0113-Tr-Glja01 Gold List 2013
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2013 THE WORLD’S GOLD BEST PLACES TO STAY LIST Who can you trust? When it comes to those crucial choices in travel—the hotels, the resorts, the cruise lines—there is only one thing that literally sets the gold standard, and it’s Condé Nast Traveler. Every entry on this list has been rigorously tested and screened by our readers. Nearly 47,000 of you, an unprecedented number, produced an independent (and savvy) final selection of the very best by participating in our annual Readers’ Choice survey. !e Gold List is truly a global representation of real quality, no matter how far-flung. It’s newsy, too, highlighting impressive newcomers and discerning trends. Consistency is rewarded: !ose who make the Gold List five years in a row earn Platinum Circle status, marked by the icon. In the GET EVEN MORE FROM THE GOLD LIST: following pages are DOWNLOAD OUR DIGITAL EDITION FOR A SLIDE more than 500 travel SHOW OF PROPERTIES NEW TO THE LIST THIS experiences for you to YEAR AS WELL AS AN EXTENDED DESCRIPTION choose from, all of OF EVERY ENTRY. YOU CAN ALSO ACCESS THE them the best in class. EXPANDED EDITION AT 5 1 0 CONDENASTTRAVELER .COM, PLUS PHOTOS TOP HOTELS, OF EVERY ENTRY. RESORTS & CRUISE LINES JANUARY 2013 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER 55 0113-TR-GLJA01 GOLD LIST 2013 At nearly 12,000 square feet, the Villa Cupola at Rome’s Westin Excelsior claims the title of Europe’s biggest suite. It comes with a whirlpool (shown), a private wine cellar, a boardroom, and an eight- seat screening room. PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAMS & HIRAKAWA 0113-TR-GLJA02 GOLD LIST 2013 By the Numbers Europe .........................................58 Countries: 18 Properties: 96 hotels and resorts Room counts: 20 to 483 United States .................................62 States: 32, plus the District of Columbia Properties: 195 hotels and resorts Room counts: 8 to 4,027 !e Americas ................................83 Countries: 24 Properties: 116 hotels and resorts Room counts: 6 to 635 Asia, Australia & Pacific Nations ......89 Countries: 14 Properties: 64 hotels and resorts Room counts: 24 to 952 Africa & the Middle East .................98 Countries: 11 Properties: 29 hotels and resorts Room counts: 12 to 726 Cruise Lines ..................................99 Number: 10 Continents visited: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America—which, as far as we know, is all of them! !ese pages highlight the 510 hotels, resorts, and cruise lines that made this year’s Gold List—the highest-scoring properties in our most recent Readers’ Choice survey. Reviews of properties that are on the Gold List for the first time this year appear in the pages that follow; for reviews of every Gold List property, go to condenasttraveler.com/goldlist or download our digital edition. METHODOLOGY Entries include the edited com- ments of readers and are intended to reveal a prop- erty’s character rather than to catalog its facilities. Each score represents the percentage of respon- dents who rated a property excellent or very good on specific criteria (see “Key to Symbols,” on the next page). For example, the first entry on this year’s Gold List, the Hotel Imperial, in Vienna (also on the next page), has an overall score of 88.0, the highest component of which is 91.8 for Location. Criteria for hotels, resorts, and cruise lines vary. !e Gold List is based on data collected from the annual Readers’ Choice survey; to qualify for inclu- sion in these rankings, a property had to receive a required minimum number of responses. JANUARY 2013 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER 57 0113-TR-GLJA03 GOLD LIST 2013 h!e Stafford,j g Londonf 91.3H Europe 88.6 91.4 90.6 94.3 91.4 FINLAND A mixture of old and new describes both Europe in the !en"-fir# Hotel Kämp (Luxury Collection), century and the properties that comprise this li# Helsinki 92.7 h92.0 j96.0 g82.6 f100 H92.0 WHEN SEEKING HOTELS with a palpable history, travelers usually find that no region can hold a candle to Europe. !e continent has properties by the bundle that have hosted kings FRANCE and queens, dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies, and sundry statesmen. Cities dominate Hotel Villa Gallici, Aix-en- the list (all 13 properties in England are in London), and traditional destinations remain in Provence 98.2 fashion: We’ll always have Paris and Rome. But other cities not on the classic European h100 j100 g100 f95.5 H95.5 circuit, yet with incredibly rich pasts, are now contenders. Budapest has five hotels on the La Mirande, Avignon 88.3 list (five years ago it had only two), and of the four Barcelona hotels below, three appear on h83.9 j90.3 g90.0 f93.5 H83.9 the Gold List for the very first time. Readers’ tastes are clearly evolving, and an increasingly Château Eza, Côte d’Azur 88.5 sophisticated hotel market is rising to meet that burgeoning demand. h95.2 j81.0 g85.0 f100 H81.0 Château de la Chèvre d’Or, Èze 91.7 h87.5 j100 g91.7 f95.8 H83.3 NEW Sofitel Marseille Vieux Port, Marseille 93.3 h95.2 j95.2 g95.0 f85.7 H95.2 In the historic center of Marseille, “the Sofi- tel is a beautiful oasis in an old city”—within walking distance of Notre-Dame de la Garde and the old port. Designed to mimic the From the 90-foot- style of a lavish yacht, interiors are outfitted long pool at the with deep-blue carpets and have floor-to- Four Seasons ceiling windows. !e contemporary rooms Istanbul at the are “just perfect to return to,” with wooden Bosphorus, which venetian blinds and bathrooms fitted with scores a 97.9 for double tubs or hydromassage showers. At design, you can Le Carré, the bar is trimmed in white tufted look onto the leather, and guests can order tapas like famous strait and homemade foie gras with their cocktails. the hilly shore of Four Seasons George V, Paris 96.3 Asia beyond. h96.2 j96.2 g95.6 f98.4 H95.1 Hôtel d’Aubusson, Paris 88.9 AUSTRIA Claridge’s, London 88.2 h82.1 j89.3 g82.6 f92.9 H96.4 h89.7 j93.1 g82.4 f93.1 H82.8 Hotel Imperial (Luxury Hotel Le Bristol, Paris 89.7 Collection), Vienna 88.0 !e Connaught, London 91.6 h87.7 j91.2 g92.6 f93.0 H84.2 h87.8 j85.7 g87.0 f91.8 H87.8 h90.7 j93.0 g83.3 f97.7 H93.0 Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris 93.8 Hotel Sacher, Vienna 89.4 !e Dorchester, London 88.5 h89.1 j92.3 g96.9 f96.9 H93.8 h92.7 j88.1 g82.5 f95.2 H88.1 h85.4 j87.6 g88.5 f91.0 H89.9 Le Meurice, Paris 96.2 CROATIA Dukes Hotel, London 88.0 h95.9 j94.5 g98.6 f98.6 H93.2 h81.5 j96.3 g84.0 f98.1 H79.6 Esplanade Zagreb Hotel, Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, Paris 94.4 Zagreb 89.3 !e Goring, London 91.1 h91.6 j97.6 g91.0 f100 H91.5 h91.7 j88.9 g85.7 f94.4 H85.7 h88.9 j94.4 g85.7 f97.2 H88.9 NEW Renaissance Paris Arc de !e Lanesborough, London 94.3 CZECH REPUBLIC Triomphe, Paris 90.8 h100 j95.2 g85.7 f95.2 H95.2 h95.3 j88.4 g82.9 f93.0 H93.0 Four Seasons, Prague 91.4 “Guests are treated like royalty” at this h91.5 j94.9 g85.5 f94.9 H89.8 Milestone Hotel, London 95.5 h93.4 j98.7 g93.3 f97.4 H94.7 “pleasingly modern” glass hotel just steps Mandarin Oriental, Prague 94.2 from the landmark for which it is named. h96.4 j92.9 g96.3 f96.4 H89.3 NEW Rubens at the Palace, London 88.0 !e “ultra-chic” Paris-meets-Indonesia h81.4 j91.8 g88.5 f96.9 H81.4 design includes an interior garden and ele- ENGLAND Watch the guardsmen in the Royal Mews vators in bright colors. With balconies and from the windows of this “lovely gem large bay windows, some with “a gorgeous h41, Londonj 96.0g f H of a hotel” on Buckingham Palace Road. view of the Eiffel Tower,” rooms are con- 94.3 98.6 94.1 97.1 95.7 !e property has traditional English decor temporary in look. Select from French or that includes marble floors, crystal chan- KEY TO SYMBOLS Indonesian cuisine at Makassar Restaurant NEW Andaz Liverpool Street, London 88.7 deliers, and “beautifully appointed rooms” h as you look upon the garden. h90.7 j93.0 g82.5 f81.4 H95.3 with antiques and original artwork. “!e Rooms j GERMANY Built in the late 1800s by the Great Eastern rooms tend to be a little small but are very Service Railway Company, this two-wing redbrick comfortable.” Enjoy “a really excellent g Food Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, hotel sits on the eastern fringe of !e City meal” at !e Library, where specialties f Location Baden-Baden 88.5 (London’s financial district). Its design is a range from Dover sole to hand-chopped H Design h85.7 j95.2 g95.0 f90.5 H76.2 mix of Victorian and modern, with oak- Buccleuch Estate sirloin, and an “addictive a Activities honeycomb ice cream.” “Staff treat you Hotel Adlon Kempinski, paneled walls in the George pub and Eames SCORES IN RED Berlin 93.8 like a VIP from the moment you step = OVERALL chairs and Jacobsen lamps in contemporary h95.4 j93.8 g93.4 f98.5 H87.7 into the lobby,” and the “service is guest rooms that also have “great amenities New to consistently superb.” NEW and bathtubs.” “Excellent restaurant choic- Gold List NEW Hotel Concorde, Berlin 88.0 h90.9 j90.9 g90.0 f81.8 H86.4 es” include Japanese cuisine at Miyako and !e Savoy, London 90.8 Platinum afternoon tea at 1901 restaurant.