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New hotels worth planning a trip around
Published 10 days ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader,
We’re picky about new hotels. Like, annoyingly picky. Why? Well so that you don’t have to be!
So when we tell you these openings made us stop what we were doing and start replanning trips, that should tell you something. We’re talking a private island off the Provence coast, a 16th-century farmhouse in the Swiss Alps, and the most cinematic thing to happen to Venice in years.
Here are eight properties on our radar. And, of course, if you want help booking them with perks, we can handle that for you!
If you know anything about Hawai’i’s hotel history, you know the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is a legend. Opened in 1965 by Laurance Rockefeller on the pristine crescent of Kauna’oa Bay, it essentially invented the concept of the Hawaiian resort.
After a significant renovation that is now substantially complete, the property is back and better than ever. We’re talking refreshed guest rooms, restored public spaces, and a renewed commitment to the low-key, understated elegance that made this place iconic in the first place. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to experience a true piece of Hawaiian hospitality history, this is it.
The Orient Express brand is the stuff of luxury hospitality legend. So, when we say it’s a big deal that they opened a hotel in Venice, we mean it.
Housed inside the 15th century Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, this is the city’s most cinematic new hotel in years. Architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman layered Art Deco glamour over six centuries of Venetian bones, filling 47 rooms, suites, and residences with Murano glass chandeliers, bespoke furnishings, and canal or secret-garden views. It’s a great option to escape the chaos of high season in La Serenissima.
How do you take one of the most historic boutique hotels in Italy and make it even more so? By opening a stunning beach club! Le Sirenuse Mare is a beach club that just opened in April (and fittingly timed with the hotel’s 75th anniversary).
This beach club is not in Positano and that’s very much a good thing. Instead, it’s tucked into Marina di Cantone — a fishing village 25 minutes by boat from Positano and considered one of the coast’s most unspoiled corners. Trust that this is a beach club that will raise the bar for the whole region.
One of the Riviera’s most storied addresses is back. Built in 1914 as a Belle Époque grand hotel, and closed to the public since 2008, COMO Le Beauvallon reopened this April after a meticulous restoration.
Set on 10 private acres overlooking the Gulf of Saint-Tropez with 42 individually designed rooms and suites, more than 300 curated art installations, and COMO Shambhala wellness, the property feels less like a hotel and more like a very beautiful secret.
You likely know the Bandol area of France for its excellent wines. What you may not know is that it’s a part of the South of France coast that is under-the-radar to tourists but loved by those in-the-know. Case in point, this private island turned hotel that just opened.
The island was purchased in the 1950s by pastis magnate Paul Ricard and developed into a glamorous gathering place for artists and creatives; Zannier Hotels and the Ricard family spent five years transforming it into a 93-room village-style retreat with three restaurants, four bars, a café, a crêperie, and a 1,200 sqm wellness centre. Zannier Île de Bendor is the kind of opening that makes you want to pack immediately.
Though this 13-room boutique retreat just opened in January, it’s already getting buzz as the best new hotel in the Swiss Alps. It is the second hotel from Artfarm, the hospitality company of Hauser & Wirth founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth (their first was the acclaimed Fife Arms).
Interiors by architect Luis Laplace weave traditional Engadine furniture and arven wood with art from the Wirths’ personal collection; the 46-cover restaurant celebrates the marriage of Italian and Swiss seasonal cuisine. Think of this as the antidote to the big ski hotel.
The Outbound is a hotel group you likely know if you like the outdoors (or if you frequent our hometown of Mammoth Lakes)! Their latest hotel, the Outbound Yosemite, is set to open in September.
It’s situated in Oakhurst so just 25 minutes from Yosemite’s South Gate. With 104 stand-alone cabins and 14 lodge-style rooms, it’s the Outbound brand’s first ground-up build, and the gateway to one of the greatest national parks in the country.
If you don’t know the Palisociety hotel brand, let this be your intro. They do a smashing job of bringing style to boutique hotels across California. So we mean it when we say that their just-opened 44-room hotel is a gem. It’s set inside a 1939 private residence one block from the Waldorf and Peninsula. The aesthetic is residential and Parisian-adjacent: bold jewel-tone palette, striped wallpaper, custom furnishings, Diptyque amenities, and a neighboring outdoor pool.
We’ll keep watching the openings so you don’t have to. But if one of these stopped your scroll the way it stopped ours, let’s talk. The best rooms at new properties never stay available for long.
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Join fellow food and culture enthusiasts for insider travel secrets from destinations like Italy, France, and California. Expect curated recommendations, authentic local experiences, expert travel tips, and exclusive access to hidden gems.
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