TH E HOT L IST OUR PICK OF THE BEST NEW HOTELS IN THE WORLD EDITED BY ERIN FLORIO AND REBECCA MISNER FOR THE FULL HOT LIST, VISIT CNTRAVELER.COM/HOT-LIST 67 THE HOT LIST OUR PICK OF THE BEST NEW HOTELS IN THE WORLD EDITED BY ERIN FLORIO AND REBECCA MISNER YNCH L ANTHONY S E AM J APH: R THE KIMPTON LA PEER IN WEST HOLLYWOOD OG OT FOR THE FULL HOT LIST, VISIT CNTRAVELER.COM/HOT-LIST PH 1 THE HOT LIST 2019 UNITED STATES HÔTEL PETER & PAUL, NEW ORLEANS Of all the boutique hotels that have landed here over the past few years, none gets into the bones of the city like this one. Beyond the heavy mint-green doors, the foyer smells of gardenias. It’s bright, airy, colorful, with a canary-yellow check-in counter and equally bright welcome. Star design team Ash NYC has revived the former 19th-century Catholic church, schoolhouse, convent, and rectory in the boho Marigny neighborhood, just northeast of the French Quarter and a walk from the sax-trumpet-clarinet licks of jazz epicenter Frenchmen Street. As with other Ash NYC hotels—the Dean, in a 1912 clergy house in Providence; the Siren, filling a Renaissance Revival building in Detroit—this place is meant to double as a destination, with sophisticated communal spaces that beg to be sat in with a chicory coffee or a Sazerac. In a city of sensory overload, Hôtel Peter & Paul is the anti–Bourbon Street, where the bed linen is crisp—and a little austere, like a convent holdover—and the crowd at its Elysian Bar, brought to you by homegrown wine bar Bacchanal, is European-house-party cool. FLASH POINT All furniture is selected from the antiques markets of Europe or New Orleans’s oldest estates, or made to order by local artisans. 504 356 5200; hotelpeterandpaul.com. Doubles from $119 AMIT GERON; FRANÇOIS HALARD; ELISE HASSEY PHOTOGRAPHS: PHOTOGRAPHS: 2 THE HOT LIST 2019 CAMBODIA SHINTA MANI WILD Suddenly there is a very big reason to stay on in Cambodia after seeing the temples at Angkor Wat. Roughly halfway between the capital, Phnom Penh, and the south coast are 850 acres of protected private land hosting a flamboyant new camp—and one of the hottest openings in Asia this year. Opt to arrive by zip line, landing next to a waterfall with huge double sun loungers in vivid greens and yellows, driftwood statues of life-size elephants, and 15 tented rooms, some with rolltop bathtubs on the riverside deck. It’s signature Bill Bensley, the daring designer renowned across Southeast Asia for his playful flourishes and lush gardens. He has partnered with hotelier Sokoun Chanpreda before on three delightful properties in Siem Reap (branded Shinta Mani). The powerhouse pair’s main motivation is conservation. While staying here, join anti-elephant-poaching patrols or explore the hardwood forest between the Southern Cardamom and Kirirom National parks by mountain bike and kayak. There are seemingly unlimited spa treatments, a sensational 100-foot-long pool, and a daily menu under brilliant chef Patricia Yeo, who uses foraged greens, mushrooms, and fruits from the forest. Shinta Mani Wild opens up an entire region to the jetset, with style and a firm focus on the environment it now helps us all get to. FLASH POINT Ask manager Sangjay Choegyal to take you on a forest walk; he grew up at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in Nepal and is a top birder. +855 63 964 123; shintamani.com. Tents from about $2,360 full board, minimum three-night stay ISRAEL THE JAFFA HOTEL, TEL AVIV The historic Jaffa neighborhood has become a cachet of Tel Aviv cool, loaded with designer boutiques, cocktail bars, and bohemian locals inside its 4,000-year-old walls. It’s appropriate, then, that the hotel that shares its name should act as a microcosm of the area. Star architect John Pawson and his team spent 10 years creating an aesthetic that plays to Jaffa’s old/new dichotomy within this former convent turned hospital. In the lobby, remains of a 13th-century Crusaders’ fortress discovered during the hotel’s excavation are displayed alongside two Damien Hirst paintings, twin George Condo busts, and bespoke backgammon tables designed by Pawson himself. The bar space, with its stained-glass windows and checkered floors, feels both biblical and current—especially when beautiful Tel Avivians are sipping negronis on the brown suede Cini Boeri Botolo chairs. In a city with a spectacular homegrown food scene, the Jaffa made a bold move placing New York’s Major Food Group in the kitchen. The rigatoni alla Norma and grilled octopus recall its Manhattan hot spot Carbone, but the way these dishes showcase the vibrancy of local produce, meat, and fish means Israel remains the star. In a place that everyone’s talking about right now, this hotel has made the conversation even more interesting. FLASH POINT Hit the downstairs spa with its sleek hammam in the afternoon to NAME LASTNAME unwind after a morning in the town’s Sarona Market. +972 3 504 2000; thejaffahotel.com. Doubles from about $605 PHOTOGRAPH: PHOTOGRAPH: 3 THE HOT LIST 2019 FRANCE LE BARN, BONNELLES Parisians are not so unlike Londoners and New Yorkers. Come Friday, they, too, hightail it to the country for 48 hours of blissfully slower living. Their options for where to spend the weekend have been mostly restricted to ancestral manors and castles that require serious mileage to reach—as well as a dress code at dinner. Last summer’s opening of rustic Le Barn changed all that. This former horse-riding academy turned nature camp for grown-ups, 34 miles southwest of Paris, is an extension of the very cool boutique-hotel scene sweeping the city’s north-central arrondissements; one that marries urban taste and country retreat. So much so that the Isabel Marant–wearing crowd drinking at the Hoxton in the Marais on a Wednesday is the same one soaking in Le Barn’s outdoor Nordic baths the following Saturday. Design Studio Be-poles, which was responsible for the louche interiors of Le Pigalle hotel, did a fine job of keeping the countryside in focus here, placing plants throughout and blending raw materials such as corkboard in the rooms, which were used to store grain in the 1950s. Though it’s what’s on the outside that counts: hikes through the surrounding Rambouillet forest, outdoor film screenings, and yoga under the trees. As Paris moves in a direction that feels increasingly hipster, Le Barn is the type of place where those breathing new life into the city go to recharge. FLASH POINT There is no set checkout time on Sundays; don’t rush through a brunch of local charcuterie and cheeses, organic fruit jams, and oven-fresh baguettes and croissants. +33 1 86 38 00 00; lebarnhotel.com. Doubles from about $165 4 THE HOT LIST 2019 MEXICO PUNTA CALIZA, ISLA HOLBOX Word may now be out about this tiny isle off the Yucatán, but that has not compromised Holbox’s subtle charms. Along its northern edge, a string of taco shacks and palapa-style hotels with thatched roofs and adobe walls stretches across the uninterrupted sands. One block inland, this phenomenally well-designed hideaway stands out from the rest. Guadalajara- based Estudio Macías Peredo kept the thatch but placed it on top of 12 slick villas of red bark and limestone stucco, inspired by a Mayan building technique known as chukum, arranged in the shape of a triangle. The knockout element is what fills the open space between them. Instead of a traditional courtyard or terrace, Peredo created a swimming pool where the water, the same milky green as the Caribbean, laps right up against the villas’ cedarwood doors. Yet for all its style, Punta Caliza retains the island’s relaxed, flip-flops-at-dinner ease. The friendly owner, Cuauhtémoc Muñoz, is quick to share an icy Corona and a chat with guests after mornings spent on the hotel’s private beach. Breakfasts of fresh orange juice, chilaquiles, and tropical fruit are set up poolside, and insanely fresh octopus ceviche is served in coconut husks. FLASH POINT Head to the bar inside the adjacent tower at sunset for incredible views over the colorful sea. +52 99 8800 0119; puntacaliza.com. Doubles from about $210 AUSTRALIA PARAMOUNT HOUSE HOTEL, SYDNEY This place certainly doesn’t front like a standard hotel, and that’s a great thing. Creatives in all black and sharp glasses sip flat whites and hold lunch meetings over slick Mac laptops in the sun-drenched Paramount Coffee Project, ostensibly the lobby of the hotel. Wander toward the back, taking in all the midcentury olive green and exposed brick from the building’s past life as the Paramount Pictures Studios building, and make an educated guess that the woman smiling behind a desk selling T-shirts and jackets is also your check-in (she is). It’s quite the welcome to this hip new Surry Hills hotel, which not only serves to anchor an already food- and-culture-focused neighborhood but has become a de facto hang for locals—what all hoteliers want these days. Thankfully, the guest rooms are just as welcoming: Should you be suffering jet lag, just pull the blackout curtains shut; take a leisurely bath in the Japanese wooden soaking tub; settle into the insanely comfortable bed, the blush-and-blue duvet and recycled Merino throw pulled up to your chin; and pass out for 12 hours in what feels like a friend’s chic apartment.