THE BEST PLACES TO STAY G OThe L D L I S T 142 hotels that change the way we see the world THE 142 HOTELS AROUND THE WORLD WE ALWAYS RECOMMEND— AND COME BACK TO AGAIN AND AGAIN When you work at Condé Nast Traveler, the one question that’s always being THE LIST asked of you—by friends, your therapist, strangers you’ve only just met—isn’t Where should I go? More often than not it’s Where should I stay? As hotel obsessives, we get it. A great hotel isn’t simply a place to spend the night. It’s about the super-secret perfect bar just off the lobby, or the wallpaper in your suite that makes you want to redecorate your entire home. And if you love a hotel enough, 2016 it can become a reason in itself to go. ¶ For our twenty-second annual Gold List, we offer you our global short list—the recommendations we give without even thinking about it. For more on this year’s Gold List, check out cntraveler.com/ gold-list. TYPE BY JORDAN METCALF COND É NAST TRAVELE R 1 GOLD LIST IF YOU LOVE THE GRAND-HÔTEL DU CAP-FERRAT IN PROVENCE, TRY THE HÔTEL DU PALAIS IN BIARRITZ LIVE OUT YOUR ITALIAN FANTASY (IF ONLY FOR A WEEK) You know what we’re talking about: those terraced gardens, the lakeside villas, the Baroque palaces set high above the Mediterranean. These are the icons, the drop-dead- gorgeous properties that take la dolce vita to a whole other level. Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo Taormina Belmond Hotel Splendido & Splendido Mare Portofino Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli Lake Garda (left) Hotel Il Pellicano Porto Ercole Hotel Santa Caterina Amalfi J.K. Place Capri Le Sirenuse Positano Palazzo Avino Ravello THE HOTELS WE ALWAYS RETURN TO IN LONDON — THE BEAUMONT — THE BERKELEY — CLARIDGE’S — THE CONNAUGHT — ROSEWOOD LONDON PHOTOGRAPH LUCAS BY ALLEN 2 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER GOLD LIST Fogo Island Inn Tierra Atacama ARCHITECTURAL Newfoundland, Hotel & Spa GO FARTHER— WONDERS IN Canada San Pedro de It’ll take at least two Atacama, Chile IT’S WORTH IT THE MIDDLE flights, a 60-mile drive, A dazzling fortress of Dunton Hot Springs OF NOWHERE and then a 45-minute stone, adobe bricks, Dolores, Colorado ferry ride to reach and rammed earth, with It’s a two-hour drive from this ultramodern glass walls to maximize already-remote Telluride, Alila Jabal Akhdar spaceship of a hotel views of the Licancabur winding through the San Oman overlooking the volcano and the Juan Mountains, sometimes The minimalist wild Atlantic (right). vast Atacama Desert. resort is constructed on dirt roads. But the Longitude 131° Vigilius entirely of multicolored payoff is huge: a stay in one Yulara, Australia Mountain Resort of 13 isolated, hand-hewn ophiolite rock and Ever wonder what a Monte San Vigilio, Italy log cabins in a stunning alpine seems to hover luxury resort on Mars Accessible only by valley, with reviving soaks over a steep gorge in might look like? cable car (it’s nearly in mineral-rich hot springs at the Hajar Mountains. Probably not unlike 5,000 feet above the restored 1800s bathhouse. Amangiri these tented pavilions sea level), this resort Explora Canyon Point, Utah arrayed in front of the feels like the tree Patagonia, Chile Its gravity-defying magnificent sandstone house you always At the center of Torres del geometric slabs monolith of Uluru. wanted, with its Paine National Park (and blend seamlessly into dramatic wooden- five hours from the closest the austere desert. lattice facade. airport), Explora’s white- timber lodge has 49 spacious rooms—all with views of either the Paine ridge or Salto Chico Waterfall. Take your pick of more than 50 guided hikes and horse treks, then unwind IF YOU LOVE THE FOUR SEASONS PENINSULA over the best Chilean wines at the sleek Explorer’s Bar. Wickaninnish Inn PAPAGAYO IN COSTA RICA, TRY MUKUL IN NICARAGUA Tofino, British Columbia At this secluded resort on Vancouver Island’s rugged west coast, days are spent hiking through old-growth cedar forests, exploring tide pools, trying your hand at THE SPA WHERE TREATMENTS cold-water surfing, or simply ARE JUST THE HALF OF IT watching Pacific storms roll in beyond the big bay windows of your ocean-facing suite. Few spa retreats sandstone and telegraph place as well pinewood sourced from as the seventeenth- the nearby wilderness— century Bio-Hotel and even a lazy hour in Stanglwirt, in the the relaxation room, with Austrian Alps. The its floor-to-ceiling views THE HOTELS WE outdoor soaking pools, of Tyrolean peaks, is ALWAYS RETURN steam baths, and as rejuvenating as a turn TO IN PARIS saunas are crafted of on the massage table. — FOUR SEASONS HOTEL 6 OTHER SPA GETAWAYS TO BOOK RIGHT NOW GEORGE V — HÔTEL PLAZA Badrutt’s Palace One&Only Palmilla ATHÉNÉE St. Moritz, Switzerland Los Cabos — LE MEURICE Clinique La Prairie Park Hyatt New York Clarens-Montreux, — THE PENINSULA Parrot Cay Switzerland by COMO PARIS Les Sources de Turks and Caicos — SHANGRI-LA Caudalie HOTEL, PARIS Bordeaux ILLUSTRATION CHRISTOPHER BY DELORENZO. PHOTOGRAPH IWAN BY BAAN 3 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER GOLD LIST THE OVER-THE- TOP DESIGN HOTELS WE WANT TO MOVE INTO Aman Canal Grande Venice, for its embossed leather wallpaper. Casa de Madrid for the murals, marble busts, and centuries-old oil paintings. 1 2 Das Stue Berlin, and its neoclassical facade and Danish minimalist interiors (2). Ett Hem Stockholm, for Ilse Crawford’s brilliant way with vintage pieces. The Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., for Dorothy Draper’s flurry of pinks and greens (4). Ham Yard London, and Kit Kemp’s fearless use of color (1). Hoshinoya Kyoto, and its lustrous century-old wood finishes. Il Convento di Santa Maria do Constantinopoli Puglia, Italy, for its treasure trove of masks, carvings, 3 4 and ceramics. J.K. Place Roma for its retro rosewood-paneled bar. Riad El Fenn Marrakech, for those jewel-colored plaster walls (5). San Giorgio Mykonos, and the way the traditional Greek textiles pop against whitewashed walls (6). Soho House Istanbul, for the fireplaces, frescoes, and soaring ceilings inside the 1870s palazzo. Soniat House New Orleans, and its wrought iron balconies and vibrant green shutters. Wheatleigh Lenox, Mass., for its celadon accents, original stained glass—and 5 6 that elegant staircase (3). CLOCKWISE FROM TOP PHOTOGRAPHS LEFT: SIMON BY BROWN/COURTESY HAM HOTEL; YARD COURTESY STUE; DAS INGALLS PHOTO; COURTESY DESIGN HOTELS; JOANNA VESTEY/COURTESY RIAD EL FENN; RICHARD BRYANT 4 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER GOLD LIST THE MOUNTAIN RESORT When I was four years old and living in TRAVEL BACK THAT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE A THEME PARK a very Mormon suburb of Salt Lake City, IN TIME my very un-Mormon mom and dad Hotels with the packed up the Jeep Wagoneer and took alluring charm of a me skiing at Deer Valley Resort. They bygone era (and the didn’t ski themselves, but they were phe- amenities of 2016). nomenal at après, throwing back glasses of California chardonnay in their down jackets on the patio at Stein Eriksen Lodge while I conquered the bunny hill. At the end of the day, I too engaged in the ski-school version of high-altitude unwinding: I wrestled off my boots 1599 and sipped preposterously good hot Belmond Villa San chocolate while warming up near one of Michele Florence the lodge’s many stone fireplaces. I re- member thinking how Stein Eriksen felt magical and weirdly foreign, as if it didn’t belong in my home state. It looked like it was plucked from ’60s Switzerland and dropped among the most perfect alpine woods in the Wasatch Range. 1715 Makes sense. The Stein Eriksen, a Norwe- Ashford Castle gian alpine skier who won Olympic Cong, Ireland gold for giant slalom in Oslo in 1952, drew heavily from the European ski hotels of his youth when he opened the lodge. And thankfully, not much has changed. It’s still the one I want to share with my four- year-old daughter (and my non-skiing husband, who will probably skip the char- 1901 donnay in favor of the locally made Sofitel Legend whiskey). –CANDICE RAINEY Metropole Hanoi IF YOU LOVE ALILA VILLAS ULUWATU IN BALI, TRY NIHIWATU IN SUMBA THE ONE In oft-overwhelming Oberoi Amarvilas Agra 1927 PLACE WHERE India, your hotel The Ahwahnee is both a conduit to Oberoi Udaivilas Yosemite National Park YOUR HOTEL your destination Udaipur MATTERS and a refuge from it. Taj Falaknuma Palace MORE THAN Ahilya Fort Hyderabad ANYTHING Madhya Pradesh Taj Lake Palace IS INDIA Alila Diwa Goa Udaipur Ananda in the Taj Mahal Palace Himalayas Mumbai Uttarakhand Umaid Bhawan 1963 The Imperial Palace Mandarin New Delhi Jodhpur (right) Oriental, Hong Kong Hong Kong ASHFORD COURTESY BELMOND; COURTESY PHOTOGRAPHS RIGHT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE DELORENZO. CHRISTOPHER BY ILLUSTRATION AMBRIDGE/DOMINO BRITTANY KONG; HONG ORIENTAL MANDARIN WONG; PEGGY METROPOLE; LEGEND SOFITEL COURTESY CASTLE; 5 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER GOLD LIST THE HOTELS WE ALWAYS RETURN TO IN LOS ANGELES — ACE HOTEL DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — CHATEAU WE FOUND MARMONT OUR FAVORITE — HOTEL BEL-AIR BOWL — SHUTTERS ON OF PASTA— THE BEACH AND IT’S — SUNSET TOWER NOT IN ITALY HOTEL Reason enough to book a weekend at bucolic Lime Wood, MORE HOTELS WE’D TRAVEL TO in Hampshire, England: the house- JUST FOR THESE DISHES made pastas from Babylonstoren Hidden Pond The NoMad Hotel GO FARTHER— acclaimed London South Africa Kennebunkport, Maine New York IT’S WORTH IT chef Angela Hartnett Orange tea cake with Spinney Creek oysters The absurdly decadent cream cheese frosting dressed with cucumber, roast chicken stuffed Hacienda de San Antonio and her kitchen and blueberries and serrano, and tarragon.