél—and the left-of-the-lobby bar makes for the perfect post-dinner nightcap.
Sendero Hotel
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s indelible golden sand beaches and rampant rainforest terrain sandwich the Sendero Hotel. Sustainable clay tiles and renewable woods from local teak plantations make up the hotel’s build, with eco-cycling efforts that see rainwater and wastewater flowing into their fruitful garden. Accommodations have sandy tones, June rugs, terracotta potted plants and low-slung lounge chairs. Try out their signature Jungle rooms, with expansive windows that let spill in, plus balconied outdoor rainfall showers and daybeds. If relaxing on a lounge chair beside the onsite saltwater pool isn’t your vibe, sign up for the hotel’s local-run surfing school.
Areias do Seixo
Torres Vedras, Portugal
An hour’s drive from Lisbon, this rural boutique hotel sits on Portugal’s unhurried Costa de Prata. While concrete-and-glass kits out the exterior, interior spaces feel more free-spirited: maximalist rooms come with rustic fireplaces, wood stoves, wooded bedposts, and polished concrete slabs, which function alongside taupe schemes projecting pops of color.
Bisma Eight
Ubud, Indonesia
Awe-inspiring jungle views, plus exposed concrete and organic materials, are what you will find when staying at Bali’s Bisma Eight. The tropical-boho, teak-accented 50 rooms here have Japanese soaking tubs suffusing Canadian cedar wood and local Balinese soaps. At the Mandala Spa, expect Ayurvedic treatments in wood-clad rooms alongside a scrub bar that lets you assemble your own scrub concoction, commencing with a rice base and natural exfoliants.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.