Golok

16/09/2022

Pioneering female architect Lilian J. Rice drew on Spanish, Cuban, and Mexican adobe inspirations when designing the original 1923 guesthouse in the hills outside San Diego; in the intervening 90-plus years, the property has expanded into a 21-acre country retreat with new cottages, a spa, “coastal ranch” cuisine, and a whiskey bar inspired by the old Santa Fe Hunt Club. Guests can hit the tennis courts, join a yoga class, book a spa treatment, or play a round at the Max Behr-designed Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, which opened in 1929 and is set to complete extensive renovations this November.

16/09/2022

Twenty-six years on, Ellerman House is still everybody’s fantasy bolthole in Cape Town: minutes from the best beaches and the Table Mountain cableway, but close enough to the city and its dynamic food, art, and design scene. Sandwiched between Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape Edwardian mansion looks like a private residence from the road and that’s exactly what keeps guests coming back. Owner Paul Harris takes enormous pride in his country—his impressive collection of South African art spans original works from the turn of the last century to current contemporary art. An informal tour of the collection with one of the in-house art experts is a fascinating lesson in the country’s socio-political history. Then there are the 7,500 bottles of rare and vintage South African wines in the cellar, and the indigenous plants sourced from Kirstenbosch (Cape Town’s botanical garden) in the 1.5-acre terraced gardens. Besides the main house, there are two modern, minimalist private villas built into the granite mountainside, as well as a wine gallery, and an excellent little spa.

16/09/2022

Redeveloped by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Xintiandi is Shanghai’s car-free entertainment district, built in and around a series of 19th-century shikumen (or “stone gate”) houses. Perfectly fitting in with that old-meets-new vibe is this 357-room luxury hotel, which occupies a contemporary granite-and-glass tower inspired by Chinese latticework. Inside, at the Chuan Spa, personalized treatments incorporate the five elements of wuxing philosophy: wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. And the property is filled with other nods to traditional art and culture, including a recurring horse motif that draws on Han Dynasty imagery. Guests shouldn’t miss a meal at the Michelin-starred T’ang Court, where Cantonese dishes include roasted goose, drunken pigeon in rice wine, and bird’s nest soup with crab roe.

07/09/2022

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.

07/09/2022

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.

07/09/2022

After a three-year renovation, the former Austrian Hungarian Monarchy Bank headquarters located in Vienna’s Goldenes Quartier was transformed into the first Hyatt hotel in Austria. The 143 rooms are some of the largest in Vienna, and the location—within walking distance of St. Stephen’s Cathedral and surrounded by some of Vienna’s best shopping—makes this a luxury hotel that guests can certainly bank on.

07/09/2022

Between historic quarter The Rocks and the ferry-flocked Circular Quay, towering five-star Four Seasons Hotel Sydney has grand public areas and commands some of the best views in town. (Gazing over Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge never gets dull!) Decor in the 531 contemporary rooms and suites radiates quality, with generous windows that let the Instagram-friendly views do the talking. Sydney’s largest heated outdoor hotel pool and on-site Endota Spa will leave you feeling refreshed, with Australian-inspired, all-natural treatments, a sauna, steam room, whirlpool bath, and gym.

02/09/2022

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.

02/09/2022

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.

02/09/2022

02/09/2022