Here's Your New Travel Bucket List, Courtesy of the 2019 ELLE Decor Travel A-List
For 10 years running, ELLE Decor has published our annual A-List of the top interior designers in the world. Now, we’re introducing our Travel A-List—a compendium of the best hotels, cruises, airlines, and destinations across the globe, all with a strong focus on design. So read on to see the winners in each category, and be sure to let us know whether you agree or disagree with our selections.
AIRPLANE INTERIOR
Winner: Etihad Airways
Poltrona Frau leather seats, mezze platters, and the best entertainment in the skies. First-class suites boast the most room if you’re not flying private.
Runners-up:
CRUISES, POOL VILLAS & HOME RENTALS
Winner: Seabourn
Seabourn designs scaled-down ocean liners with the stylish ambience of a megayacht—add cuisine by Thomas Keller and a Dr. Weil spa, and it’s luxury on the high seas.
Runners-up:
DESIGN DESTINATION
Winner: Portugal
Go for the azulejos (hand-painted tiles) alone. Add singular new boutique hotels, freshly restored monuments, and pasteis de nata—the local custard tarts entrancing foodies around the globe—and it is no wonder Portugal is a top destination for design aficionados.
LOBBY
Winner: Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club, Surfside, Florida
Joseph Dirand’s masterful, palm-filled lobby has restored the glamour of this 1930s Florida landmark, a former haunt of Elizabeth Taylor and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Runners-up:
Conservatorium, Amsterdam
The Durham Hotel, Durham, North Carolina
Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, Bali, Indonesia
The Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
L’Arlatan, Arles, France
La Purificadora, Puebla, Mexico
Royal Mansour, Marrakech
GARDENS
Winner: Babylonstoren, Simondium, South Africa
This 17th-century wine estate on South Africa’s Western Cape has eight acres of edible and medicinal organic gardens designed by French architect Patrice Taravella. A stream flows through it, irrigating wild olive trees and feeding ponds packed with lotus and lilies.
Runners-up:
Borgo Santo Pietro, Palazzetto, Italy
Como Shambhala Estate, Payangan, Bali, Indonesia
Durslade Farmhouse, Somerset, England
Hacienda de San Antonio, Comala, Mexico
Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, Machu Picchu Pueblo, Peru
San Ysidro Ranch, Montecito, California
The Siam, Bangkok
GUEST ROOM/SUITE
Winner: Holy Deer, San Lorenzo City Lodge, Rome
This 17th-century palazzo suite (where Pope Innocent X once housed his mistress) has frescoed bedrooms and cashmere-lined closets, in a stunning restoration by designers Stefano and Giorgia Barbini.
Runners-up:
Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden, Palma de Majorca, Spain
Palácio Belmonte, Lisbon, Portugal
Sea Island, Georgia
Suján Rajmahal Palace, Jaipur, India
The Tribeca Penthouse in the Greenwich Hotel, New York City
HOTELIER/HOTEL GROUP
Winner: Firmdale Hotels (Kit Kemp)
Co-owner and creative director Kit Kemp blends classic English whimsy and style with a bold palette and contemporary art and craft at this chain’s boutique hotels in London and New York.
Runners-up:
1 Hotels (Barry Sternlicht)
Faena Group (Alan Faena)
Grupo Habita (Micha family and Carlos Couturier)
Il Pellicano (Marie-Louise Sciò)
JK Hotel Group (Jeff Klein)
Vik Retreats (Carrie and Alexander Vik)
HOTEL DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Ian Schrager
From his Royalton days to his latest, the Times Square Edition, this hotel guru divines hospitality trends—and sets them—long before anyone else.
Runners-up:
INTERIORS
Winner: La Mamounia, Marrakech
The iconic Marrakech hotel’s Moorish interiors feel even more sumptuous after Jacques Garcia’s masterful renovation. With every visit, we’re inspired by yet another detail, whether it is the color of the zellige tilework or the plantings in the aromatic gardens with views of the Atlas Mountains.
Runners-up:
Blantyre, Lenox, Massachusetts
Caldera House, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Elma Hotel, Zichron Ya’akov, Israel
Ett Hem, Stockholm
Halcyon House, Cabarita Beach, Australia
Hotel Californian, Santa Barbara, California
Hotel Pulitzer, Amsterdam
Hotel Sanders, Copenhagen, Denmark
Winner: Aman
From a resort designed like a Balinese village to a line of Cubist villas in the Utah desert, Aman has made breathtaking architecture central to its mission and paved the way for hotels and resorts that put a premium on transcendent design.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Winner: Playa Vik, José Ignacio, Uruguay (Carlos Ott)
Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott created a hotel that feels like a contemporary art museum.
Runners-up:
Fogo Island Inn, Newfoundland, Canada (Todd Saunders)
Jackalope, Merricks North, Australia (Carr)
Juvet Landscape Hotel, Valldal, Norway (Jensen & Skodvin)
The Silo, Cape Town, South Africa (Thomas Heatherwick)
Tsingpu Retreat, Yangzhou, China (Neri & Hu)
Villa Extramuros, Arraiolos, Portugal (Vora Arquitectura)
NEW HOTEL
Winner: Blackberry Mountain, Walland, Tennessee
Blackberry Farm, the beloved country inn, now has a sister property with a ridgetop lodge and elegant cabins handcrafted from local stone and reclaimed wood.
Runners-up:
Belmond Cadogan Hotel, London
Dá Licença, Santo Estêvão, Portugal
Fife Arms, Braemar, Scotland
Heckfield Place, Hampshire, England
Hotel August, Antwerp, Belgium
Joali, Maldives
Menorca Experimental, Balearic Islands, Spain
Palazzo Daniele, Puglia, Italy
POOL
Winner: Mondrian, Doha, Qatar
Marcel Wanders capped this 24-story hotel with a stained-glass-domed indoor pool that makes you feel as if you’re inside a giant Tiffany lamp.
Runners-up:
Laucala Island, Fiji
Molitor, Paris
Punta Caliza, Isla Holbox, Mexico
The Retreat Hotel at the Blue Lagoon, Grindavík, Iceland
7132 Thermal Baths & Spa, Vals, Switzerland
VILLAS & HOME RENTALS
Winner: Unique Properties & Events
Cédric Reversade and Paul-Maxime Koskas hold the keys to the world’s most spectacular rentals, from a restored Tuscan farmhouse to an 18th-century Austrian schloss.
Runners-up:
This story appears in the July/August issue of ELLE Decor. SUBSCRIBE
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