Our Most Memorable Hotel Stays of 2025: a Former Convent, a Cliffside Retreat, an Over-the-Top Penthouse Suite

We stayed at a lot of hotels in 2025. It comes with the job—and the hazard of becoming hard to impress. A few of the year’s most impressive hotel stays recalibrated our standards for great hospitality, deepened our experiences of the places we visited, and inspired us to linger after checkout. From a remote cliffside retreat to a former convent, these are the hotels we visited in 2025 that Afar editors still think about and would happily return to in the year ahead.

Alila Jabal Akhdar

Getting to the Alila Jabal Akhdar—which sits at the edge of a gorge more than a mile above sea level in Oman’s Hajar Mountains (roughly four and a half Empire State Buildings tall)—is no small feat:. The final approach requires a 4WD and a steady stomach for a twisty, curvy road. With a mild fear of heights, I let the hotel handle the ascent from the police checkpoint in Birkat Al Mouz and shut my eyes for some of the twistiest turns.

But once I walked in the doors, I felt immediate calm. Inside the grand waiting and reception area, I was greeted with fresh dates and coffee and escorted to my cliff-facing room. Throughout my stay, the mountain views were a constant companion: on my early morning swim in the infinity pool, at sunset on my patio, and even during a massage at the edge of a cliff.—Katherine LaGrave, executive editor

Angama Amboseli

I’ve wanted to visit Kenya’s Greater Amboseli ecosystem for years—especially to see Africa’s last remaining super-tusker elephants, whose tusks can weigh more than 100 pounds each. Until recently, the region’s high-end lodges were surprisingly few, but that’s begun to change. At the top of my list was Angama Amboseli, set within the community-owned, 5,700-acre Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary, a critical wildlife corridor established with support from groups including the Big Life Foundation to allow animals to move safely between Amboseli National Park, Tsavo, and the Chyulu Hills.

The lodge itself is an intimate and design-driven retreat where cinematic views of Mount Kilimanjaro are on full display on clear days. Its 10 tented suites were designed with a contemporary Kenyan aesthetic and floor-to-ceiling views over the plains, where giraffes and elephants often wander past. Since its opening in 2023, growing wildlife populations—including lions and elephants—have begun to signal that Kimana has become a reliable refuge, a rare conservation success story I’m eager to keep following firsthand. Read Afar’s full review of Angama Amboseli.—Jennifer Flowers, senior deputy editor

Artisan Inn

In June, I spent two weeks driving around every corner of Newfoundland, and my favorite stay was at the utterly charming Artisan Inn, on the Bonavista Peninsula. Set in the former shipbuilding hub of Trinity (population: under 200), the inn is a “diffuse hotel”—a concept popularized in rural Italy in which guest rooms aren’t confined to a single building but instead spread throughout a village. In Trinity, that means a collection of historic houses dotting the shoreline of Fisher Cove, where you might spot loons, otters, and a resident black-and-white fox named Oreo.

I stayed in the Gover House, a landmark 1840s saltbox structure with evocative wallpaper, rustic furnishings, folk art puffins and orcas, and a waterfront firepit. Breakfast and dinner are served a few steps away in the cozy Twine Loft restaurant, housed in a former net-repair room once used by a sea captain. The highlight was chatting with owner Marieke Gow, a trained sommelier whose parents began restoring houses in town in the late 1980s before opening the property as a B&B in 1992. Cell service is sparse here, so Marieke assembled binders of maps and directions to help guests like me navigate the peninsula’s must-see treasures, from puffin-viewing points and UNESCO-recognized geological sites to massive contemporary art installations from the Bonavista Biennale.—Nicholas DeRenzo, editorial director, newsletters

Hemlock Neversink

In 2024, my father died the day before my birthday, on May 22. As both the grief anniversary and my birthday approached this year, I knew I wanted to go somewhere restorative without getting on a plane. My husband and I drove from Maryland to the Catskills for a stay at Hemlock Neversink, a hotel and spa set on 230 acres of forests and meadows where goats roam freely. More than a century old, the campus evokes classic Catskills summer camp tradition, reimagined as an upscale, year-round adult retreat.

There are private walking trails, tennis courts, and a rotating schedule of activities, including candle making, abstract painting, goat therapy, yoga in a vaulted-ceiling movement studio in front of a massive fireplace—all included in the stay. When we visited, the weather was delightfully chilly, so after meals at Bittersweet, the plant-forward, all-day restaurant, we curled up by the fire and played checkers, or joined other couples working their way through a 1,000-piece puzzle.

The hotel’s 33 rooms are spread across five buildings and designed in a restrained Quaker style, with custom-designed fabrics and furniture sourced from Portugal. Our Neversink King had a private patio where we sipped coffee in the mornings, and a writing desk where I journaled. The jewel of the property is the spa, where in addition to detoxifying clay wraps and Dead Sea mineral soaks, there’s an indoor lap pool and outdoor barrel saunas. Every moment here was a mental, physical, and emotional reset, and I can’t wait to return.—Shayla Martin, senior editor

The Henson

Arriving at the Henson in New York’s Catskills, I immediately felt at home—something I chalk up to the design, the aesthetic, and the overall vibe. The 1918 building reopened in 2024 as a boutique hotel with just 16 dog-friendly rooms, plus an herb garden, a rooftop deck overlooking Windham Mountain, a bocce-lined lawn, and even a creek for summer swims. Rooms are outfitted with Casper mattresses, Marshall speakers, and Grown Alchemist bath products. My favorite spot, though, was the living room, with its crackling wood-burning fireplace, cabinets stocked with games, and an abundance of books and blankets.

The Henson also stands out for its destination-worthy restaurant, Matilda, founded by chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra of New York City’s Contra and Wildair. The menu celebrates the Catskills’ seasonal bounty, drawing from local farms and producers—think Hudson Valley trout with clams, green garlic, and potatoes, or roasted onions with rhubarb, bonito, and sourdough breadcrumbs. Best of all, for hotel guests, dinner is just a flight of stairs away. Read Afar’s full list of top Catskills hotels.—KLG

Hôtel du Couvent, a Luxury Collection Hotel

When I travel in Europe, I’m rarely looking for what’s new. I’m the history nerd who gravitates toward places with patina and a sense of having lived several lives already. That instinct is what made me fall so hard for Hôtel du Couvent, a Luxury Collection Hotel. Set inside a 17th-century convent on a quiet hill in Nice, the hotel unapologetically embraces its Catholic past, with candlelit rooms, nun-adjacent uniforms (cardigans and long skirts), and whiffs of incense you might expect from a nearby church.

There’s no gym—the owners felt it would break the spell—but there’s an inviting spa where silence replaces music and moodily lit pools, a sauna, and a steam room inspired me to linger for more than an hour one evening. I loved the time-worn stone staircases and the deliberately spare rooms, designed with sumptuous materials like carved marble sinks and tubs, terra-cotta floors, and antique silver pieces. I also appreciated that the hotel runs Le Bistrot des Serruriers, a neighborhood bar and bistro a couple of blocks away with its own identity and approachable prices, where I ate the local specialty of pissaladière—a flatbread topped with caramelized onions, anchovies, and Niçoise olives that I’m now obsessed with—shoulder to shoulder with locals.—JF

Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations

The Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations in Wendake, Quebec, was one of the most unforgettable hotel experiences of my year. From the moment I arrived, I was drawn to the design, which feels contemporary while remaining rooted in Indigenous craftsmanship. What sets the property apart, though, is that it is First Nations–owned—still far too rare in the travel industry—and that ownership gave a depth and intentionality to the experience that extended beyond aesthetics.

The on-site restaurant, La Traite, highlights traditional and regional ingredients through an Indigenous lens, with dishes inspired by ancestral cooking techniques and the surrounding landscape. During my stay, I joined a guided tour at the attached Musée Huron-Wendat, where I gained a deeper understanding of the Wendat creation story and ancestral territory. One evening, we gathered around the fire in the Ekionkiestha National Longhouse for singing, drumming, and stories from an Indigenous storyteller, who recounted First Nations myths and legends.—SM

Mbamba Lodge

Earlier this year, I was in Botswana shooting a family safari feature for our fall issue, and had the chance to stay at Mbamba Lodge, a new property from conservation-first Natural Selection that opened in April 2025 in the famed Okavango Delta. The 12 well-appointed tents each sit on a wooden deck overlooking grass plains with grand draping red curtains, four-poster beds, and massive en-suite bathrooms.

By far the best part of our stay was the staff. Our guide, Ali, who felt much more like an old friend, was exactly who you wanted to spend your days with. His enthusiasm for wild dogs and leopards as we spotted them was infectious, and his attention to detail augmented our comfort along the way. Between game drives, we rode through the meandering delta in mokoros (traditional wooden canoe-like boats), and took helicopter rides to spot elephants and hippos from above.—Michelle Heimerman, director of photography

Nimmo Bay Resort

I live amid the temperate rainforests of North America, on Orcas Island in Washington State, and anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with rainforests—the moss, the fog, and the way water and forest feel inseparable. That’s why Nimmo Bay Resort, tucked deep into British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest and reachable only by air or water, was a top priority for my 2025 travels.

The family-owned lodge’s nine cabins sit at the edge of fjords and waterfalls, where days unfold around kayaking, snorkeling, hiking, and wildlife encounters, and end in cedar hot tubs and floating saunas. What makes Nimmo Bay special is how intuitively the experience is paced. Rather than being given set itineraries, guests work with staff each day to tailor their time toward their interests and energy. Meals are another highlight: They’re centered on coastal ingredients like fresh-caught Dungeness crab and scallops. Read Afar’s full review of Nimmo Bay Resort.—JF

Park Hyatt New York

I spent a night in a $35,000 hotel room—the newly redesigned Manhattan Suite at the Park Hyatt New York—and it was exactly as indulgent as it sounds. The 2,000-square-foot suite is larger than most New York apartments have any right to be, with 18-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, one and a half bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room that seats eight, a bar and wine fridge, a giant living room with a 165-inch TV, and an office space if you feel like working. The bedroom comes with a customizable mattress, plus a rainfall shower, a soaking tub, and a Toto toilet. They’ll even deliver a Peloton if you’re inclined to break a sweat.

I was not inclined. Instead, I went straight for the custom-stocked sweets waiting for me in the kitchen: Oreos and a chocolate cake (someone had clearly studied my Instagram). And while the square footage and the amenities are impressive, the real luxury of the Manhattan Suite is how it makes you feel. The VIP treatment starts when a chauffeur picks you up in a Mercedes and whisks you away to midtown. The staff knows your name, and you’ll get the hotel’s serene pool, hot tub, and sauna complex all to yourself for an hour of your choosing during your stay.—Billie Cohen, editorial director

Segera Retreat

I had been waiting years to visit Segera Retreat in Laikipia, created by founder Jochen Zeitz, the former CEO of Puma and Harley-Davidson, whose impressive long-term conservation vision is unfolding across a 50,000-acre private reserve. In 2025, I finally made it—shortly after the translocation of 21 eastern black rhinos into the reserve, a significant milestone in a broader Laikipia-wide effort to expand habitat and range for this critically endangered species.

My base was Villa Segera, a series of clean-lined spaces in two buildings with two generously sized bedrooms, designed with African craftsmanship and floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies that put the landscape front and center. The staff—a mix of local team members and Kenyan nationals from around the country—offered confident, familiar service that made saying goodbye difficult.

Wildlife sightings were exceptional even by Kenyan standards: Within minutes of arriving, my partner and I dropped our bags to watch a herd of elephants move slowly through the tall grass below the villa. We caught a glimpse of the newly settled black rhinos, Grévy’s zebras, and one unforgettable morning watching a cheetah make a kill to feed her young cubs, followed by encounters with enormous, dark-maned lions. Between game drives, I was equally drawn to Segera’s contemporary art collection, which introduced me to the work of South African artist Nandipha Mntambo, underscoring how seamlessly the lodge weaves conservation, culture, and design into a cohesive experience.—JF

Shuhoukaku Kogetsu

Of all the paralyzing decisions involved in planning a trip to Japan—which Tokyo neighborhood should I stay in? Should I bother with JR RailPass or not?—the most daunting one of all to me on my 2025 trip was finding the perfect hotel with views of Mount Fuji. After poring over innumerable recommendations and Reddit threads, I landed on Shuhoukaku Kogetsu.

Hokusai himself could not have painted a more romantic view of Japan’s most sacred peak than the one offered here. Along the shores of Lake Kawaguchiko, you’ll share the scene with families and friends leisurely strolling, biking, and rowing fishing boats against the backdrop of the mountain. Inside, Fuji-san is ever-present, ushering you from moment to moment: when you wake up in your tatami-floored room, at the foot baths, in the onsen (both in-room and available for private bookings). I experienced one of the most spectacular hotel room views of my life during an en suite kaiseki dinner, sipping tea as the mountain shifted from blue to purple before finally disappearing into darkness at sunset.

I’ll even admit to committing the ultimate sin by—gasp—booking third-party to avoid dealing with the hotel’s clunky website. And for this stay, just 10 minutes from Kawaguchiko Station by taxi, I’d risk it all again.—Tiana Attride, senior editor, social and video

Tierra Atacama

After a year-long, $12 million renovation, Tierra Atacama reopened in April 2025, and I traveled to Chile to review it for Afar. A member of Baillie Lodges, the 28-room property sits just outside the town of San Pedro de Atacama on the site of a former cattle corral, hidden behind unassuming adobe-brick walls that belie the high-design interiors within. With Indigenous Atacameño design and crafts, local ingredients sourced from the desert, and excursions into otherworldly landscapes, the revitalized lodge has become a showcase for the region’s culture and natural wonder.

I was charmed by the way Santiago-based interior designer Carolina Delpiano has curated Chilean—and specifically Atacameño—art and design objects, pairing contemporary artworks with pieces that feel timeless. Volcanic liparite stone carvings of llamas, donkeys, and houses by Alejandro González, an artisan from nearby Toconao village, look like ancient ceremonial relics. The carvings been a part of the hotel since before the refurbishment and were so beloved that they were kept in storage for the grand unveiling.

As lovely as the property is, the goal at Tierra Atacama is to be outside in the desert as much as possible. Upon arrival, I chatted with the guide team to come up with a custom roster of excursions. Options range from biking and horseback riding to full-day volcano treks. In the interest of variety, we chose shorter outings that showcased the region’s breadth, including bird-watching at nearby salt pans, a drive through halite rock formations that tinkle like xylophones when you pour sand over them, and ancient petroglyphs carved out by traveling herders thousands of years ago. Read Afar’s full review of Tierra Atacama.—ND

Town Hall Hotel

At the beginning of 2025, I took an extended trip to London to report on the city’s most stylish hotels for under $300 a night. The biggest surprise was the Town Hall Hotel, in East London’s increasingly trendy Bethnal Green neighborhood. Before it opened as a hotel in 2010, the 1910 Edwardian landmark (which later got an art deco refresh) spent decades as a municipal building, and its modish nooks and crannies made cameos in movies like Atonement and Snatch. I swooned over the domed skylight, veined columns, and grand marble staircase in the lobby, where vintage furnishings evoke a Mad Men–era office.

True to its adaptive reuse spirit, the 97 guest rooms and suites are dramatically different in style and scale—some have original fireplaces, others have full kitchens; many feature glass room partitions that allow the original architecture to shine through. The hotel is home to the two-Michelin-starred Brazilian Italian restaurant Da Terra and a two-minute walk from the Young V&A (the children’s outpost of the Victoria and Albert Museum) and Satan’s Whiskers, currently ranked No. 21 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list.—ND

Vermelho

In May 2025, I spent a few nights in the unassuming Alentejan town Melides, just south of Lisbon, to review Christian Louboutin’s debut hospitality project for Afar’s sister publication, Suitcase. The legendary shoe designer fell for this small Portuguese town after a literal stumble—a fall that landed him in a nearby hospital. From there, he assembled a star-studded team of craftspeople to create Vermelho.

Vermelho means—what else—“red” in Portuguese, a nod to the liberal use of Louboutin’s signature shade throughout this property. Behind its low-key exteriors lies a decadent design-driven hotel that celebrates European craftsmanship and fizzes with kaleidoscopic color. Consider: the 100-year-old, ten-foot-tall wooden gate sourced by Louboutin in Morocco, more than 15,000 custom tiles from the Fábrica de Azulejos de Azeitão factory (including glossy carmine tiles made with an exclusively developed pigment), intricate molded window surrounds by Italian ceramicist Giuseppe Ducrot (maker of religious iconography for the Vatican) and a glittering bar hand-crafted by the same liturgical goldsmith’s workshop responsible for Seville’s Holy Week floats.

The 13 guest rooms are delightfully maximalist and diverse. Some have dream-like murals by artist Konstantin Kakanias, others hide secret bathtubs on sun-kissed terraces. Mine, one of five Jardim Português ground-floor suites, had a supersize, jazzily tiled bathroom with a plunge pool–like tub. I later learned that the vast carved marble relief on the terrace was a Roman artifact transported from Italy.

Vermelho is a 20-minute drive from the well-heeled towns (and beaches) of Carvalhal and Comporta, where you’ll find JNcQUOI Deli, an equally eye-catching restaurant. Note the decorative vases painted with portraits of regular patrons—including Christian Louboutin himself.—Lucy Kehoe, senior editor

Wild Hill

I’m a seasoned safarigoer and have seen my share of camps and lodges across Africa, yet Wild Hill still managed to offer something new in the Kenyan wilderness. The exclusive-use property, which is grand in scale and runs entirely on solar power, provided a place to pause between long, bumpy game drives and bush flights hopping us from camp to camp.

Wild Hill sits atop Kileleoni Hill, land that owners Lippa and Tarquin Wood have spent years helping restore in partnership with Maasai communities, transforming previously degraded farmland into healthy grassland that now supports wildlife as part of the wider Maasai Mara region.

We drove hairpin turns about a half an hour up to Kileleoni Hill, which at 7,500 feet is the highest point in the Mara. The five individual villas—all sprawling, with canopied beds, Zanzibar doors, and postcard views over the savanna—accommodate up to 12 guests. There’s a small gym, a spa with attendants on hand throughout the day, and a hot tub and infinity pool designed for lingering. A personal highlight: the pickleball court, where my partner and I squeezed in a few rounds with Peter, our guide, and Dave, the property manager.

Make no mistake—while Wild Hill sits high above the Mara, Kileleoni Hill is teeming with wildlife. On one downhill drive in the morning, we spotted an enormous male leopard—one of our only sightings of this elusive cat during our entire three-week safari—a reminder that the conservation work happening here is already changing what’s possible.—JF

The Woodward, Auberge Collection

For my mother’s birthday in September, we recreated her first international trip—to Switzerland, a country she visited at 19 and hadn’t returned to. On that original journey in 1969, her tour group never made it to Geneva, so this time, that’s where we celebrated. Our stay at the Woodward, Auberge Collection, set on the shores of Lake Geneva with views of Mont Blanc, felt like the perfect, glamorous home base for this long-overdue return.

The historic Belle Époque building houses just 26 suites, making it Geneva’s first all-suite hotel; each comes with plush living areas, wet bars, and in some cases, a separate powder room. The hotel is also home to the city’s only two-Michelin-starred restaurant, L’Atelier Robuchon. On her birthday, we spent the morning at the on-site Guerlain Spa, where treatments are designed exclusively for the hotel. The service was impeccable—down to a custom tea service waiting for my mom afterward, complete with a “Joyeux Anniversaire” message crafted in chocolate. In addition to a 68-foot swimming pool, saunas, steam rooms, and Swedish baths, the spa also houses a Guerlain perfumery atelier, where guests can create a custom fragrance.—SM