THE Hot List The world’s best new hotels, and 15 reasons they’ll make you want to pack your bags now. THE 2015 Hot List The world’s best new hotels, and 15 reasons they’ll make you want to pack your bags now. What makes a new hotel today graduate from an of-the-moment scene to an enduring icon that defines a city? “It’s not just about design—people often mistake the way a place looks for the way a place feels,” explains André Balazs, who first made our annual Hot List in 1999 for The Mercer. “I live at the Chiltern Firehouse—I’ve slept in every room. I have to because if I don’t, I can’t tell whether even the littlest details—like the brightness of a reading light— are right.” What we’ve learned from the best hoteliers is that focusing this intensely on the smallest things isn’t as obsessive as it sounds: As travelers become more sophisticated, luxury must become more intuitive. Offering butler service because that’s what’s expected of a five- star hotel ultimately reads as soulless (unless, that is, it’s absolutely seamless and unintrusive) and is in some ways less impressive than the quiet replenishment of the right brand of toothpaste by invisible hands. This year, after poring over the intel of our staff and contributors—who vetted more than a hundred recently opened hotels and resorts, from West Africa to Miami— we found that what stands out are the properties which combine old-school extravagance and service with just the right measure of modernity. You might even think of them as the new cultural touchstones. The 60 hotels that follow and the details that make them special—we’ve given you 15 as a jumping-off point—are a reason unto themselves to board a plane right now. The key to finding the right hotel. ● ● ● ● Best Bargains Beachside Urbanist Design Stars (Under $200 Escapes Standouts a Night) ● ● ● ● Family- Good Food Over-the-Top Remote and Turn page for PHOTOGRAPH BY ALICE GAO Friendly Luxury Wild hotel listings CON D É N A S T T R AV E L E R 2 HOT LIST 2015 21 Broad, Nantucket Alila Jabal Akhdar, Alma Histórica Aman Tokyo Aro H¯a Wellness Resort, Edson Hill, Vermont El Blok, Vieques, Fontevraud L’Hôtel, Four Seasons Hotel Four Seasons Resort Maalifushi by Como, Malliouhana, Mandarin Oriental, Mandarin Oriental, The Miami Beach Portrait Firenze Raffles Istanbul Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood Beijing The Rose Hotel, A restored 27-room Nizwa, Oman Boutique Hotel, Aman’s first urban New Zealand With its fireplaces and Puerto Rico Loire Valley The Westcliff, Orlando at Walt Disney Maldives An Auberge Bodrum, Turkey Taipei Edition On the banks of the The 185-room Rancho Mirage The first Rosewood hotel Venice Beach Victorian mansion At this remote 78-room Montevideo, Uruguay property is an Overlooking Lake contemporary art Brutalist architecture In a meticulous renova- Johannesburg World Resort On remote Thaa Atoll, Resort, Anguilla Most of the 109 A new standard was set Mid-Beach is heating Arno, with views of the hotel is unabashedly Spare in design but in China soars high This casual 14-room in the center of town resort 90 miles southwest A much-needed addition intimate, modernist Wakatipu, on the South collection, this 24-room is set against a tropical tion, a famous Set on a gorgeous Disney-goers finally this isolated, minimalist This classic rooms face the sea, in Taipei’s hotel scene up, due in large part to Ponte Vecchio, the swank, befitting its decadent in service, this above Beijing, with 283 California dream, a block with a cheery aqua of Muscat, guests spend to the city, the 15-room 84-room aerie Island, this intimate manor house on 38 backdrop at this twelfth-century French hillside, this 117-room have a truly stylish 65-room getaway 44-room Caribbean which is impossible when this 303-room this 294-room Ian latest property from the location in Zorlu Center, 244-room hotel in the rooms, six restaurants from the boardwalk, and yellow palette and their days hiking through 1920s town house is in floating 38 floors 20-room lodge is all acres (ten minutes from 22-room hotel, where abbey has been con- luxury mainstay just option, thanks to this hovers above coral charmer overlooking to miss thanks property opened; Schrager project with a Ferragamo hotel group an upscale shopping California desert has fire and bars, a world-class is a much-needed option mod furnishings, ancient villages blissfully the center of one of above the city. On a about yoga, meditation, Stowe Mountain) feels carved louvers verted into a 54-room had a top-to-bottom 443-room resort. Kids gardens and schools of postcard-perfect to massive walls of afternoon tea in the bowling alley and an ice combines an unbeatable and cultural complex pits, three pools, and spa, and an executive for an area of Los it’s made for weekend absent of any sign of South America’s most clear day, you can and health food that like staying at a transform the bright sun property with sleek— overhaul—time and love the waterslides dolphins and sea Meads Bay has taken windows; suites have Jade Lounge is a must rink, making it an all-in- location with 36 chic, that’s a reflection of astonishing views of the lounge that feels like a Angeles that was starved visitors. modern life. underrated capitals. even see Mount Fuji. doesn’t taste like it. (wealthy) friend’s estate. into artistic shadows. yet soothing—interiors. money well spent. and lazy river. turtles. on a new life. private infinity pools. for locals and guests. one playground. pared-down rooms. booming modern Turkey. Coachella Valley. private club. for good hotels. MIDDLE ROW: PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHIEU SALVAING; MATTHIEU BY PHOTOGRAPHS ROW: MIDDLE . 21broadhotel.com; alilahotels.com; from almahistorica.com; amanresorts.com; from aro-ha.com; from $3,300 edsonhillmanor.com; elblok.com; from fontevraud.fr; from fourseasons.com; fourseasons.com; ¯ comohotels.com; from aubergeresorts.com; mandarinoriental.com; mandarinoriental.com; editionhotels.com; lungarnocollection.com; raffles.com; from ritzcarlton.com; from rosewoodhotels.com; therosehotelvenice.com; A from $159. ● $500. ● from $185. ● $618. ● for four nights. ● from $300. ● $240. ● $195. ● from $350. ● from $449. ● $750. ● from $525. ● from $260. ● from $523. ● from $429. ● from $530. ● $370. ● $279. ● from $287. ● from $175. ● ARO H ARO Bahia Vik José The Beaumont, London Belle Mont Farm on The Brando, French Cape Weligama, Ham Yard Hotel, Hoanib Skeleton Coast Hôtel Plaza Hotel Sahrai, Fez, Hotel SP34, Mondrian London at Mont Rochelle Hotel & The Norman Tel-Aviv One&Only Hayman Palazzo Parigi, Milan Riad Mena & Beyond, The Sanchaya, Bintan The Singular Santiago Soho House Chicago Suján Rajmahal Ignacio, Uruguay This 73-room Deco- Kittitian Hill, St. Kitts Polynesia Sri Lanka London Camp, Namibia Athénée, Paris Morocco Copenhagen Sea Containers Vineyard, South Africa The 50 individually Island, Australia Steps from the best Marrakech Island, Indonesia Lastarria Hotel The second-largest Soho Palace, Jaipur, India A ten-suite main inspired renovation of a Eighty-four guest- On Marlon Brando’s pri- This collection of 40 Firmdale Hotels’ latest This African game The signature red The city’s most The 118 rooms at this This 359-room hotel on The latest addition designed rooms An old-school 1950s- shopping in Milan is Think of it as Marrakech Colonial design, first-rate This 62-room Chilean House debuts in the city’s A former royal house and 11 art-filled 1926 Mayfair building is houses— each with a vate atoll, Tetiaroa—30 colonial-style houses on venture occupies an changer is a state-of- awnings are still there, impressive boutique Latin District hotel the Thames has all the to Richard Branson’s at this boutique hotel era resort in the designer Pierre-Yves mod in the heart of the Euro-Asian cuisine, 19 retreat in Lastarria, a hip West Loop, in a 1907 guesthouse, the bungalows sprawl across the brainchild of two wraparound veranda— miles off Tahiti—it has 35 the Indian Ocean, entire city block, with the-art camp with but almost everything hotel has 50 rooms, are like an adult’s idea hallmarks of its hotel collection is a in two historic town Whitsunday Islands, Rochon’s seductive new medina: Each of the villas and nine suites, and lively neighborhood with warehouse that’s been 30-room property the dunes of Uruguay’s veteran restaurateurs, are spread across a 400- thatched-roof villas with surrounded by tropical 91 airy, colorful rooms, eight tented bedrooms else at this 208-room two pools, and a of a cool dorm: snug American counterparts renovated grand estate houses with a fragrant off the Great Barrier hotel, with 98 guest six rooms is decorated a long stretch of powdery some of Santiago’s best converted into a hotel has been transformed José Ignacio coastline, and its Colony Grill acre organic farm that private plunge pools that gardens, has an a courtyard restaurant, and private plane classic was sumptuously knockout Givenchy but cheerful, with (buzz, high design) house with 22 rooms citrus garden between Reef, gets a glam rooms that are at once in an unexpected but sand have put luxury nightlife and restaurants, with 40 guest rooms, a into an eclectic 12 miles northeast serves one of the city’s grows a cornucopia of alone are worth the flight. on-site dive center for and a subterranean access to Skeleton updated in a $268 spa—the first modern fixtures and along with British flair on a 100-acre vineyard them are like no others makeover with 160 opulent and utterly harmonious blend of East within a 45-minute ferry has its own hopping Cowshed Spa .