The best hotels and resorts in the world: The Gold List 2023 (Part 5)

🌼Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

As a student in Amsterdam, I cycled past this clutch of mansions along the Herengracht canal hundreds of times—often wondering what would become of these stately gabled marvels that seemed to change their white-collar tenants every season. Waldorf Astoria had the answer in 2014, when the brand chose this canal-belt corner, a stone’s throw from the Museum Quarter and a carbon copy of an Old Masters painting, as the base for its Amsterdam outpost. It had its canvas cut out for the job: a row of six 17th- and 18th-century palaces, all stone-hewn festoons and swirling pilasters, that once housed the mayors and merchants I read about in history books.

After a top-to-toe renovation that restored many of the building’s period touches to their Golden Age glory, it now welcomes guests of a similar cachet (an Arab sheik and his entourage brushed past me in the lobby) and hits the sweet spot between the classic—but often stuffy—glitz of its historic hotel peers and the sophistication of its modish neighbors. An elegant mélange of navy and creams mellows out the Rococo riot of the coiling staircases, frilly plasterwork, and gilded chandeliers, while licks of marble and silk in the Cire Trudon–scented suites up the glam factor ever so slightly. There’s a high-tech Guerlain spa with all the bells and whistles, and at Spectrum, the hotel’s signature fine diner, chef Sidney Schutte transforms local produce into edible art. But what really makes it tick are the peekaboo surprises: the secret courtyard garden, a birdsong-filled refuge from the tourist throngs outside, or the angels peering down from the hand-painted (and masterfully preserved) wooden ceiling in the Backer Suite. As a long-time local, I took Amsterdam’s history for granted—a stay at this storybook hotel rekindled my wonder for the city’s fascinating past. Doubles from Rs74,700, including daily breakfast;

🌼Santa Marina, a Luxury Collection Resort, Mykonos – Greece

When I chose hotels for honeymooning in southern Greece, where my mom’s family is from, it was important to me that I support Greek-owned hotels in the aftermath of the pandemic. I was ecstatic to discover that Santa Marina, the beloved five-star resort on Mykonos, remains owned by the same local family that opened it four decades ago. The only resort on the island with its own private stretch of sandy beach—and on calm and sought-after Ornos Bay, no less—Santa Marina includes 101 seaview rooms and suites with private plunge pools, plus a selection of 13 sprawling villas, a cove-nestled beach club shielded from the mighty Cycladic winds, and two infinity pools to mix up the lounging scenery. Two restaurants, including sushi spot Buddha-Bar Beach Mykonos and Mykonos Social by Jason Atherton, serve inventive plates ranging from Asian-inspired poke and ceviches led by the Mediterranean’s abundant fish, to taverna-style dishes: slow-cooked lamb, sun-dried grilled octopus, classic horiatiki, and bread baskets served with traditional dips like taramosalata (roe puree) and htipiti (spicy whipped feta). The on-site spa has a traditional hammam as well as aromatherapy massages, medical-grade facials, and a sauna that are well worth breaking from the sun and sand for an afternoon. But the real magic of Santa Marina is in the simple pleasures afforded by its fabled location—sipping assyrtiko from a shady cabana while the mega yachts go by, you’ll forget all about the island’s hard-partying reputation. Doubles from Rs38,000

🌼Kyrimai – Mani, Greece

Down in deepest Mani, the middle tentacle of the Peloponnese, there’s nothing for miles save for the occasional road lined with shrines, or fields full of chest-high thistles; here and there, old stone towers stab the sky. In one such place, Gerolimenas, on the far southwestern shore, Kyrimai hotel has occupied a 19th-century tower house for some 20 years. Originally built by the family who runs the establishment, it’s perfect as far as conversions go: immaculate and indulgent, yet retaining the deep romance of a place so remote it might have been overgrown with brambles only a week ago. It’s a maze of arches and stairways, the rooms inside the thick stone walls often split on two levels, with beds wearing white linen tucked in the eaves. Yet nothing feels cavelike. Instead, sunshine spreads beyond the windows and shutters into the amber-colored walls and along hefty wooden floors. A restaurant sits above clear water in which fish curl and loll toward the shadows. It’s impossible not to step off repeatedly for a swim. There’s usually someone doing laps around the bay, or the sound of a creaking boat resounding off thyme-scented cliffs. In spring, the high rocks can turn light blue with wild sage that also appears in the house cocktails. The food is the best in the region: sardines with black olives whose spicy freshness cuts through the fatty fish oil, and rock samphire that turns creamed feta from a salty Greek chore into something paradisiacal. Doubles from Rs,12,700;

💥Mexico, Central, and South America

🌼Tierra Patagonia – Chile

A room with a view is enduringly special, but one that frames such retina-searing scenery is something else. All 40 rooms in this horseshoe-shaped hotel gaze up at the Paine Massif, rising beyond the Sarmiento Lake, where waves roar when the wind picks up. Whether you’re snuggled in a sheepskin rug on a windowsill or swimming in the infinity pool, those towers are transfixing and ever-changing with the weather. I’ve been to Chile’s premier national park before, but no mirador or mountain trail can match this view. A passion project for the ski-obsessed Purcell family, and now majority-owned by Australian remote-luxe pioneers Baillie Lodges, this environmentally sensitive property is almost impossible to see from afar. By storing and replanting all vegetation on site, landscape artists Catalina Phillips and Gerardo Ariztia have created a wildlife haven where guanacos and rhea graze in the bush. Respect for culture and nature is everywhere, from dioramas depicting Chile’s history of exploration to Calafate sours made with locally produced berry liqueur at the bar. Excursions appreciate people and place: visits to ancient burial sites and the chance to shadow researchers studying pumas in their natural habitat. Set in prime gaucho land on the fringes of the national park, Tierra offers a chance to see and do Patagonia differently, starting and always ending with that unbeatable view. Doubles from about Rs3,25,190 (three-night minimum);

🌼Hotel Esencia – Xpu-Ha, Mexico

While Playa del Carmen and Tulum on Mexico’s Riviera Maya teeter toward overdevelopment, there’s still an unspoiled coastline between the two fast-growing towns. Near the powdery white sands of Xpu-Ha, the secluded jungle hideaway of Hotel Esencia is a reprieve from bustling resorts and hedonistic eco-hotels—yet offers all the trappings needed to never leave its grounds. Originally built as a haven for an Italian duchess, the 50-acre estate was acquired in 2014 by Hollywood producer Kevin Wendle, who has turned the property into the area’s chicest beachside retreat, beloved by tastemakers such as Bella Hadid and Lupita Nyong’o for its privacy. Hotel Esencia centers on a main house, where afternoon tea is served daily in the ocean-facing library, while stone paths lead to four expansive guest villas and 47 suites, each with a private terrace and some with a heated pool and solarium overlooking the Caribbean. The newest and most luxurious lodgings are at the Esencia Mansion, a four-bedroom villa with three swimming pools, a 20-seat screening room, a subterranean speakeasy, and a nearby cenote where guests can paddleboard among the resident manatees. To recharge, there’s a café offering Mexican pastries, a juice bar for smoothies and acai bowls, and three restaurants, including a Yucatán eatery serving dishes with Mediterranean flair, from green gazpacho topped with crab to grilled octopus layered with creamy garlic mole. Doubles from about Rs82,000

🌼Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa – Bahia, Brazil

The fishing village of Trancoso, in Brazil’s Bahia, isn’t the tourist-free enclave it once was, but Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa still feels genuinely part of the community. The Dutch-born owner, Wilbert Das, first visited the town on vacation in 2004, when he was creative director of the streetwear brand Diesel. He started adding casitas one by one to his holiday home, resulting in the rustic-luxe eco-retreat you see today. The final lineup of 13 casas (some dating back hundreds of years) features reclaimed materials and locally made artwork, and they all sit just off the town’s grassy Quadrado, where kids flock to play soccer. Even while sipping caipirinhas by the bougainvillea-framed pool, one feels genuinely part of the surrounding community here—a magical contrast to typical luxury resorts. Doubles from Rs41,000;

🌼Jardín Escondido – Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a lively tangle of fantastic restaurants and world-class museums—but I feel truly connected to the soul of the city when someone I barely know offers me a sip of their maté, or when I spy glasses of red wine dangling loosely from gesturing hands on the balconies of Art Nouveau buildings, precipitously close to being dropped to the sidewalk below. Jardín Escondido manages to capture that rare balance of cosmopolitan chic and small-town coziness—all in a seven-bedroom hotel in leafy Palermo Soho. Perhaps it’s because the property was originally not a hotel at all but the private home of director Francis Ford Coppola. He bought the place while in Argentina working on his 2009 film Tetro and never fully left: Even since he converted it into a member of The Family Coppola Hideaways portfolio, staffers say, he still returns when he needs a place to write (and a taste of Malbec). Four rooms (Sofia and Ellie, and the Francis and Roman suites) retain the name of their former Coppola-family occupants. Besides adding star appeal, this Hollywood history turns every guest into a member of the extended Coppola family.

The candy-apple-red home, ensnared in foliage, is a big-city hideout with wine-country flavor: Think terra-cotta tiles, thick wool blankets, and colorful patterned throw pillows, an effortless aesthetic that extends to every room. There’s no traditional lobby but a foyer and a living room with plush couches and Coppola’s film collection. In the courtyard, a small emerald-toned pool is hugged by a tangle of elephant’s ears and ferns. Nearby, a small staircase leads up to the garden terrace, draped in trellis heavy with vines and open for guests at all hours. There you can while away the hours sipping wines selected from the house bar by an on-call sommelier, or reading a book snagged from the main house.

The personalized attention that guests at Jardín Escondido receive is rare. Each morning, herbs were picked from the garden around me to top my eggs. When the team noticed my love of maté, they began presenting me with a thermos every morning to take out into the city, a calming ritual I soon yearned for after checking out. When guests buy out the hotel, they can request services like calling in a master barbecuer so they can host their own parilla on the backyard grill. There is no on-site restaurant, no spa, and no gym—but that’s what makes Jardín Escondido special. Here, luxury is soft-­spoken and demonstrated in the quality of service. Every stay feels like a visit to a fabulous friend’s home in one of the world’s most culture-rich cities. Doubles from Rs23,600;

💥U.S., Canada, and The Caribbean

🌼Halekulani – Waikiki, Hawaii

An oasis of beachfront calm and elegance tucked just off Waikiki’s bustling main strip, Halekulani transports guests back to Hawaii’s golden era when honeymooners like Ernest Hemingway would come for sunset daiquiris at House Without A Key, the hotel’s restaurant and bar. For years, the grande dame was a little too stuck in the past, but the pandemic provided a moment to undertake an 18-month renovation that secured the property’s legacy as one of Hawaii’s most refined stays. All 453 rooms have been updated with expected modern conveniences, like Nespresso machines and complimentary high-speed Internet with higher bandwidth, plus high-tech touches like Toto toilets. Beloved traditions, like nightly mele (music) and hula beside the 135-year-old kiawe tree at the House Without A Key, continue. But the restaurant named for Charlie Chan’s first novel now has a new open-air bar from which to take in the show while you sip mai tais and nosh on ahi tataki. Attentive staff always at the ready with sunblock or another hula punch make it hard to pull yourself away from the sparkling pool (a photo favorite for its cattleya-orchid mosaic floor). But it’s worth leaving your lounger to take advantage of Halekulani’s For You, Everything program, which gives guests free access to some of Oahu’s top cultural venues, like the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, and Design. If you can’t bring yourself to leave the tranquility, at least take in the hotel’s renowned art collection, which has finally been formally curated for guests. Doubles from Rs53,650;

🌼Commodore Perry Estate, Auberge Resorts Collection – Austin

It’s hard to toss a lasso in Austin without roping an entrepreneur, so it’s fitting that Commodore E.H. Perry, the man behind this 1928 estate turned Auberge Resort, was one of the city’s originals. The Commodore (a nickname he earned after his boat capsized on Lake Austin) built a cotton trading company with partners in Europe where, no doubt, he developed his taste for the landmark’s Mediterranean architecture—stucco facades, checkered tiled floors, carved stone fireplaces—all of which were preserved during the gated property’s multimillion build and restoration. Suites are individually designed with sumptuous wallpapers and antiques, and all of the 54 rooms have soaring ceilings, original art, and customized cocktail bars. Outside, rows of sycamores frame 10-plus acres of gardens as well as a pool surrounded by striped yellow umbrellas.

The estate also has a social events calendar worthy of its Roaring Twenties roots. Curated experiences, open to guests and Commodore members, range from punchbowl parties in the elegant barroom and naturalist-led hikes to panels on art and custom fittings with a local haberdasher. A day well spent will end at Lutie’s, a jewel box of a restaurant named for Perry’s wife, who goes down in history as a born hostess with a keen wit. Here, under a canopy of ferns and ivy, smartly dressed patrons dine on dishes like red snapper over Delta Blues rice and smoked trout row, or sunchoke falafel paired with roasted garlic. An antique mirrored bar faces doors that open to a patio dotted with tables under black-and-white awnings. It’s easy to envision Perry and Lutie here, toasting with French crystal, planting the seeds of their estate and city. Since then, Austin has wrestled with its growth spurt to two million and its ever evolving skyline, but this lookout, with a glowing sunset filtering through centuries-old post oaks, remains the same. Doubles from Rs54,000;

🌼Ocean House – Watch Hill, Rhode Island

If you move in certain circles on the East Coast, the Ocean House will reliably drift into conversation throughout the year. Loyalists—and there are legions of them—will anxiously share notes on how to score that Atlantic-facing suite again this summer; first-timers will spend weeks recounting stories of cocktails on the resort’s enormous croquet lawn, lined by rocking chairs and with the tease of the ink-blue ocean visible down the hill; a new acquaintance may fondly reference summers spent there with grandparents. As such, this enormous yellow mansion towering like a watchman above a sand-swept Rhode Island shoreline occupied space in my mind long before I visited. When I finally did approach the check-in desk this past spring, it all felt unreasonably familiar: the 69 room keys attached to plump wooden chains, like prizes to be claimed on the shelf behind the reception desk; the antique clock ticking away the tranquil seconds before the high-season rush. It wasn’t from all the chatter that I’d absorbed over the years, but rather from a quality I’ve found increasingly elusive in a world moving inexorably toward the contactless, the modern, the new.

Since opening its big wooden doors on the remote Watch Hill in 1868, Ocean House has remained resolutely committed to a version of hospitality that simply makes people feel good. For all the resort’s plush surroundings, it is the thoughtful, personal, easy service that keeps this grande dame top of mind year-round. For me, this meant having a toy cart pull up right next to my toddler as we checked in and watching him delightedly rummage through the stash before claiming a shiny new ball. It meant being sent slices of cake in the mid-afternoon by the intuitive staff who’d been watching us chase him as he in turn chased that ball around the great lawn. When we weren’t shell-collecting on the stripe of beach below, we moved between the pool and our room, with its porthole windows, stacks of books nodding to the area’s nautical and whaling pasts, and a terrace that let us see out as far as New York State. When our son’s nap forced us to miss our lunch reservation, a trolley loaded with clam chowder, mounds of fries, club sandwiches, and warm cookies was parked outside our door. And when we mustered the will to dress up one night for dinner, a table opened inside the resort’s members club, the maître d’s wink letting us know that we’d somehow made it past an invisible red rope to a place not everyone sees. Staying at Ocean House feels special and effortless, which is a slam-dunk formula for a vacation you want to repeat year after year. Assuming you can get the room. Doubles from Rs36,450

🌼The Mark – New York City

I’m not a fan of the term staycation, but I certainly enjoy the concept. And a delight of living in New York is that hotels here easily double as portholes of escape from my day-to-day existence in Brooklyn. Checking into The Mark, elegantly occupying a block between Fifth and Madison avenues close to Central Park, is like unlocking the door to my secret pied-à-terre on the Upper East Side. Here, tidy bundles of clipped white roses spruce up my dressing table, and the bathtub is a reliable 10 centimeters deeper than any I’d likely have at home. Those familiar with the work of French interiors master Jacques Grange will recognize his trademark restraint here. What The Mark lacks in ostentation it makes up for in subtle, glowing sophistication, from the tiled floor in the very discreet lobby to the sparse hallways that dimly light the way to each pale-blue door, with just the right splashes of commissioned art displayed throughout. Then there are those classic New York touch points, but fancied up a notch: the hot-dog stand with a menu designed by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and picnic baskets for Central Park delivered via pedicab and set up under oak trees with loungers and blankets. The Mark’s calling card is how successfully it transports guests into an elegant version of that very distinct style of life in New York, one that people travel from all over the world to get a taste of. And, for a lucky few, it’s just a subway ride away. Doubles from Rs1,05,600

Cre: cntraveller

Đăng bởi: Thế Hữu Ngô