Where TO STAY NEXT!
From New York to Napa - England to Ethiopia - the 19 hotels to visit in 2016
THE new hotels we’re most looking forward to next year run the gamut from big-name big brands to elegant boutique beauties — and from urban escapes in familiar destinations to far-flung lodges in exotic locales. At least one thing they all have in common? We’re ready to book a room at each and every one as soon as they open their doors.
Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle resort
Tangalle, Sri Lanka
This January-opening Indian Ocean retreat sits on a 42-acre coconut plantation on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, its 152 locally inflected but largely contemporary rooms and pool villas giving onto a secluded stretch of beach. Beyond the ayurvedic spa and six restaurants and bars, the hotel offers easy access to the area’s nature preserves, whale-watching sites and a Buddhist temple built into a rocky cliff. From $250; tangalle.anantara.com
Four Seasons Hotel At the Surf club
Miami Beach, Florida
Talk about pedigree: Not only does this year-end arrival incorporate the historic 1930s Mediterraneanstyle members-only beachfront Surf Club, where the likes of Frank Sinatra and Liz Taylor once cavorted, it’ll feature 77 rooms and a huge water-side spa, plus top-shelf residences, in glittering new glass towers designed by Pritzker Prizewinning architect Richard Meier. Rates TBD; the surf-clubcom.
The Beekman
New York, New York
Opening in the first few months of 2016, just off the Financial District’s City Hall Park, this 287-room outpost from Thompson Hotels holds court in the 1881 landmarked Queen Anne-style Temple Court building. Swedishborn, London-based old-meets-new master Martin Brudnizki did the interiors (including the nine-story atrium), and food stars Tom Colicchio and Keith McNally are taking on restaurant responsibilities. From $619; thebeekman.com
The Watergate Hotel
Washington, DC
From infamy to hostelry, the mid-century modern Watergate building — originally built as apartments and designed by Italian architect Luigi Moretti in the early 1960s — starts a new life when it opens in March as a luxury hotel, following a $125 million redo. Israel-born, London-based contemporary designer Ron Arad has created its restau-
rants, whiskey and rooftop bars, 12,500-square-foot spa and 300-plus rooms, 95 percent of which will have Potomac River views. From $400; thewatergatehotel.com
ace hotel new orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Fresh off its latest debut in the rather unlikely location of Pittsburg, ohso-hip Ace gets back in the major-destinations game with this stay, landing in the middle of the year in a 1928 nine-story Art Deco former furniture store in NOLA’s on-the-rise Warehouse District. In addition to the 234 rooms, you’ll find a rooftop pool and cups of joe from Portland, Oregon’s Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a frequent Ace partner in crime. Rates TBD; acehotel.com
ritz Paris
Paris, France Once expected this year, this grandest of Paris grand dame palace hotels will finally reopen in March, its 143 rooms and fabulous public spaces seeing the light of day once again after a years-long restoration and major renovation masterminded by French designer extraordinaire Thierry W. Despont. Favorite amenities like the Hemingway Bar will be back in business, while new enhancements include a Chanel spa and retractable roof over an internal courtyard. From $1,092; ritzparis. com
las alcobas
Napa Valley, California
The rare new hotel to arrive in Northern California’s wine country, this 68-room property from Starwood’s Luxury Collection — a satellite of its Las Alcobas in Mexico City — reimagines a century-old Georgian- and Victorianstyle mansion as a plush hotel, adding several contemporary buildings, a restaurant and large spa, with interiors by Yabu Pushelberg. It sits on the edge of vineyards, adjacent to Beringer Wine Estate and walking distance to charming downtown St. Helena. Rates TBD; lasalcobas.com
the highlands
Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania
Perched at nearly 9,000 feet, on the edge of Tanzania’s wildlife-rich Ngorogoro Crater — the highest of any crater lodge — this new camp from Asilia Africa comprises only seven accommodations, each a Buckminster Fuller-esque dome with its own woodburning fireplace and en suite bathroom. Three more domes house a central fire pit, dining room, bar and lounge, perfects spots to relax after days spent Big Five-spotting in the bush. From $625 per person; asiliaafrica.com
bahama house inn
Harbour Island, The Bahamas
Eleven Experience — known for its small fleet of perfectly appointed, full-service and residential-feeling vacation villas — will launch its first hotel-style stay in March, with this property on the exclusive Bahamian Out Island enclave of Harbour Island. Its several cottages, common spaces and a salt water pool sit in Harbour’s main town, while the Inn’s own petite private atoll serves guests’ beach-going needs just offshore. From $650 per person; elevenexpe
rience.com
amanemu
Ise Shima National Park, Japan
A year after debuting its first city hotel, in Tokyo, Aman will extend its Japanese endeavors in March, launching a 24-suite, four-villa hot-springs resort on Ago Bay in Ise Shima National Park, two hours’ driving southeast of Kyoto. The simple, nature-influenced design of ryokans — Japan’s traditional bathing retreats — will guide the aesthetic, while the Japanese restaurant will celebrate the region’s seafood and Wagyu beef, among other local specialties. From $730; aman.com
canyon ranch wellness resort at KaPlanKaya
Bodrum, Turkey
The renowned spa-hotel brand — whose current resorts are in Tucson, Arizona, and Massachusetts’s Berkshire mountains — opens its first international outpost in July, in a modern development just outside the jet-set Turkish Riviera destination of Bodrum. Here, on the Aegean coast, guests will find just 141 rooms and suites served by 40 treatment rooms at a spa weighing in at more than 100,000 square feet. $1,000; canyonranch.com
toscana resort castelfalfi
Tuscany, Italy
This 2,700-acre Tuscan estate in an eight-centuryold village has operated as a resort for the past few years, and it will finally get a five-start hotel toward the end of 2016. The new property’s 120 rooms and suites, indoor-outdoor pool, 11,000-square-foot spa and gourmet restaurant join an already-opened three-star hotel, apartments, 27-hole golf course, restaurants, cooking school and shopping boutiques. From $328 ; castel
falfi.co.uk
il sereno lago di como
Torno, Italy
Patricia Urquiola — the Spanish-born, Italy-based architect and designer known for her recent work at Berlin’s das Stue hotel, as well as her furniture collections for the likes of Moroso — will bring a dose of highly contemporary style to the shores of Lake Como this summer, with her scheme for this 30-suite sister hotel to St. Barths’ beloved Le Sereno. Key draws include an armada of private boats, a small beach and 60-foot-long lakefront infinity pool. From $850; lesereno.com
ParK hyatt st. Kitts
St. Kitts
Thanks to increased airlift and unprecedented expansion, St. Kitts is now on Caribbean-lovers’ radar screens. That continues through the end of next year, when this resort brings 125 beachfront rooms and suites (some with their own rooftop pools), a 12-room spa and assorted restaurants to the ongoing development at Christophe Bay, where a Tom Fazio-designed golf course has already opened. Rates TBD; stkitts.park.hyatt.com
W Tel Aviv — JAffA
Tel Aviv, Israel
New York-based developer Aby Rosen — who backed Miami’s designminded W South Beach — puts his hospitality hat back on in September, with the 127 rooms and 32 residences of this hotel in a dramatically re-mastered convent and hospital. Working in seaside Jaffa, Tel Aviv’s ancient but rapidly revitalizing port, minimalist-luxe British architect John Pawson will blend old and new throughout, not least of all in the hotel’s bar, where he’ll retain the vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows of a former chapel. Rates TBD; whotels.com
TcherAssi hoTel + spA
Cartagena, Colombia
This spring, Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi unveils the longawaited big sister to her eponymous boutique Cartagena hotel, which she opened six years ago in a centuries-old mansion. The new property will have 42 rooms in a new-build, colonial-style structure, just around the corner from the original, and will feature a rooftop pool, light-filled restaurant, café, fashion boutique and interiors by Cartagena native son turned New York society decorator Richard Mishaan. Rates TBD; tcherassihotels.com
limAlimo lodge
Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia
Something of a luxurytourism pioneer in the area, this 14-room, sustainable property opens in January on a 3,300-foot-high escarpment overlooking the mountains and canyons of a largely un-visted UNESCO-protected preserve in northern Ethiopia. Two local mountain guides founded Limalimo, putting a focus on walking and trekking (including a seven-day climb on the country’s tallest peak), eco-friendly construction (rammed-earth buildings, green roofs) and animal spotting (native ibex, monkey, wolf and myriad bird species). From $220 per person; limalimolodge.com
NoBU hoTel shorediTch
London, England
Having recently gotten into the hotel game with properties in Vegas and Manila, Japanese starchef Nobu Matsuhisa and his partners, who include Robert De Niro, will open this luxed-up Japanese minimalist joint in East London’s oh-so-hip, highly creative Shoreditch neighborhood in November. Originally designed by Ron Arad, the angular, industrial-looking five-story building will house 156 rooms a coffee and whiskey bar, a spa and, of course, an eponymous restaurant from the culinary master himself. Rates TBD; nobuhotels.com