Take an Art Deco building in the center of South Beach, add bright bursts of lemon and cerulean as well as campy details (oversize Cleopatra prints; a lobby sculpture of a giant polar bear holding a beach ball) to the 54 rooms, and you’ve got the first outpost of a new, gay-friendly hotel brand and already one of the city’s most talked-about properties. Sure, the design is exaggerated—the hotel’s gold-tiled Cha Cha Rooster bar channels King Midas—but it’s not all brazenly over-the-top. We found the daytime scene around the three pools subdued, and our 285-square-foot Cabana room was thankfully quiet. Come evening, the hotel’s informative iPhone app came in handy on our quest for Miami’s best martini.
Mandarin Oriental (Paris)
If we were to choose one word to describe this 138-room property, which opened in 2011, it would be whimsical. There are butterfly-centric design touches throughout: purple winged clusters line the moody hallways, and the gastronomic restaurant Sur Mesure par Thierry Marx, designed by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku and a T+L Design Award winner this year, feels like an ivory cocoon. Jewel-hued rooms, many with images by photographer Man Ray, start at more than 400 square feet—some of the most expansive in Paris. Though courtyard-view rooms are blissfully quiet, they lack the sense of place of street-facing suites (by far our preferred option), which look onto Rue St.-Honoré.
Hotel Chocolat, Soufrière, St. Lucia
Make no mistake: St. Lucia’s sexy new retreat, on a working cacao plantation in the island’s jungly Soufrière area, is one of the most exciting new Caribbean hideaways—for foodies and beachgoers alike. The property and farm are the passion project of a pair of British entrepreneurs who bought the derelict 140-acre estate in an effort to restore the island’s once-thriving chocolate industry. The 14 rustic-chic cottages, with their stone walls, polished granite bathrooms, and open-to-the-sky showers, are especially inviting during the occasional tropical downpour (we curled up with a novel and a glass of Cabernet). The sweetest surprise? Innovative chocolate-infused dishes—cacao gazpacho; yellowfin tuna with chocolate pesto; slow-cooked lamb with chiles and cocoa—all served in an open-sided pavilion with postcard-perfect views of the rain forest and the iconic Petit Piton beyond.
Washington School House, Park City, Utah
Park City’s recent splashy openings—the Waldorf Astoria Park City (It List 2010), St. Regis Deer Valley, and Montage Deer Valley (It List 2011)—have some competition from a tiny off-mountain gem. Complete with creamy white wainscoting, vintage chandeliers, and French and Swedish antiques, the 1889 schoolhouse, renovated to the studs, is more Alpine chic than Rocky Mountain rustic. Staffers offer spot-on recommendations for restaurants and boutiques and instantly coordinate transportation to your mountain of choice (though Park City’s Town Lift is steps away). Add in the 12 unique rooms and suites—some quirkily configured to respect the original architecture—and the heated pool, and Utah’s adventure-and-entertainment capital has a new home base.
The Saint, New Orleans
On a lively edge of the French Quarter, the Saint exhibits a crisp, highly stylized fantasia. Texas-based owner D. Mark Wyant, an American Airlines pilot, and his mother are behind the restoration of the landmark 1909 Audubon Building on Canal Street. Wyant looked to his travels as inspiration for the interiors, where dark-blue hallways open onto 166 rooms with Art Deco touches, such as all-white lacquered furnishings and indigo ceilings. A sign that Wyant’s Southern roots worked their charms? Sweet Olive Restaurant has been embraced by finicky locals. On weekends, the communal table fills with New Orleanians ordering classic Louisiana crab cakes and ice-cold Abita beers.
Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Vancouver
If you think the ornate wall clock, 30-foot chandelier, and fedora-clad doormen hint at the past, you’re right: the Hotel Georgia originally opened in 1927, and after an extensive overhaul, unveiled a new look in this past summer. Rather than adding rooms to compete with the city’s gleaming high-rises, Rosewood Hotel Georgia instead retains the same intimate scale that drew both Elvis Presley and the Beatles to this spot when they toured British Columbia. There are just 156 high-tech rooms and suites, and the attentive staff anticipated our needs, often before we thought of them. The chauffeured hotel Bentley was available when we wanted to explore the city; our reading glasses were wiped clean at turndown; and, on our final evening, a U.S. customs form was slipped under our door—making for a seamless trip back across the border.
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