Verdot

14/09/2022

Totaling 160 combined rooms and suites, this property is a collection of eight boutique hotels dotted around Doha’s Souq Waqif, the Qatari capital’s central marketplace where vendors hawk everything from spices and oud incense to gold and live falcons. The most historic of the properties is the Bismillah, the city’s oldest hotel, which dates back to the 1950s and now comprises two private residences with ornately tiled balconies overlooking the action outside. Guests can beat the desert heat with a dip in the swimming pool or a rejuvenating visit to the spa’s hammam.

14/09/2022

Together, the nine 21c Museum Hotels (and counting) comprise North America’s only multi-venue museum dedicated exclusively to 21st-century art. Opened in 2018, the Kansas City location breathes new life into the 1888 Savoy Hotel and Grill, where President Harry S. Truman was such a regular that his favorite booth is now marked with a plaque. The hotel’s gallery welcomes rotating exhibits, but guests don’t have to leave their beds to see art: Each room features photographs of penguins and Antarctic landscapes shot by brand co-founder Laura Lee Brown. Continuing that chilly theme, the 21c chain is home to a flock of four-foot-tall, recycled-plastic penguins, which the staff moves around throughout the day. The K.C. ones are sky blue, and if you fall hard for them you can pick up a ceramic replica in the gift shop.

14/09/2022

Colombia has been rising through the ranks in terms of destinations in the past decade—and you can always trust W Hotels to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the hottest trends. Opened in late 2014, W Bogota is situated right in the heart of the capital city's upscale Usaquen neighborhood, putting guests next to embassies, restaurants, and boutiques. You can expect colorful, modern decor in all 168 guest rooms—especially in the Extreme Wow Suite, which includes a king-size bed with floral canopy, an avant-garde (and purple!) circular sofa, and 180-degree views of the city's skyline. Grab brunch or dinner at the Martin Kitchen before kicking back with a drink and live music at the W Lounge. Then it's back to your room to detox before repeating it all the next day.

06/09/2022

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.

06/09/2022

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.

06/09/2022

An emblem of hyphenated hotel-world majesty, of sun-struck Riviera grandeur, of dreams of open-top two-seaters and swaying palms and broken banks at casinos and Champagne corks a-popping. Draw up to what F. Scott Fitzgerald called the “flushed façade” of this magical hotel, where Tender is the Night begins, and it’s hard not to feel you’ve arrived. Built by the proprietor of Le Figaro when it was the world’s biggest-selling newspaper, it opened as a grand hotel in 1870, and is now part of Germany’s Oetker Collection. During World War I, it became a Red Cross hospital where the nurses, the general manager noted, liked to cool off in the sea between shifts. Perhaps, he thought, there’d be potential for a summer season, come peacetime—so he had a huge heated saltwater pool blasted out of the headland. Swanky, chintzy and swagged in ormolu, bedrooms are comfortable but old-fashioned, as are the pale marble bathrooms. Rather it’s the views, the atmosphere, the vases overflowing with roses from the garden that make it so special.

06/09/2022

The first hotel in Denver’s hip Lower Highlands neighborhood sits quietly on a residential street. It’s easy to mistake the nondescript façade for just another apartment building, but the cement exterior—a nod to the industrialists who built the city—is part of the carefully crafted narrative that’s become a signature of the Life House brand. Inside, the lobby feels like a prospector’s Victorian home, with Louis XVI Bergère chairs, velvet drapes, and cowhide throws; the 16 rooms upstairs range from king suites to bunk rooms. Its restaurant, Wildflower, keeps the story going with a menu honoring the neighborhood’s original Italian and Mexican settlers. At the low-lit bar, a young crowd sips old-fashioneds, bringing the story full circle from frontier outpost to modern urban epicenter of cool.

01/09/2022

Opened in 1910 as the Bellevue Hotel, the downtown Beaux-Arts building has a long history of welcoming visitors to San Francisco. But when it re-opened in 2018 with a fresh redesign by Perkins + Will, a new era began. The rooms are decorated with expressive pops of color, statement walls, and a collection of furniture that seems to know no decade. Active travelers will be glad to hear that each room comes with its own yoga mat, and free bike rentals help you cruise around and explore the city with ease.

01/09/2022

This 32-room hotel may appear traditional thanks to its colonial facade, but guests know that the sleek Hotel Matilda is anything but: there’s a crazy video installation installed behind the front desk, and the hallways are lined with contemporary artwork. Once you get to your room, you’ll discover crisp white beds dressed with Egyptian cotton linens and adorned slate gray accents, and marble-clad bathrooms stocked with Malin + Goetz products. The infinity pool and the rooftop bar, though, are the true standouts.

01/09/2022

01/09/2022