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The resplendent Raffles Hotel reopened in late 2019 to great fanfare after two years of restoration. Originally built in 1887 as a 10-room hotel, it now features 115 suites with oriental carpets and teak floors to complement four-poster beds and colorful Peranakan-tiled bathrooms. An in-room tablet controls everything from the mood lighting to calling your butler for a glass of bubbly. All have a private veranda to enjoy balmy evenings outside.




The building was declared a national monument in 1987, so the façade has changed little, but the hotel’s food and drink concepts have been revamped with a focus on marquee restaurant collaborations with the likes of Jereme Leung (yi) and Hawaiian-born Jordan Keao (Butcher’s Block). Not forgetting Singapore’s rich food culture, the hotel offers a self-guided Raffles Singapore Hawker Food Trail video hosted by hawker champion and Makansutra founder KF Seetoh. Raffles also offers an exclusive private tour of the Intan, a home museum filled with more than 1,500 objects from Peranakan culture.





The famous Singapore Sling continues to be a draw at the evocative 1920s Malayan-style Long Bar and its peanut shell-covered floor. The iconic drink now has sustainable twist: the hotel plants one native tree in the Kalimantan or Sumatran rain forest for every 25 Singapore Slings ordered.

With its red roof tiles, bougainvillea vines, and verdant gardens, Casa Palmero feels like a luxurious Mediterranean villa. The new hotel also overlooks the first and second fairways of the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links. The 24 rooms all have fireplaces, oversized soaking tubs, and beds that invite deep rest, whether or not you spend the day on the golf course. Indulge in that villa guest feeling by relaxing in the living room, library, billiard room, or heated outdoor pool. Personalized services at Casa Palmero include fresh breakfast baskets every morning, complimentary cocktails each evening, and access to such private clubs as the Spanish Bay Club and the Beach & Tennis Club. All Casa Palmero guests can also access the Lodge at Pebble Beach, and its myriad fine dining restaurants, bars, cafés, shops, and spa. (The Pebble Massage is the most popular treatment, incorporating the heat of warmed, sculpted stones.) After sipping your evening cocktail at Casa Palmero, wander over to Stillwater Bar & Grill for local fresh hamachi crudo and Monterey Bay red abalone.

Located along the Mississippi riverfront, the Mill City Museum rises eight stories from the limestone ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. Today, this National Historic Landmark houses antique milling equipment, vintage advertising, and exhibitions on the wheat farms, and visitors can ride the grain elevator, watch a movie about Minneapolis’s humble beginnings, learn how the Mississippi River powered all the local mills, and sample freshly made treats in the Baking Lab. There’s also an observation deck with panoramic views over the city, and the Ruin Courtyard, which hosts events and live music throughout the year. When hunger strikes, head to the on-site restaurant, Bushel & Peck, for lunch fare like burgers, sandwiches, and salads.

The morning market in Luang Prabang is bursting at the seams with culinary curious - some you may indeed want to put in your mouth, and others, well - others you’ll need to see for yourself. Luang Prabang is the busiest tourist destination in Laos, but early in the morning, the market is generally void of foreign faces, making it a perfect place to meet the locals, dine on Lao food, and watch the people as they wander. Grab yourself a frosty bevy and a slice of blood sausage and check it out.

The Hotel Telluride is close to town and the slopes but just removed enough from the action to feel like a tranquil mountain getaway. Here, the warm lobby welcomes guests with a large fireplace, comfy couches, and board games, as well as a dedicated check-in area for pets, who are allowed for a small fee and treated to house-made biscuits. Rooms have kitchenettes, private balconies, and humidifiers to combat the dry mountain air, while suites feature separate living and dining areas. It’s been said that The Hotel Telluride also boasts the most comfortable bed in town, triple-sheeted with custom-made linens.

The small, on-site restaurant, West End Bistro, serves a hot breakfast and simple dinner items like kale-and-quinoa salad and Colorado beef burgers—plus freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for an après-ski treat. Guests also have access to a sun deck with hot tubs and outdoor saunas as well as free cruiser bikes and shuttle service to the gondola and downtown Telluride. If desired, the hotel can even arrange for in-room massages or guided day trips to forage for wild mushrooms.

This local favorite breakfast spot has quickly become Los Cabos’ worst-kept secret. Far removed from the main tourist zone, Restaurant Bar Campestre has for years catered to local businesspeople, families, and in-the-know visitors. Even after a renovation that upped seating capacity, it remains a no-frills flavor palace well worth the wait for a table and the effort to find it. Come early for a heaping serving of chilaquiles (strips of fried corn tortillas). They’re available with red or green sauce, and topped with chicken or steak. All the breakfasts pair perfectly with just-squeezed orange juice and cup after cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

Why we love it: A wilderness retreat full of natural beauty and rustic luxury

The Highlights:
- A wide range of accommodations, including luxurious glamping tents
- More than enough activities to keep the entire family entertained
- A spectacular spa with fireplaces in each treatment room

The Review:
Nestled deep in the Ozark Mountains, Big Cedar Lodge was built in the early 1920s as a lavish country retreat for two prominent Missourians. It was purchased in 1987 by Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, who turned it into a fishing camp, then converted it to a high-end wilderness resort spread over 4,600 acres of wooded hollows. Today, it’s a popular place to connect with the great outdoors—amid some serious luxury. Overlooking the blue-green Table Rock Lake, the resort is focused on water recreation, offering activities like fishing, water-skiing, tubing, and rides on just about any boat you could imagine. A favorite choice is the Goin’ Jessi, an exact replica of a 1934 Chris-Craft named after Waylon Jennings’s wife, on which guests can take hour-long tours with champagne. Also on-site are two full-service marinas, four golf courses, and a 50,000-square-foot entertainment center with everything from go-karts, bumper cars, and laser tag to a ropes course, bowling alley, arcade, and climbing wall.

When visitors aren’t busy having fun, they’re spending quality time in Big Cedar Lodge’s plentiful accommodations, which range from lodge rooms to cottages to private log cabins with stone fireplaces, private decks, and jetted tubs. For something really unique, however, book an overnight experience at Camp Long Creek, an area just minutes from Big Cedar with camp huts, cabins, and glamping units right on the lake. (Outfitted with king canopy beds, chandeliers, and outdoor living spaces with a fire pit, shower, and galvanized tub for alfresco bathing, the tents are particularly exceptional.) Dining options are equally varied, from a casual café to a fine-dining restaurant to a wine-and-whiskey cellar. Still, the Cedar Creek Spa & Salon is alone worth a visit, thanks to its beautiful stained glass windows, hand-hewn timber ceiling, and stone floors crowned by chandeliers. There’s even an ice room and a candlelit grotto with body jets, plus 12 treatment rooms equipped with fireplaces and robes that are warmed up for post-treatment relaxation.

The tony suburb of Houghton, whose best-known resident was Nelson Mandela, is home to leafy lanes lined with stately estates. Not too far from the Mandela family manse is the Residence, a stylish boutique property that lives up to its name, evoking a private lair of a chic distant relative that guests are fortunate enough to visit for a spell.

The rooms are plush, with velvet headboards, sumptuous rugs, and glittering chandeliers, but the bathrooms are a sight to behold: the gleaming marble tiles and outdoor showers and tubs merit a special mention. Nods to the nautical can be found in the Boat Lounge, where mini sailboats and life preservers inspire the decor. There’s often a pianist tickling the ivories in the Piano Lounge, where guests can retire with a post-prandial cocktail.

If you’re looking for tropical tranquillity, bypass Maui’s buzzy resort enclaves and head away from the coast to the island’s laid-back Upcountry, where you’ll find Lumeria. At the 24-room wellness retreat, visitors can start the day with a guided sunrise meditation, then strengthen their yoga practice, learn to hula or surf, and go snorkeling off the North Shore. Spa treatments include Hawaiian massage and acupuncture as well as nontraditional therapies like crystal healing and shaman-led journeys. The schedule is flexible, so you’ll have plenty of time to learn about Hawaii’s paniolo (cowboy) culture or just take in the ocean views from your private lanai. Guest rooms feature art by local Maui artists, four-poster beds topped with organic linens, and stone-tile showers stocked with Aveda products, while the Wooden Crate restaurant prepares farm-to-table meals with nearly 200 types of fruits and vegetables that grow on the property.

Mama Shelter’s owners, who launched the Flèche d’Or indie rock club across the street, turned an outlying location in the 20^th arrondissement into an advantage. They enlisted Philippe Starck to design the restaurant, bar, pizzeria, and summer rooftop terrace—which now attract poets, artists, and counterculture types from across the city. The hotel’s street cred is still intact years after the 2008 opening, and the decor—black ceilings turned into graffiti chalkboards bearing literary quotations; Mexican wrestling and Halloween masks turned into lamp shades; tree trunks used as stools—remains relentlessly hipster without being overwhelming; guests could be young parents with sleeve tattoos toting baby carriers in the elevators.

On Liberdade Avenue, amid famous designer stores, sits this five-star hotel. Each room is decorated in white and black with Victorian-inspired details. Enjoy one of the many sunny days in Lisbon, sitting outside in the terrace.

Opened in 1946 as a restaurant (where the famous regulars included Churchill and Hemingway), La Maison Arabe later expanded to a small hotel, then grew again under its current French-Italian owner. Today, it features 26 garden- or patio-view rooms and suites, individually designed in either a traditional or slightly more modern Moroccan style. All have air-conditioning and heating (a must for the varied desert temperatures) as well as Wi-Fi, satellite TVs, and marble-and-granite bathrooms stocked with aromatic toiletries. Also available to guests is an idyllic swimming pool, around which the hotel serves a home-cooked breakfast each morning, and the clubby, 1930s-inspired Piano Bar, where guests can enjoy live jazz and pre-dinner drinks by the fireplace. When it’s time to unwind, head to the cozy spa for an array of face, body, and hamman treatments, all performed with products made exclusively for the hotel.

Much like in the past, La Maison Arabe revolves around food. Guests can choose between Le Restaurant, where a gorgeous fountain and hand-painted ceiling set the stage for authentic Moroccan fare, and the intimate, lantern-lit Les Trois Saveurs, which serves a sophisticated menu of French, Moroccan, and Asian dishes. Additionally, the hotel offers some of the city’s best cooking classes, which are open to outside guests. Led by a dada (a traditional Moroccan cook), the lessons take place either at the main hotel or the Country Club—a satellite property located 15 minutes away by complimentary shuttle, where students can also find a larger pool, lush gardens, a restaurant, and a bit of calm away from the bustle of the medina.

If you like tea, then you must make a pilgrimage to Mariage Fréres, which has been open since 1854. They sell the most amazing teas (my favorites are Marco Polo and French Breakfast) along with teapots, cups, and tea paraphernalia. I recommend staying for a delicious pickmeup in their beautiful tearoom.

No hotel in Jamaica blends better with its surroundings than the aptly named Rockhouse, a string of villas clinging to the top of a sea cliff at the western tip of the island. Local stone, timber, and thatch are the building materials, and a harmony of design and setting is the result. The feel is rustic, but not rough (the showers might be outdoors, but the rooms are air-conditioned), and the feeling carries over to the pool, which sits on a rock platform halfway down the cliff face, from where sunbathers can don snorkel and mask and clamber down into a usually calm Caribbean. Even the restaurant hangs over the water, adding emphasis to the promise of dishes being fresh from the sea.

As does practically every hotel in Jamaica, Rockhouse has its celebrity stories, going back to the early ‘70s when Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones added their names to the guest register. But it wasn’t until 1994, when a group of Australian owners took over, that Rockhouse began to evolve its reputation as one of the most Jamaican of Jamaican hotels. It happened in part because Rockhouse has none of the formality that some of the island’s best-known hotels, with their British colonial roots, still possess. And in part because of its active role in funding local education projects, it’s a valued, and popular, part of the community. That, and the restaurant’s homemade jerk sausage is legendary.

One of the best coffee shops in the city, the Haas “Collective” (haas means “rabbit” in Afrikaans) has grown organically over the years to include not only coffee, but also design, art, and advertising. Formerly located in an old slave home in the Bo Kaap, Haas now takes up a refurbished colonial building in the city, where you can also have light meals at the plush yet relaxed venue. Selected artworks for sale include must-have gilded African bowls by Michou.