Table of Contents
For our inaugural record of essentially the most trendy motels on the earth, we requested designers, artists and editors throughout the GQ universe to assist us handpick essentially the most absurdly handsome locations to remain. The artistic groups behind these temples to design are inserting provenance (and in lots of circumstances, sustainability) over easy edges, curating particulars right down to the final lampshade. The end result? Twenty-one locations which are constructed like artworks.
Hoshinoya
Tokyo, Japan
Hoshino ResortsThere’s an onsen bathtub on the roof on the Hoshinoya in downtown Marunouchi. Anyplace else on the earth this is able to be a gimmick, however they don’t do gimmicks on the Hoshinoya; they do ultra-high-end hospitality – omotenashi, because the Japanese name it. The tub sits atop 17 flooring, which native architect Rie Azuma conceived as a sequence of reimagined ryokan (conventional inns) stacked on high of one another, with a communal tea lounge on each ground. And if you happen to don’t need a dip, you’ll be able to strive your hand on the sword coaching periods at daybreak.
“Hoshinoya is an extremely elegant lodge. There are actual well being advantages to onsen [hot springs] and this lets you take pleasure in them in a lovely setting in complete luxurious.” – Actor and mannequin Devon Aoki
Hoshinoya is a Japanese resort model with unbelievable omotenashi recreation. Discover one other of its masterpieces on a forested hillside overlooking Mount Fuji, the place it opened one of many nation’s first glamping motels.
Guide your keep: Expedia
Estelle Manor
Oxfordshire, UK
Mark Anthony FoxVogue crowds aren’t typically drawn to the muddy depths of the Cotswolds. However Estelle Manor has taken the stuffy English nation lodge playbook and chucked it out of the window. No element, from the sprawling Roman-style baths to the monogrammed leather-based coasters, was left uncurated within the refurb of this Jacobean manor home. Proprietor Sharan Pasricha and the legends at Roman and Williams had a discipline day bringing the lodge and members’ membership to life, blowing out on ornate chandeliers, Victorian antiques, and a surplus of silk sofas.
“One of many issues I liked most about Estelle Manor was the artwork assortment. The primary piece that struck me after I walked in was the massive Billy Infantile portray in reception. It was beautiful to see one in all his works in such a lovely setting.” – Designer Daniel W. Fletcher
Like Estelle’s vibe? Attempt one in all three extra interiors home-runs from the Roman and Williams duo: NoMad in London, buzzy restaurant La Mercerie in New York, and the Reykjavik Version in Iceland.
Guide your keep: Estelle Manor
Villa Mabrouka
Tangier, Morocco
Andrew MontgomeryAfter its heyday as a vacation spot for Beat poets, Tangier – the coastal metropolis a tangerine’s throw from Spain – slipped off most individuals’s Moroccan itinerary. Lately, although, the kasbah’s made a comeback: a brand new era of locally-owned, internationally-minded galleries is elevating the town into the artwork world’s high tier. British designer Jasper Conran has reimagined Yves Saint Laurent’s outdated home as a 12-room lodge that overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar. An immaculate waterfront backyard initially designed by Madison Cox sits centre-stage, and the earthy vibes lengthen inside – the place Yves’ signature shades of inexperienced and blue abound. – David Annand
Guide your keep: Villa Mabrouka
Benesse Home
Naoshima, Japan
Benesse HomeMost Standard
Suppose Evening on the Museum with Kusama sculptures. Benesse Home encompasses each a mindblowing museum of latest artwork and an intimate, minimalist lodge. One in all its 4 lodging, Oval, is accessible solely by monorail, on a hilltop on Japan’s distant “artwork island” Naoshima. You can too mattress down contained in the museum itself, a semi-subterranean design from architect Tadao Ando that minimises aesthetic disruption to the pure environment. It’s tough to consider that this museum-slash-hotel – so superior, so snug – was constructed greater than 30 years in the past. – Keishi Iwata, senior life-style editor, GQ Japan
Guide your keep: ExpediaBook your keep: Benesse Home
Barracuda
Itacaré, Brazil
Small Luxurious Accommodations of The WorldScandinavian Minimalism on Brazil’s densely forested Bahia coast appears like an odd cultural conflict till you uncover that precise Swedes – together with ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, no much less – have been concerned. Barracuda is an immaculately designed bolthole the place the Nordic restraint is an ideal counterpoint to the encircling lush forest. Go as a bunch and lease one of many villas, which sleep as much as 16 and include workers. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Reserving.com
Solar Ranch
Byron Bay, Australia
Anson GoodMost Standard
Nowhere with a badminton courtroom can take itself too severely – and so it’s on the Solar Ranch, a brand new lodge quarter-hour inland from Byron Bay, the place the decor is Seventies-meets-Californian-farmhouse-meets-festival-afterparty. Set in 55 acres of regenerated farmland, the lodge was cofounded by artistic director Julia Ashwood and former dressmaker Jamie Blakey, who enlisted the assistance of their artistic mates to provide the area the texture of a welcoming luxurious commune, together with a hilltop hearth pit and a floating, wood-fired sauna. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Solar Ranch
Rosemary
Marrakech, Morocco
Marina DenisovaAgain within the ’90s, throughout a increase in changing conventional Moroccan houses into visitor homes, one of the simplest ways to expertise Marrakech was to sleep on the roof of a riad for 30p an evening. As of late, it’s a keep in one of many Rosemary’s 5 art-filled suites, taking within the marble baths, terrazzo flooring, and stained-glass doorways. The lodge’s co-owner, Belgian sculptor Laurence Leenaert, pulled collectively items from 40-odd native artisans to create a pared-back riad aesthetic. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Rosemary
Les Roches Rouges
Saint-Raphaël, France
Gaëlle Rapp TronquitMost Standard
Les Roches Rouges feels very, very removed from the shoulder-rubbing of its neighbours Cannes and Saint-Tropez. Located in what was as soon as a Seventeenth-century fishing city, the lodge inhabits an unusually tranquil pocket of the jam-packed Côte d’Azur. A imaginative and prescient of midcentury modernism on the skin, its mellow interiors are full of Man Bareff’s earthenware wall lights and Rosemarie Auberson’s color block work, which don’t distract from the cash shot: a cliffside Mediterranean vista.
“Les Roches Rouges is all in regards to the sea views and the modernist design for me. Festen Structure, the identical architect duo that designed our flagship London and NYC shops, has created an effortlessly refined environment, with calm tones that allow the pure environment take centre stage.” – Sandra Sándor, founding father of luxurious model Nanushka
Guide your keep: Reserving.com
Adrère Amellal
Siwa Oasis, Egypt
Bernard TouillonTravelling is an opportunity to modify off, however once you actually need to unplug, with out wi-fi – and even lightbulbs – you head to Adrère Amellal. Positioned on the saltwater Siwa Oasis in far west Egypt (a seven-hour drive from Alexandria), this eco-lodge is completely off-grid. However the monastic vibes transcend tech: the lodge’s sandcastle-esque design is complete desert minimalism, with a number of rooms carved out of the neighbouring mountain.
“The structure is de facto built-in in its environment. It’s probably the most magical locations on earth.” – New York-based Egyptian artist Laila Gohar
Guide your keep: Expedia
Boca de Agua
Bacalar, Mexico
César BéjarMost Standard
The architectural world has Frida Escobedo fever. She’s engaged on a wing of the Met – and revamped London’s Serpentine Pavilion in 2018 – however in some way, the designer discovered time to mastermind this box-fresh assortment of treehouses in Quintana Roo. It’s a textbook instance of her light-touch Latin modernism: the raised treehouses minimise the resort’s eco footprint, whereas her signature latticework retains the areas cool and breezy. At Boca de Agua, she took a low-impact method, constructing rooms from Chicozapote wooden and sourcing furnishings from native manufacturers equivalent to Bandido Studio.
Frida Escobedo’s trademark latticework additionally makes an look at Resort Boca Chica, the beloved Acapulco retreat and golden-era Hollywood hangout, which she helped clean up with pop-coloured furnishings and concrete parasols.
Guide your keep: Reserving.com
Resort Corazón
Mallorca, Spain
Kate BellmAfter the runway exhibits, the European trend mafia shuts up store for summer season. The consiglieres nonetheless head en masse to Ibiza, however, lately, the capos are all in Mallorca, particularly the Tramuntana mountains and much more particularly, Resort Corazón, a brand new 15-room finca on the winding hill street between Sóller and Deià. It’s the brainchild of trend photographer Kate Bellm and her artist husband Edgar Lopez. Well-known for her sun-saturated photographs of lovely individuals, Bellm has channelled that spirit into the lodge, which radiates a welcoming calm by way of the dark-peach partitions, matching mattress linen, and retro futuristic furnishings. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Resort Corazón
Villa Palladio
Jaipur, India
Atul Pratap ChauhanMost Standard
It’s no straightforward feat for a crimson lodge to face out in Jaipur, India’s “pink metropolis.” However Italian entrepreneur Barbara Miolini and Dutch designer Marie-Anne Oudejans went down the maximalist route and received. In a rustic property on the sting of the town, each single wall, ceiling, bedframe, and pillow is finished out in daring vermilion hues.
Guide your keep: Villa Palladio
9 Orchard
New York, USA
Stephen Kent JohnsonDimes Sq. – the much-hyped microneighbourhood on New York’s Decrease East Aspect – continues to be hanging on to its sexy-gritty rep, even after the arrival of its first luxurious lodge, housed inside a refurbished 1912 financial institution constructing. 9 Orchard’s new reign is down partially to the small print, such because the Ojas audio system in every room that play music curated by DJs Stretch Armstrong and Devon Turnbull.
“Up to now yr this has simply change into my favorite lodge in New York. The decor, location and vibes are unmatched. I like strolling into the room or waking up very first thing within the morning and turning on the radio station. It’s so particularly curated for me and no one however me. I’m the one individual on the earth.” – Singer-songwriter-actor Moses Sumney
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
Le Coucou
Méribel, France
Le CoucouMost Standard
The ten flooring, 55 rooms, and two chalets that represent Le Coucou may have been ripped from the Japanese animation agency Studio Ghibli. Lampshades are harking back to ice cubes, coat hooks are formed like owls, and armchairs cosplay as characters out of fairy tales. The lodge’s pointed gables create an interlocking fort, nestled on a hillside close to the ski resort Courchevel within the French Alps. Designed by Pierre Yovanovitch, every part appears playful and opulent, however by no means vulgar. – Tobias Frericks, head of editorial content material, GQ Germany
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
Xigera Safari Lodge
Masarwa, Botswana
Xigera Safari LodgeSafaris could be grim experiences: hordes of Jeeps chasing harassed-looking elephants when you swat mosquitoes within the rear. Not so at Xigera, a luxe lodge on the sting of Botswana’s Okavango Delta that doubles as a dwelling gallery of African artwork. Madoda Fani and Chuma Maweni are among the many creatives who contributed site-specific works, like tables carved out of fallen tree trunks and brass sculptures within the form of the Delta’s move. The pièce de résistance is a metal treehouse modelled on a baobab tree, the place you’ll be able to eat – and sleep – underneath an unobstructed evening sky. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Expedia
Château Voltaire
Paris, France
François HalardMost Standard
The brand new go-to boutique lodge for a crowd of au courant metropolis dwellers. Zadig & Voltaire founder Thierry Gillier is a newcomer to the lodge enterprise, and with Château Voltaire, he’s pulled off a festive and stylish French vibe that’s all heat tones, vintage armchairs, and artwork deco particulars. Festen Structure oversaw this takeover of three Sixteenth-, Seventeenth-, and 18th-century buildings, reworked right into a lodge and restaurant which are equal components unshowy and parfait. It’s Paris’ reply to London’s Chiltern Firehouse and the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. – Pierre Alexandre M’Pelé, head of editorial content material, GQ France
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
The Fife Arms
Scottish Highlands, UK
Sim Canetty-ClarkeNot content material with helming one of many artwork world’s mega-galleries, the couple behind Hauser & Wirth have turned their hand to hospitality. The Fife Arms, on the sting of the Cairngorms Nationwide Park, is a hunting-lodge-meets-Tate-Fashionable (suppose Logan Roy on a capturing weekend). On the finish of a dreich day on the moors, you’ll be able to down your dram of whisky underneath a Man Ray {photograph}. Or a Picasso portray. Or a Lucian Freud portrait.
Guide your keep: The Fife Arms
The Cōmodo
Dangerous Gastein, Austria
Pion StudioMost Standard
For some time there, Dangerous Gastein was dwelling as much as its title. As soon as the revered hub of the Austrian spa scene, the area hit exhausting occasions: buildings have been deserted, and the village began emptying out. However in 2017, Salzburg governor Wilfried Haslauer introduced a regeneration mission for the world, ushering in a brand new breed of creatives on the hunt for an inexpensive vacation spot. Now Dangerous Gastein is bustling once more, and the centre of the motion is The Cōmodo, a one-time clinic turned midcentury-style playhouse by Berlin design duo Barbara Elwardt and Piotr Wisniewski. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
The Venice Venice Resort
Venice, Italy
Venice VeniceDon’t name it an “artwork lodge.” As an alternative, simply point out in passing that Venice Venice has obtained a greater assortment of work than many publicly funded regional galleries. Opened simply final yr by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo (the couple who based Golden Goose sneakers), the grand outdated constructing was as soon as a Thirteenth-century Byzantine palace – one of many oldest on the Grand Canal. The duo refitted the unique construction with works by Bruce Nauman and Hanne Darboven, a set impressed by Christo, and one other devoted to the novel Arte Povera motion. Get pleasure from prime views of the Rialto Bridge, or get misplaced within the Francesco Simeti tapestry hanging within the bar. – D.A.
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
Downtown LA Correct
Los Angeles, USA
DLX NYCMost Standard
“Downtown LA Correct is an inside design dream. I fell in love with the colorful, Mexican-inspired tapestry-style mural that adorns the vaulted ceilings of the doorway, flanked by large cactus bushes. Once I walked in, I keep in mind pondering, That is what I need my home to appear like after I develop up. Particular point out to the bottom ground restaurant Caldo Verde, which serves extremely vibrant, vegetable-focused dishes, and the beautifully-tiled rooftop pool, surrounded by unique crops, that has unbelievable views of downtown.” – Chef Ixta Belfrage, writer of Mezcla
Guide your keep: Reserving.comBook your keep: Expedia
Aman Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
AmanAman’s Tokyo outpost is neither its latest (that will be its New York providing on fifth Avenue) nor its flashiest (in all probability additionally New York). However the lodge is the stuff of desires for city design fiends. Creator-in-chief at Dior Males and Fendi couture Kim Jones counts it as one in all his favorite locations to remain: “It’s like a house from house.” That’s, if house have been the highest six flooring of an Ōtemachi skyscraper. Australian architect Kerry Hill helmed the design right here, the place floor-to-ceiling home windows and a ruthlessly monochrome color scheme handle to provide off an air of celestial calm – whereas casually connecting to a five-line subway station and searching over essentially the most populated metropolis on the earth.
The late Kerry Hill was the go-to architect for Aman Resorts, the über-luxe lodge group frequented by A-listers and the ultra-high-net-worth crowd. Catch one other one in all his masterstrokes at Amankora – a set of lodges perched close to the Tiger’s Nest monastery in Bhutan.
Guide your keep: Aman Tokyo
