Golokon

16/09/2022

Tucked away amid the quiet, tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession, this is much more than a luxury hotel. It’s actually a cultural preservation zone—an innovative restoration of the Xuhui District’s last remaining cluster of 1930s-era shikumen townhouses, where traders and expats dwelled in the city’s golden era. In preserving this piece of Shanghai’s cultural heritage, Capella Hotels & Resorts has created its own gateway to the city’s cosmopolitan past. Under the auspices of Jaya International Design, the complex of over 200 townhouses, connected by tiny lanes, has been transformed into an urban resort of 55 luxurious villas and 40 private residences, still linked around shared courtyards and secret gardens, and now enclosing a transformative spa and wellness center (named Auriga, for the constellation in which the Capella star sits).

16/09/2022

Legend holds that on his pilgrimage across Asia, the Buddha stopped to rest where the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers merge, in the middle of what we now know as Luang Prabang. He prophesied that a rich and powerful metropolis would rise along these banks. Though that apex only lasted from the 14th to the 16th century, this Kingdom of a Million Elephants lived on for architect Bill Bensley, who celebrated this era at Rosewood’s low-slung riverside retreat. Minimalist it is not. Hilltop tents overflow with romantic touches—chubby camp beds, clawfoot tubs, silk and velvet accents. At riverfront villas, the rush of water somersaulting over time-smoothed boulders acts as nature’s alarm clock for an early morning meditation with monk-in-residence Sommaiy. Deep community ties mean guests take tea with Tiao Somsanith Nithakhong, a local royal turned patron of lost Lao arts, or join a procession of 800 saffron-clad novices gliding through rice fields and primary forests for a private blessing ceremony. Rosewood’s elephant figurine–festooned cocktail bar is a delightful aerie arched over the waterfall, and make sure to ask to see the secret boutique, stocked with finds like kaleidoscopic scarves woven by a cooperative of young disabled Laotians who are some of the town’s most promising artisans.

16/09/2022

Dublin’s Docklands are known as the “Silicon Docks,” with the European headquarters of Facebook, Google, and Airbnb all taking up residence here. The Marker Hotel, a sleek geometric building in the middle of Grand Canal Square, is the district’s unofficial landmark. There’s a hip vibe throughout, from the light-filled lobby to the bedrooms bursting with pops of color. The moodily lit infinity pool is the best in the city, with a eucalyptus-scented steam room. Open seasonally, the rooftop bar has killer views of the city and as far out as the Dublin mountains. Guests have guaranteed access—and you're guaranteed to make friends with the bartenders.

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.

07/09/2022

What if you could actually visit the Garden of Eden? And what if it was surrounded by vineyards, historic Cape Dutch farm buildings, and a formal French-style potager garden, where you could pick your own strawberries and fragrant herbs? At Babylonstoren, in the Drakenstein Valley, 33 miles northeast of Cape Town, the mythical garden comes to life. Founded in 1690, the 590-acre compound is modeled on the farms that supplied the ships making their way around the Cape of Good Hope en route to India. The cottages and suites are minimalist but stylish. You won’t find a grand lobby or an obsequious concierge here, but the staff, most of whom are wearing T-shirts, aprons, or khakis, combine a genuine eagerness to help with a high level of knowledge about the farm and its long history. Stay long enough and eventually—after a visit to the on-site bakery, the winery, the cheesemaker, the butcher, and the farm-tank-style swimming pool—you may forget that you’re staying at a hotel.

07/09/2022

The pretty Georgian manor house, all honeyed Bath stone, sits at the end of an avenue of sky-high beech and lime trees, surrounded by gardens like a Jane Austen film set. On the grounds there’s a personable cottage for weekending families, a world-class equestrian center, and a serious cooking school. But you don’t have to whip up your own supper. Chef Hywel Jones plates up exquisite food in his eponymous restaurant. That in itself is a reason to stay. So are the roaring fires, the paneled libraries, the canopied four-poster beds, and the moody oil paintings. A purposeful drive in recent years to make the place feel less formal has resulted in a cheery bounce in the staff's step, a raising of chatter levels to almost a hum in the evenings, and a relaxed atmosphere where you can wear your robe down to the ESPA spa and back again without feeling like a terrible slob. Eagle-eyed guests will spot the curious Greek elements dotted around—the urns in the bathroom, the Acropolis paintings in the dining room, the Hellenic motif on the plates. This country retreat feels resonant and rooted, delightfully British to the core.

02/09/2022

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.

02/09/2022

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.

02/09/2022

02/09/2022