Dergum

21/08/2022

The Gwen is named for Gwen Lux, a Chicago-born, pioneering female sculptor of the 20th century, and a fitting icon for the Chicago installment of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, which aims to make each hotel reflect the character of its place. The Gwen, located on the city’s famed Magnificent Mile and in the landmark McGraw-Hill building—with its 1928 facade wholly preserved—does just that. Art deco interiors with taupe- and gold-hued rooms emanate old-fashioned glamour and chic modernity all at once. The rooftop bar and restaurant, Upstairs at the Gwen, is buzzy as can be when the weather is nice, and your best shot for mingling with a crowd beyond the hotel’s typical guests on business travel.

21/08/2022

Walking into the W’s first Middle Eastern outpost is like entering a never-ending party: Chill-out music plays in the sleek lobby (even at 8 a.m.), and the handsome staff from Mexico, New Zealand, Tanzania, and Russia, among other countries, hand each arriving guest a mocktail. The hotel’s Sisley Paris Spa and restaurants (there's Papermoon Milan and Peruvian spot COYA) are attracting expats and locals eager for a more global experience. The 442 rooms are filled with curves: rounded frames for the desks and bed platforms, arabesques on walls and curtains, and circular chairs positioned to take in the seafront or the evolving skyline of starchitect skyscrapers. Business travelers will appreciate the convenient location in the West Bay financial district, the attentive service, and the lap pool with resistance current.

21/08/2022

The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal is a grandiose, glistening example of Middle Eastern opulence. Case in point: the Ritz-Carlton Suite, which clocks in at 1,356 square feet, has a stylish four-poster bed, spacious powder room, full marble bathroom with a soaking tub, a color therapy shower, separate living and dining areas, a kitchen, and two terraces overlooking the Grand Canal. The 21,500-square-foot Bedouin spa, a short ride from the hotel, is a standalone oasis with a private beach, 16 treatment rooms, plunge pools, saunas, and a plethora of luxurious treatments. Families can make use of Ritz Kids, available daily for children ages four to 12. Those keen on visiting the mosque and learning more about the cultural landmark can catch the hotel shuttle, which runs every 30 minutes.

07/08/2022

This is a Four Seasons, so you can expect seamless service and a lot of greige carpeting. However, this particular outpost is somewhat unique in that so many big names were tapped for its creation: floral designer Jeff Leatham, composer Brian Eno, architect Norman Foster, and chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Greg Vernick. Their contributions along with expansive skyline views from every vantage point on the property and passionate, genuine service could make this the beginning of a transformation of Philadelphia's hotel scene.

07/08/2022

The staff at this hotel in Belgravia near Hyde Park “go out of their way to do anything and everything to make your stay terrific”—all while wearing uniforms designed by Giorgio Armani. The weathered brick and Portland stone building has interiors colored to evoke the five elements. Rooms, reached via a corridor of black corrugated wood paneling, are mostly in shades of white with accents of brown and purple, and have Sapele hardwood veneers and Egyptian cotton linens. Nahm offers contemporary Thai cuisine like quail salad with sour-plum leaves.

07/08/2022

Life isn’t perfect. That’s why we have places like Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, where the world’s most glamorous people descend every summer to live on what feels like an impeccably styled film set. The last day of my most recent stay here—the one I had reserved to spend entirely by its swimming pool, cut into rocks overlooking a glittering blue Mediterranean Sea—turned out to be gray and overcast. By this time, I had already experienced the other attractions: the rose garden, the tennis courts, the private cabanas where I enjoyed a massage, the restaurants that manage to feel casually chic in the day and all dressed up at night, and the Manolo Valdés exhibition on its perfectly manicured lawns, where pine trees are being carefully planted to eventually replace the imposing ones standing now. This is a place where nostalgia is kept alive, where corridors are filled with photographs of its most famous guests from the past 150 years, where golden sunshine infuses everyone and everything with an air of romance, so that your time here feels lengthened and expanded, and etched in memory no matter how short your visit actually is. You will leave so well taken care of, so well fed, so intoxicated by the heady, fragrant summer breeze that even a cold final day on the French Riviera will not taint your mood. Instead, it will seem like just a little twist in the plot, enough to make you believe that the rest of your life is pretty perfect after all. Doubles from $740. —Divia Thani

30/07/2022

At this stately Vancouver Island hotel only three miles from downtown Victoria, it’s not uncommon to look out from your balcony or from the waterfront mineral pools and see pods of orcas swimming close to the shore. The 100-room hotel is inspired by an English manor house, complete with Tudor-influenced architectural touches and a charming pub serving halibut tempura and seafood chowder. While the property and the surrounding seaside village may evoke the old world, the Boathouse Spa is firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest thanks to treatments that incorporate seaweed and marine clay.

30/07/2022

Perhaps the most celeb-beloved hotel in London, the building lives up to the hype: it’s a flouncy, fiery red-brick former fire station between trendy Marylebone High Street and Baker Street. The 26 rooms go all-out with retro British glamor, super-luxe beds with custom-made sheets, working fireplaces, and heated bathroom floors, and all but two rooms have working gas fireplaces. The restaurant—usually booked up months in advance—holds back tables for hotel guests (order the crab-stuffed donuts with wasabi and chopped egg).

30/07/2022

30/07/2022