These Are the 20 Best New Hotels in the World
From a reimagined 18th-century villa in Malta to a mountain paradise near Yellowstone National Park, these just-opened and reopened hotels are unique, chic, and guaranteed to be worth the journey.
No matter how extraordinary the destination, your choice of hotel can make or break a trip. That’s why National Geographic has put together its first ever list of the Best New Hotels in the World. From a resort in Fiji named after a legendary explorer and a women-owned hotel in Kigali, Rwanda, to a mountain paradise in rural Montana and a converted prison in Japan, these new (or newly renovated) properties around the globe ensure a journey will be unforgettable—and that the place you lay your head will be essential to the memories you make.
Why go: A pioneering South Pacific conservation retreat just got even better at carrying out its mission.
People protect what they understand. That’s been the underlying premise at Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, and after the most extensive renovation in its three-decade-plus history, it’s even better positioned to spread the philosophy of its founder, the ocean explorer (and son of Jacques) Jean-Michel Cousteau.
Set on Vanua Levu—Fiji’s quieter and less -visited, second largest island—the resort serves as a window onto the country’s marine and cultural heritage. Guests can snorkel with resident marine biologists, help restore coral reefs, learn about how endangered giant clams are being protected, and explore mangrove ecosystems within a marine sanctuary.
Younger travelers can also get into the spirit of discovery through the complimentary Bula Club and School Under the Sea, where the resort’s resident marine biologist and naturalists lead reef preservation activities, mangrove walks, glass-bottom boat excursions, rainforest exploration, and family snorkeling experiences.
The resort’s 25 bures (traditional thatched huts) have been transformed from one-bedroom retreats to two-bedroom oceanfront refuges ideal for multigenerational families. The redesign prioritized locally sourced timber and hand-crafted magimagi (woven coconut-fiber rope). Traditional lovo feasts, made with ingredients from the resort’s organic gardens and the area’s regenerative farms, help visitors understand the land and the Fijian traditions that honor it.
Rates: From approximately $1,100 per night. — Sophia Michelen
Why go now: In a country known for its open plains, this lodge in Arusha National Park is a gateway to the ecological wonders of an ancient forest.
Humans have driven old-growth forests to the brink of extinction, but they still exist in the country most famous for the Serengeti. Tanzania is home to parts of the Afromontane rainforest, the archipelago of leafy “sky islands” found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Koroi Forest Camp, a collection of eight thatched-roof bungalows—each with a fireplace for cozy evenings—sits in a clearing among the trees.
The lodge’s activities celebrate the slow and sensory, immersing guests in a biodiverse haven that is home to colobus monkeys and black ironwood, cape ash, and strangler fig trees. Each day, guests set out on foot or in a game vehicle, following ancient elephant paths through woodlands where tiny orchids bloom. Koroi is also a birder’s paradise with more than 400 known species including Hartlaub’s turacos, with their bushy crests, and sunbirds that whiz overhead like tossed jewels.
Adventurous visitors can try summiting a forest canopy or take a climbing course up one of the giant strangler figs. Guides lead treks to the iconic Ngurdoto Crater and Mount Meru, where waterfalls tumble down the volcanic slopes. Guests who go canoeing in Momella Lake may be lucky enough to spot hippos and flamingos. The family-friendly camp invites kids to be adventurers too, with activities like wandering the forest in search of colorful amphibians and mushrooms that look like they were pulled from the pages of a children’s book.
Rates: From $721; a minimum stay of two nights, for two people, is required. — Samantha Falewée
Why go: In one of the last remaining off-the-beaten-track corners of Venice, a French luxury hotel brand has opened an art- and antiques-filled palace.
On Giudecca, the island Venetians have long decamped to in order to escape the crowds of San Marco, the French hotel company Airelles has opened its first branch outside its home country. It occupies three 16th-century buildings (one the longtime home of a lacemaking institute) previously occupied by the Bauer Palladio hotel, arranged around the restored Santa Maria della Presentazione church and nearly two and a half acres of Mediterranean gardens.
Local artisans oversaw many of the decorative tasks, which included sourcing 3,000 artworks and books. The 45 rooms and suites mix antique Venetian furniture with Fortuny chandeliers, Murano glass, and Rubelli textiles—materials that were once fittingly once reserved for visiting nobles and artists. With some of the world’s biggest culinary stars—including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Norbert Niederkofler—involved, the food alone is reason enough to book a stay. Cedric Grolet, whose sculptural fruit tarts are among Paris’s most photographed deserts, handles pastry. A traditional cicchetti bar brings local flavor, while Elton’s, a piano bar designed by Elton John that opens in September, amps up the fun. At 18,300 square feet, the Guerlain spa is now the largest in Venice, with a hammam, Finnish sauna, Japanese infrared sauna, and four swimming pools.
Rates: From about $1,638 per night, including breakfast. — Jordi Lippe-McGraw
Why go: The first U.S. location of the renowned ultra-luxury hotel group brings elevated but authentic hospitality to the Greater Yellowstone area.
One&Only Moonlight Basin is the first alpine hotel for the Dubai-based hotel company known for creating singular experiences close to the sand and sea. The 240-acre alpine retreat is spread along one side of Lone Peak, above the beloved Montana ski town of Big Sky, on 17,000 acres of protected land in a wildlife migration corridor where moose, elk, bears, and bobcats roam. The sleek, minimalist lodges and cabins are deliberately built low among the second-growth lodgepole lines, so that in a few years they’ll disappear entirely beneath the forest canopy.
Most ski resorts go quiet once the snow melts, but not this one. Summer brings paddleboarding and fly-fishing at Lee’s Pools, the resort’s two private alpine lakes, as well as horseback riding in the nearby Lee Metcalf Wilderness and day trips to Yellowstone, an hour away. Winter turns the same trails over to Nordic skiing and snowshoeing, while a private heated gondola takes guests to the slopes of Big Sky Resort in five minutes flat. Throughout the year, the resort’s private observatory offers views through a high-powered telescope of some of the darkest skies in the lower 48.
The hotel’s six restaurants and bars include the Michelin-starred Akira Back, known for its wagyu and sushi, and Moonshack, a speakeasy-style cabin next to the observatory that serves top-shelf whiskeys. The 17,000-square-foot spa offers countless ways to unwind, including treatments that use Montana minerals, like amethyst and red jasper, and an indoor lap pool that opens onto a cold plunge and an onsen. A personal host is always on call for anything from making restaurant reservations to tracking down gear.
Rates: From $1,200, room only. — Jordi Lippe-McGraw
Why go now: After a major renovation to its historic building, this small Mendocino hotel has become an even purer expression of California’s untamed northern coast.
Harbor House Inn sits along a rugged stretch of Highway 1 in Elk, a former logging town of only a few hundred residents, in a shingled redwood lodge built in 1916 for the Goodyear Lumber Company to show off the quality of its product. Despite its isolated location in a place where fog can linger for days, winter storms often close the cliff-hugging two lane road, and cell phone service is spotty at best, the hotel has received both a Michelin Green Star and a Michelin Key.
The Pacific sets the tone for the Harbor House experience. When the weather is calm, guests can descend to sea level via a private path that passes a waterfall. At the bottom is Greenwood Cove, where harbor seals, sea lions, river otters, and even deer are often seen. There are no Adirondack chairs or beach umbrellas here; aside from the driftwood sculptures and abalone shells artfully arranged by previous visitors, you’ll find little evidence of human intervention.
Executive chef Matthew Kammerer helms a nightly 12-course tasting menu that shifts with the seasons and the tides. He makes ample use of foraged sea vegetables—his preferred term for marine plants—from the sea-lettuce butter on local rockfish to the dulse glaze for Dungeness crab. Tempura maitake is served with purple sea urchin plucked from the tide pools below; harvesting these voracious grazers also helps pressured ecosystems regenerate. In a similar vein, because California’s wild abalone fishery has been closed for recovery since 2018, Kammerer sources the iconic north coast delicacy from an aquaculture farm south in Monterey, serving it poached in a sake broth with rice enriched by its own liver. Turning to the pasture, the menu might also feature lamb from nearby Stewarts Point, aged and smoked over coastal cypress, conifers whose windswept silhouettes are one of the most ubiquitous shapes on this coastline.
The year-long renovation reimagined the property's 11 guest rooms and cottages with what creative director Jeffrey Bruce calls “honest colors” drawn from the coast’s elemental landscape. All offer views of the ocean and Wharf Rock, a natural arch rising offshore. The hotel’s study references nearby Navarro River Redwoods State Park with its dark palette and natural-fiber chandeliers that cast rays of light, suggesting the sun filtering through the forest canopy. Artifacts from the owner’s private collection—including an enormous fossilized water lily and a cross-section of a petrified redwood, so heavy the reception floor required reinforcement—anchor the inn in deep time, connecting it to the forces that shaped the north coast for millennia, long before Harbor House arrived on its bluff above the Pacific.
Rates: From $720 per night; dinner $350 per person. — Leiliani Marie Labong
Why go: After a five-year restoration, this historic property offers an authentic immersion into one of France’s most renowned wine regions.
Château la Commaraine, a wine estate in the Burgundian village of Pommard, has an impressive pedigree that dates to the 12th century. Its previous owners comprise a who’s who of French aristocracy, and its illustrious guests have included Thomas Jefferson, who is said to have been so captivated by the region’s wines during a 1787 visit that he purchased more than 100 bottles.
The Founding Father would have been thrilled by the château’s newest chapter. In April 2026, a highly anticipated five-year restoration culminated in the château’s transformation into a 37-key hotel with an on-site winery. The exquisitely designed space celebrates Burgundian culture and tradition, with many rooms overlooking the nine-acre Clos de la Commaraine vineyard, recognized as a prized premier cru monopole—a top single-owner estate. In the Signature Suites, visitors will find wines made from the very grapes they can see from their rooms.
But you don’t have to be a wine expert to appreciate the property. The vineyard invites picturesque strolls, even in the rain (boots and rain jackets are provided in each room). There’s also a full-service spa with a steam room and a cold plunge, plus a 59-foot heated outdoor pool. Two restaurants—one in a vaulted space that was formerly a cellar—serve dishes highlighting the area and the vineyard. The charming shops of Pommard and the Michelin-starred restaurant Auprès du Clocher are steps away, while further charming villages lie within biking distance, making Château la Commaraine a quintessential Burgundian experience.
Rates: Rooms from $705. — Blane Bachelor
Why go: A one-of-a-kind eco-resort has added a remote village to bring visitors even closer to the world’s largest tropical wetland.
Guests arriving at Caiman, Pantanal are greeted by a 131,000-acre area of floodplain, lake, grassland, and endless sky. Capybaras gather near the water, while giant anteaters amble through the grass and hyacinth macaws fly in a flutter of royal blue. Amid all this wild nature, three buildings (Casa Caiman and two villas) with a total of 31 rooms give the impression of a small safari outpost. Each structure has its own outdoor swimming pool, a spacious lounge, a communal dining room, and a firepit for slow evenings under the Pantanal’s endless skies.
Casa Caiman, a converted farmhouse that was formerly owner Roberto Klabin’s private home, now serves as the main lodge, with 18 rooms. Villa Baiazinha offers a more private six-room stay. The newest and most exclusive option, Villa Cordilheira, lies about 10 miles from the main area. Designed by the sustainably minded Brazilian architect Lucio Fleury, it has seven rooms that can hold up to 16 guests, hammocks, and open-air living spaces. The villa also comes with a private chef, vehicles, dedicated guides, and even a gym.
With such amenities guests could be forgiven for indulging in lazy days around the property, but Caiman’s role as a field base for several important conservation projects serves as an invitation to get out into the Pantanal. Biologists and naturalists from organizations such as Onçafari and Instituto Arara Azul (Hyacinth Macaw Institute) live and conduct research on-site, giving visitors the chance to see their work in action. During an Onçafari experience, guests can learn how radio collars, telemetry, and field monitoring help researchers understand jaguars’ movements, hunting behavior, and family interactions. On an Instituto Arara Azul safari, guests can accompany researchers as they check tree cavities for eggs or chicks, demonstrating how challenging it can be to protect a bird that depends on one tree species for nesting and another for food.
Rates: Casa Caiman starts at $1,533 per room, per night, full board, plus a $200 environmental fee per guest. Villa Cordilheira starts at $16,800 per night for the entire villa, with a three-night minimum. Villa Baiazinha is $10,390 per night. — Emese Maczko
Why go: A multimillion-dollar update brings fresh style—and pickleball courts—to a vintage hotel on a famously pink beach in the Bahamas.
The powdery sands of Harbour Island get their rosy hue from the pinkish shells of foraminifera, a microscopic organism that grows on coral. But the identical shade on the pickleball courts of Coral Sands, a beloved 1968 beachfront inn with cottages, is the result of a multiyear renovation that layers on the Caribbean charm and adds modern amenities such as an open-air gym.
Guests arrive at “Briland”—the nickname for this skinny, three-and-a-quarter-mile-long island—via a five-minute water taxi trip from nearby Eleuthera. A quick golf cart ride past Dunmore Town’s pastel-colored cottages deposits them at Coral Sands, where 41 rooms and cottages sprawl along the island’s Atlantic shore. Guest quarters and public spaces riff on Bahamian landscapes and culture as well as the property’s own history, which began when Hollywood actor Brett King and his wife, Sharon, founded the resort more than half a century ago, immediately drawing a jet-setting crowd. Rooms feature wallpaper festooned with native flowers, four-poster rattan beds, and vintage maps of the Bahamas. Pink is everywhere, including on some of the clawfoot tubs.
The Pink Mermaid restaurant serves Italian fare with a Caribbean twist (think conch pizza and spiny lobster capellini) in a space with scallop-shell-shaped barstools, pale clapboard ceilings, and a dazzling chandelier crafted from shells and coral. Harbour Island’s wandering chickens can be spotted outside around the freshwater pool, while their likenesses show up as lamp bases, on wallpaper, and—cast in brass—as guestroom key fobs.
Rates: From around $900. — Jennifer Barger
Why go: After a two-year makeover, a 19th-century beaux arts icon in the Black Forest has emerged as a modern wellness temple.
When the Brenners Park Hotel opened in Baden-Baden in 1872, it was called the Stephaniebad, after the adopted daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte. A lengthy renovation has tapped into that origin story while injecting the landmark property with a joie de vivre that even the one of history’s most notorious military figures could appreciate. Palacelike in its details, the hotel contains 104 rooms decked out in precious materials—luminous statuario marble bathrooms, antique chests sourced from Black Forest woods, and Frette linens—in a palette of calming blues from periwinkle to delft.
In some rooms, French doors open to balconies overlooking the tree-lined Lichtentaler Allee and Oos River. If the sound of a babbling river isn’t enough to lull you to sleep, ask for one of the 15 rooms outfitted with a “digital detox” button, which activates copper-shielded walls engineered to block 99 percent of all Wi-Fi, cellular signals, and electromagnetic radiation for optimal deep sleep. Such details aren’t surprising, because at its heart this has always been a wellness hotel. The spa and clinic span four floors, carrying on this UNESCO-designated town’s long healing tradition, which dates back to the Romans’ discovery two millennia ago of 12 natural hot springs. The glass-encased, heated swimming pool nods to this history with its stylized pillars and columns.
Other areas, including the saunas, thermal pools, and steam rooms, update the health spa for the modern age. Many of the trendier wellness activities of the moment, including cold plunges and a 1,291-square-foot TechnoGym, are available. Massages and facials use indulgent Augustinus Bader products, while the clinic evokes the era of the sanatorium, with white-coated physicians shepherding guests to various treatment rooms for cryotherapy sessions, ultrasounds and ECG scans, and vitamin IV drips. It’s an apt reminder that while the Romans saw Baden-Baden as a place to ease the strain of a growing empire, Brenners has always been a place where time stops entirely.
Rates: From $757 per night. — Adam H. Graham
Why go: The visionary behind one of the wildest and most remote luxury resorts in Southeast Asia has found another untouched island where he is seeking to work his magic.
Few international travelers had heard of the Indonesian island of Sumba when the nature-focused luxury resort NIHI Sumba opened there in 2015 on the site of a former surf camp. Co-founder James McBride turned the remote enclave into a blueprint for high-end hospitality with a conscience, with a foundation that funds malaria clinics, water tanks, and nutrition programs across Sumba, in addition to caring for the resort’s famous horses, whose frolicking along white-sand beaches has launched countless viral Instagram moments.
Now McBride hopes to repeat the feat on a very different kind of island. While Sumba is hilly and wild, Rote offers a flat landscape of rice paddies that has been transformed by the addition of millions of newly planted (and entirely native) oleander, bougainvillea, and palms. The 21 spacious villas, spa, and Nammo Beach Club at NIHI Rote will enchant even the most jaded traveler, but the most noteworthy feature might be the Rote Hospitality Academy, a training school for young Rotanese established in 2023, which now sits at the center of the resort. This is where guest check-in happens, a process likely to be overseen by one of the dozens of graduates who already staff the property. A one-hour helicopter link will soon connect the two NIHI properties for visitors who want to do both, but getting to either isn’t easy. But Rote’s remoteness is part of the point.
Rates: From $1,500, including food and nonalcoholic drinks. — Annie Fitzsimmons
Why go: The new home of the Sundance Film Festival is also the site of the largest all-electric hotel in the United States, which is putting forth a new vision for sustainable hospitality.Every ounce of Colorado’s nearly 300 annual days of sunshine seems to pour into the airy Limelight Boulder, where guests arrive to a pet-friendly lobby styled like a family living room. Other social spaces include the Viewpoint Deck, with its heated pool and stunning view of the Flatirons; the indoor-outdoor lobby bar; and the Den, a favorite for foosball lovers. When guests get hungry, Ajax Tavern is famed for its double cheeseburger and at the wellness-focused Crepe Therapy Café renowned chef Mawa McQueen’s menu features an extensive selection of the rolled pancakes, including vegan options.
The hotel derives local flavor from Colorado artists Theresa Clowes, Nancy Lovendahl, Kim Dickey, and Julie Maren, whose work is displayed in the public spaces, and its unique location on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, which makes the Limelight a preferred hangout after Buffaloes football games. The eclectic shops and restaurants of University Hill are steps away; only slightly further off are the boutiques and vintage shops of Pearl Street Mall, as well as Boulder’s iconic Dushanbe Teahouse, a cultural landmark built, carved, and painted by Tajikistani artisans in Boulder’s sister city of Dushanbe. The hotel offers complimentary rides in its electric Audi to destinations such as Chautauqua Park, with its breathtaking hiking trails. Limelight is also a perfect home base for attendees of Sundance, which will begin its new life in Boulder in January 2027.
Befitting the eco-minded city, Limelight has enacted numerous environmentally friendly policies, from composting food waste and eliminating single-use plastics to using electricity for heating, cooling, powering, and other day-to-day operations. Ajax’s kitchen is outfitted with high-efficiency appliances and induction cooktops that don’t rely on gas lines; instead of gas-powered boilers, the hotel uses high-volume hot water storage that heats up during off-peak hours. Limelight Boulder is a place for guests to have a big experience while leaving a small footprint.
Rates: From $224 per night. — Mark Jason Williams
Why go: Reopened after 2024’s devastating wildfires, this storied retreat in Jasper National Park is giving guests renewed access to one of the darkest of Canada’s dark skies.
Two years after being badly damaged by fire, this 104-year-old sanctuary has reopened following a multimillion-dollar renovation that had introduced elements referencing the UNESCO-designated landscape around the hotel. In the lobby and patio, blue hues echo the colors of Beauvert Lake and the Whistlers mountain, while carved woods, natural textures, and works by Canadian artists further establish a sense of place.
The culinary experience at the Jasper Park Lodge has been seriously elevated by the addition of three new restaurants: Lume, which serves craft cocktails and plant-forward bites; Elderwood, offering locally inspired, family-style meals; and Barbicon, the place to come when all you really want is a hearty steak. Multigenerational groups will benefit from the spacious accommodations in the lodge and private cabins, as well as the concierge, who can help plan adventures like foraging and picnicking excursions accessed via helicopter, kayaking, and guided glacier walks. The Great Outdoors also stars in the resort’s “wellness without walls” philosophy, with offerings like a cold plunge in the glacial waters of Beauvert Lake followed by a session in an outdoor barrel sauna.
Staying within the massive dark-sky preserve has other mind-body benefits, too. The on-site Jasper Planetarium affords offers both indoor stargazing and outdoor experiences like glimpsing the aurora borealis and viewing the solar system using powerful telescopes.
Rates: From $300 in the low season and from $1,000 in the summer high season. — Amy Brecount White
Why go: A contemporary reimagining of the traditional Korean hanok blends wellness, culture, and slow travel amid a lush forest a few hours from Seoul.
Built over more than a decade, this peaceful retreat on 80 acres of forested mountainside in the eastern province of Gangwon reinterprets the hanok, Korea’s traditional sloped-roof dwelling, for modern living. With its hand-joined wooden ceilings, tiled roofs, and courtyard layouts, it echoes the architectural rhythms of Jongmyo, Seoul’s UNESCO-designated ancestral royal shrine.
Inside the compound, 20 rooms and five private villas prioritize stillness over scale.
Outside, areas like the Pine Tree Garden and lakeside Pond Garden invite forest bathing, serene strolls, and grounding meditation beneath native pines. Later this year, the hotel will see the opening of Raonjae, a dedicated wellness center with an infinity pool, an indoor pool, and a jjimjilbang, a traditional Korean sauna.
Cultural programs at Hanok Heritage Hotel provide further historical context through architecture tours, tea ceremonies, styling hanboks (Korea’s traditional formal garb), and folk games such as Yutnori and Tuho. Culinary options include the all-day restaurant Namu; fine dining at Monto; and the nightly Sulsi dining program in the hotel’s starlight pavilion, which pairs classic Korean liquors, like Sejong Daewang Eoju, with small seasonal delicacies, or juansang.
Rates: Standard rooms from $740 per night, including breakfast and Sulsi; villas from $3,960, with breakfast and dinner included. — Maggie Kim
Why go: A clever conversion in Japan’s original imperial seat offers guests an immersive peek into the country’s history and culture.
Yes, this imposing hotel was once a penitentiary. But the architects of Hoshinoya Nara Prison Hotel have transformed the building in imaginative and welcoming ways. The last of five prisons built during the Meiji era (1868-1912), the structure was designed in a radial style so the central guard station could monitor inmates who might try to escape; now the former cell blocks have been transformed into 48 suites with deep soaking tubs, high ceilings, and large windows. The design preserves the building’s tile roofs, redbrick exterior, and exposed beams.
The communal area has been opened up to create an airy lounge ideal for sipping wakōcha, or black tea, sourced from nearby Tsukigase, or joining an evening perfume-blending class. Afterward, guests can head to the dining section for traditional meals like shabu shabu, along with unexpected fusion dishes, including hamburger steak in miso sauce.
An art gallery reminds guests of the hotel’s former life. Some works, like that of fiber artist Yoshinari Nishio, incorporate artifacts, such as poems written by children who were imprisoned here from 1946 to 2017, when it was Nara Juvenile Prison. The Nara Prison Museum offers additional background, while the gardens and private decks surrounding a serene courtyard offer space for quiet contemplation. It’s an easy walk or rickshaw ride to Todaiji temple and the Heijo Palace grounds, both UNESCO World Heritage sites which further elucidate the history of a city that was once Japan’s flourishing capital.
Rates: From $688 per night. — Amy Brecount White
Why go: An intimate boutique hotel offers a new reason to linger in Rwanda’s capital city, which travelers are increasingly recognizing as a destination in its own right, not just a pit stop before gorilla trekking.
Sheila Kyarisiima, the founder of the Pinnacle Kigali, is the first Black woman to open a luxury hotel in Rwanda. The nine-room sanctuary atop Reboro Hill, which opened in January of 2026, was once her private residence and the welcoming feeling remains; from Ishami Rooftop Terrace, whose Kinyarwanda name means “branch of a tree,” the hotel seems to reach out toward Kigali, inviting everyone below to come and stay awhile.
Inside, Kyarisiima’s design choices draw guests deeper into Rwandan culture. Sculptures by local studios Mwinda Art and 42nd Street showcase traditional symbols such as long-horned cows evoking prosperity, tribal shields signifying protection, bead necklaces, and bygone Rwandan hairstyles. Rooms like Royal Respite, with its rainforest-green accents and bold black-and-white patterns, reference the country’s shared visual language.
Days unfold around the heated saltwater infinity pool, spa, and padel courts before continuing indoors at the 21-seat cinema, bowling alley, and whiskey bar. The Pinnacle also serves as a gathering place for Kigali locals, private-club members, and international visitors. The idea is simple but powerful: For a deeper encounter with the real Rwanda, remain longer in Kigali before embarking on an excursion somewhere like Akagera National Park, a National Geographic Best of the World 2026 destination. For newcomers, it’s the perfect distillation of the country’s art, food, and warm hospitality.
Rates: From $3,090 per night, including airport transfer, butler service, breakfast, minibar, laundry, daily activities, and a welcome meal. — Emese Maczko
Why go: This solar-powered lodge on the edge of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park offers unparalleled views of elephants and Mount Kilimanjaro.
Visitors arriving at the 128-acre Kitirua Plains Lodge might not even notice the hotel as they approach. That’s by design. The curved roofs mimic the undulating topography of the savanna, while the exterior wall blends in with the surrounding soil. Inside, ash gray Mazeras stone, sourced from the area, covers the floors, evoking the dust kicked up by the livestock grazed by Maasai tribes.
The earthy color palette keeps the focus on Mount Kilimanjaro, visible on clear days through floor-to-ceiling windows in the 11 one-bedroom guest suites. The generously sized bathrooms include deep bathtubs and indoor and outdoor showers that frame those spectacular mountain vistas. An additional pair of two-bedroom suites face the marshlands—an ideal vantage point for glimpsing wildlife pausing for a drink.
Guests on game drives follow trails along the park’s salt pan in search of elephants, Grant’s zebras, and wildebeests. Back at the lodge, they can take a dip in the infinity pool or try a Maasai Red Earth Ritual spa treatment, inspired by Kenya’s fertile crimson soils. There is also a nearby Maasai village to visit, where elders will talk about living in harmony with the wildlife of Amboseli. Each evening brings a five-course dinner highlighting local ingredients and traditional flavors, such as fire-roasted lamb and mukimo (mashed potatoes with vegetables), paired with South African wines. Afterward, guests can wind down around the fire listening to Maasai elders tell stories about village life.
Rates: From $788 per person per night. — Liz Humphreys
Why go: Near the northern tip of Scotland, a hotel in a historic estate gives travelers an up-close look at the rewilding efforts that have been underway here since 2006.
Backed by the Danish businessman Anders Povlsen, the 20-year-old Scottish nature preserve known as WildLand is among the most ambitious private conservation projects in the world. Stretching across three regions of the northern Highlands—the Cairngorms, Loch Ness, and Sutherland—it offers visitors 220,000 acres of native forests and peatlands left to grow and regenerate on their own, without human intervention. Lovers of wild, untamed nature who have long been coming to stay at WildLand’s assortment of hotels, cottages, and castles now have another option: Hope, a restored 19th-century hunting lodge in the shadow of Ben Hope Mountain, about two hours north of Inverness.
The main house, which is available for buyouts, features seven guest rooms, each with a Gaelic name, in addition to a cabin and two cottages. The interiors, by the Cape Town-based firm of Cecile & Boyd, are outfitted in oak and heavy on natural textures like tweed and flax. Itineraries are built around nature’s daily rhythms, which could mean cold-water swimming and paddleboarding followed by a seafood-driven menu on a “water day,” with guide-led excursions around the estate. Stays are all-inclusive, with meals and experiences included in the room rate. Hope is a perfect addition to a WildLand circuit, with a couple of nights here combined with other beloved properties around the preserve, like Killiehuntly Farmhouse and Aldourie Castle.
Rates: From about $1,460 per room per night for all-inclusive stays (with house drinks). — Annie Fitzsimmons
Why go: In the island's less developed interior, a charming 18th-century villa offers a portal to a world of citrus groves, noble estates, and centuries of history.
Like Croatia and Iceland, Malta attracted a new generation of travelers after being used as a location in Game of Thrones. The English-speaking Mediterranean island nation’s 300 days of sunshine a year and three UNESCO World Heritage sites have also helped draw visitors, as have a number of new resorts. Most of the snazzy new development has taken place on the coast of the island of Malta (the largest and most populated in the archipelago), but in the interior—where historic palazzi turned villas are a reminder of Malta’s aristocratic past—a more thoughtful wave of restoration is unfolding.
Case in point: Casa Bonavita, housed in the 1715 home of a family of Venetian nobles in the historic village of Attard, which opened in May 2026 as a 17-room boutique hotel and makes an ideal base for exploring area’s ancient orchards and quiet towns. Each room is unique, with an aesthetic derived from the villa’s history. Guests can expect elegant details such as Maltese antiques, Murano glass, Sicilian marble, and regional ceramics. Some rooms and suites have private terraces, balconies, freestanding bathtubs, and garden access. Two pools sit within Mediterranean gardens, private oases behind the villas limestone facade planted with fragrant trees, orange bougainvillea, and date palms. A spa lined with intricate Moroccan tile includes a sauna with a cold plunge.
At the restaurant, Dex Oseman, formerly of London’s beloved River Café, oversees a menu of housemade zucchini ravioli, spaghetti vongole with local clams, chargrilled sea bass, and spring lamb, alongside Mediterranean classics such as buffalo mozzarella, beef carpaccio, and tomato gazpacho.
Rates: From about $445 a night. — Andrew Nelson
Why go: Located on 60 protected acres of the Riviera Maya, this reborn resort connects guests with the region’s varied landscapes and rich Mayan culture.
With 182 rooms, suites, and villas arrayed among mangroves, lagoons, and jungle, Alila Mayakoba beautifully balances wilderness and comfort. A former Andaz that reopened in February 2026 after a stem-to-stern renovation, the resort is full of nods to the region, from the cenote-themed lobby to the refreshing welcome beverage, a locally harvested coconut water infused with Yucatán honey and regional botanicals. The cozy rooms feature regional materials, custom furnishings by Mexican artisans, and an open-air design that’s ideal for a well-earned siesta after a day in the sun. The suites have private plunge pools overlooking the lagoon or the beach, making them the dreamiest places in the hotel to watch the sun go down.
The resort’s six restaurants all feature dishes made with seasonal Mexican ingredients. The award-winning Casa Amate, an homage to the artistry of Latin American cooking, has been carried over from the hotel’s previous incarnation, while the 12-seat chef’s table at El Huerto, conceived as a culinary laboratory, sources ingredients from the on-property garden. At Spa Alila, treatments range from muscle-soothing hydrotherapy to a revitalizing eye treatment drawn from Maya rituals, such as the Ixchel water blessing, performed by a local Maya elder.
Rates: From $620 a night. — Michelle Gross
Why go: Now fully restored after back-to-back hurricanes, the cheerful getaway on the island’s southern coast has become a testament to community resilience.
Since being founded in 1993 as a seaside restaurant with just a couple of guestrooms, this eccentric, colorful boho escape has become both a design icon and a community tourism pioneer, hiring and training locals as staff and buying food from the farmers and fishermen of Treasure Beach. After Hurricanes Beryl and Melissa brought devastation in 2024 and 2025 to surrounding St. Elizabeth, the quiet, coastal parish known as the breadbasket of Jamaica, Jakes Hotel chairman Jason Henzell raised nearly $J125 million (about $790,000) to restore the area’s homes and schools.
On-site, Jakes refreshed its rooms, pool, and menu of elevated Caribbean dishes that honor the hotel’s culinary roots. Set along the craggy coast and connected by meandering garden paths, the cottages and villas have names like Cockles and Octopussy, and countless whimsical details, like decorative walls embedded with glass bottles that cast rainbows. Large decks, outdoor showers, and cliffside tubs connect inside and out, showcasing Jakes’ finest amenity—the ocean.
Outside the rooms, the Driftwood Spa offers rooftop yoga while the freshwater pool is a relaxing spot for sunbathing and sipping a rum punch from the thatch-roofed Dougie’s Bar. Jakes Restaurant highlights seasonal, locally sourced gastronomy, while the seaside Jack Sprat lets diners swim and relax on the beach while waiting for their curried conch and jerk chicken to arrive. Everywhere guests go, they’re treated to a very Jamaican style of unrushed hospitality defined by creativity, culture, and a deep connection to the locale.
Rates: From $175 a night. — by Ruth C. White
Why go: Antoni Porowski, the host of National Geographic’s Best of the World, recommends this cozy escape with top-tier service in the heart of Paris’s Little Tokyo.
Blending Japanese ryokan-inspired minimalism with the opulence of belle epoque Paris, this 26-room sanctuary in the 2nd feels at once luxurious and lived-in. Its recent makeover by Parisian interior designer Laura Gonzalez uses natural woods, velvets, patterned fabrics, Pierre Frey textiles, and artful contrasts to create a serene, sophisticated atmosphere that feels especially welcome after a day spent navigating the throngs.
As appealing as the hotel’s design-forward character is, however, the biggest star is the relaxed but attentive service. Hotel Hana is small enough that requests are handled quickly yet polished enough to deliver the comforts you’d expect of a luxury hotel in one of the most stylish cities on earth. The staff’s genuine hospitality and thoughtful touches—from the chamomile tea delivered to your room in the evening to the knowledgeable servers always ready to talk you through the restaurant menu—are what makes Hotel Hana Paris feel like a home away from home.
This quality extends to Hanabi, the hotel’s French-Japanese restaurant, which serves a classic French continental breakfast with artisanal pastries from the renowned Paris bakery Maison Lalos as well as a traditional Japanese breakfast featuring ochazuke, a savory rice soup. At dinner, try Japanese-inflected dishes like the roasted miso fish, and don’t miss the sourdough with buckwheat butter.
And you can’t beat the location. The hotel sits on Rue du Quatre Septembre between Opéra Garnier and the Palais Brongniart, less than a block from the Quatre-Septembre Metro. The Louvre, Galeries Lafayette, and the LGBTQ+-friendly Marais are all easy to reach on foot. The streets of Little Tokyo offer their own reward, particularly for ardent lovers of French-Japanese food and neighborhood noodle shops. Paris’s grand dames are extraordinary, without question, but sometimes you want to return in the evening to a place that’s quiet, intimate, thoughtfully designed, and above all, distinctly its own.
Rate: From $335 per night.
