These Are the World's 16 Most Beautiful Hotels for 2023
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There are beautiful hotels, and then there are beautiful hotels.
You know the ones: Their very essences stop you in your tracks and make it impossible to swing blithely through the lobby (or in and out of your guestroom). One must gape, revel, and steal design notes. They have it all, aesthetically speaking: thoughtfully rendered (or restored) architecture both traditional and contemporary; interiors that feel exciting, often surprising, and yet instantly hospitable; vistas and landscapes that complement without overwhelming. They reflect the hands of famed designers and esteemed artisans. Whether a hotel, resort, villa, or even safari camp, these beauties beguile indelibly. Postcards simply don’t do them justice.
In a year full of thrilling new properties and revitalized gems, it was challenging to pick the loveliest of them all. But here, from Manhattan to Mallorca and Milan, with stops in London, Paris, Bali, and beyond, are the 16 Most Beautiful Hotels in the World for 2023. Pack your bags.
Grand Hotel Son Net: Majorca, Spain
What becomes a 17th- century Majorcan estate? Designer Lorenzo Castillo’s historically cohesive vision for its restoration. Gathering spaces and 31 suites thrill with the decorative bravura of Mediterranean Baroque and Iberian Peninsula style. It’s a whole new aristocracy.
Aman New York: New York
In New York’s 1921 Crown Building, transformed by architect Jean-Michel Gathy, an aura of discreet and exclusive calm pervades, from the entry’s glass fireplace to the 25,000-square-foot spa complete with a 65-foot swimming pool and cryotherapy chamber. —Steele Thomas Marcoux
The Bolder: Forsand, Norway
When Tom Bjarte Norland bought land overlooking a world-famous fjord, he imagined a set of hermit huts. Taking innovative form, these arose as a quartet of modernist cabins by Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta that levitates reverently amid pines. Hermits welcome.
Portrait Milano: Milan
Who better to wow in Italy’s fashion capital than Ferragamo? Its Lungarno Collection has restored a 16th-century seminary, bestowing a couture-worthy makeover with designer Michele Bönan’s vivid colors and pattern. A true runway moment.
Villa Mabrouka: Tangier, Morocco
British designer Jasper Conran’s elegantly restrained hand has refashioned Yves Saint Laurent’s famed 1940s escapist hideaway as a seaside hotel that enchants with period fixtures, Roman busts, and bejmat and zellige tiles.
Naviva, A Four Seasons Resort: Punta Mita, Mexico
Biophilic design meets Mexican craft in 15 safari- style tents across the resort’s 48 acres of forest, where regional artisans’ imprint prevails in bespoke fabrics and furniture that feel at home in nature. —Sarah DiMarco
Boys Hall: Kent, England
After falling in love with a 1600s Jacobean manor in the country, Londoners Kristie and Brad Lomas sought local experts for historic restoration guidance, then dressed the rooms in fresh bucolia. The result: a relaxing rural getaway to lure city folk.
Vermelho: Melides, Portugal
After a long-standing affair with the Portuguese countryside, Christian Louboutin makes the relationship one for the ages with his first hotel. Designed by architect Madalena Caiado, the interiors take virtuoso maximalist (and high craft) turns directed by the designer’s friends Carolina Irving and Patricia Medina.
Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection; Gardiner, New York
This jewel of the Hudson valley hotel renaissance takes notes from its farm-to-mountain setting, channeled by New York design studio Ward + Gray’s layered, collected interiors that lean into the region’s deep history of craft.
Our Habitas AlUla: Alula, Saudi Arabia
Natural and man-made wonder meet in this Ashar valley hotel. Nestled between ancient sandstone canyons, find eco-friendly glass villas, contemporary art installations like neon rock gardens, and an infinity pool that mimics a mirage. —Jaime Milan
Buahan, A Banyan Tree Escape: Bali, Indonesia
Overlooking terraced rice fields from its jungle redoubt, this collection of 16 open-air balés built with reclaimed ironwood displays Bali’s superb artisanship, from hand-hammered copper bathtubs to carved headboards.
Beaverbrook Town House: London
It’s hard to imagine a softer landing in Chelsea: Two chic Georgian townhouses feature 14 cheery yet sophisticated suites by Nicola Harding and the art-filled Sir Frank’s Bar, where martinis invoke historic London figures. —Steele Thomas Marcoux
Maison Proust: Paris
The author himself could not have appointed a finer countryman, decorator Jacques Garcia, to conjure a hotel inspired by the belle epoque salons and characters in his masterwork, In Search of Lost Time. Garcia’s interiors are masterpieces to match.
Madwaleni River Lodge: Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Like a procession of elephants making its way along the banks of the White Umfolozi River, these 12 sweeping luxury tents exhibit a quiet grace befitting—and honoring—their rocky setting in the glorious Babanango Game Reserve.
Shiguchi: Hokkaido, Japan
Named for the Japanese architectural method of joining wood to wood, owner and curator Shouya Grigg’s divine ideal of a “gallery stay” is a material-forward, artistic reimagining of five 150-year-old rural farmhouses into villas.
Dornoch Station: Dornoch, Scotland
Tartan wallcoverings, nautical accents, and wood paneling pay homage to this world-class golfing destination’s rugged Scottish Highlands setting. Even Bar Ross is golf obsessed, saluting local course architect Donald Ross. —Jaime Milan
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