Urban design quietly nestled among an oasis of natural serenity, Casa de La Flora sits in Khao Lak, on the shore of the Andaman Sea. The brainchild of businessman Sompong Dowpiset, this 36-villa resort is an ode to the angular geometries of Brutalist architecture, while simultaneously paying tribute to the surrounding environment. Applying a distinct sensitivity to the adjacent landscape and achieving harmony with the local flora, the hotel by VaSLab Architecture is Khao Lak’s only resort offering contemporary architecture and design. Guests are invited to experience this exceptional retreat in the midst of pioneering interiors, personalised services and discreet, yet sincere eco-credentials. Continue reading “Introducing Casa de La Flora” »

St. Tropez has seen it all. At the heart of the French Riviera, the beautiful town has come to be known for the row of private yachts lining the quai and the stream of movie stars and personalities that file through in peak season. It is the region’s natural beauty that attracts them, of course. But the modish lifestyle doesn’t hurt much either. It is here, in St. Tropez, that we encounter Shahe Kalaidjian and Christophe Pillet’s beautiful second collaboration. With their first joint endeavor, Hotel Sezz in Paris’ 16th Arrondissement, they developed a language of their own. In St. Tropez, they translate it from an urban lexicon into one that describes the ultimate in luxury vacation.

Situated on the town’s Route des Salins, guests can smell and feel salt water and warm breezes from their beds and baths. With 37 guestrooms engulfed by a lush wooded park and a swimming pool at its hub, Sezz St. Tropez is as warm and inviting as it is fresh and full of vision. The Personal Assistant Programme devised at Sezz Paris has been carried over to St. Tropez, but its new collaborations – the Dom Pérignon bar, the restaurant led by world-renowned chef Pierre Gagnaire, and the spa developed in partnership with Payot – are unique to Sezz St. Tropez. Each of the hotel’s guestrooms, suites and villas is individualized and has its own private balcony that leads out to the central pool or into a private garden.

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When guests arrive at Eccleston Square Hotel, an historic townhouse on an award- winning garden square in Pimlico, Central London, they might think they’re about to step into an old-fashioned city residence. But instead they will be entering a timeless modern lobby, which dazzles with a black, crystal chandelier and herring bone pattern floor tiles.

After a £6.5m renovation, this Georgian town house has emerged as an ultra-high-tech urban cocoon, where guests are comforted and soothed by luxurious products and swathes of futuristic gadgets. In all 39 rooms there are blue tooth iPod connections, VoIP phones and programmable ‘wake up and sleep’ experience that takes control of the curtains, heating and lighting. The 46-inch 3D TVs with 3D Blu-Ray players and hand-made, electronically adjustable Hästens beds are standard in all rooms.

Good sleep and well-being are central to the design concept devised by Olivia Byrne, who recently completed a four-and-a-half-year course at Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne in Switzerland. “The ethos of the Eccleston Square Hotel is quite simple,” she said. “We want our clients to leave the hotel feeling better than they did when they arrived.”

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The Alila Villas Uluwatu is a cluster of buildings, terraces, pools and gardens located 100 metres above the Indian Ocean on a limestone cliff on Bali’s Bukit Peninsula. Bukit’s dramatic, savannah landscape is the inspiration for the resort’s design and accordingly, the Alila Villas Uluwatu achieves a harmony with nature palpable to all who stay there.

Resort accommodations consist of 52 one-bedroom villas (291 sqm), 2 two-bedroom villas (582sqm), 25 private villas (2000-3000 sqm) and five cliffside villas with pool (also 2,000-3,000 sqm). Should guests ever want to emerge from these blissful sanctuaries, the facilities available to them include a palm-fringed, 50-metre pool, a fully-equipped fitness centre, an extensive resort library, a cigar bar, an event centre and a wedding pavilion and lawn. Continue reading “Alila Villas Uluwatu: Bali, Indonesia” »

Sobriety and elegance may sound old-fashioned, but as design principles they help provide a distinctly modern version of luxury at Bilbao’s Miróhotel. Fashion designer Antonio Miró has brought the spare sensibility that makes him a favorite on international runways to the hotels’ interiors, to stunning effect.

Located between Bilbao’s Museum of Fine Arts and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, the hotel’s façade makes a simple but strong statement, a grid of large windows atop six white columns, creating a light-box effect at night. An in-house collection of art and photography juxtaposes old and new works, as do wengé-finished tables and Flexform chairs in the bar. Guestrooms feature the luxury of soothing color palettes and textures, continuing the beige-and-black scheme of the hotel’s public areas. Curtains, rather than walls, separate work and living areas, creating a fluid, multifunctional space. And the hotel’s Miró bar features long, low-slung lines that suggest a sleek version of modernity while providing Bilbao with a truly chic watering hole.

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Situated just off Berlin’s grand boulevard Kurfürstendamm, Hotel Q!’s avant-garde aesthetic combines futuristic forms with simple elegance. Owner and visionary Wolfgang Loock developed Q!’s distinct design together with the renowned architecture studio Graft, perhaps most famous for creating Brad Pitt’s Hollywood studio.

With its focus on fluid lines and undulating spaces, Q! does not have any right angles. The hotel’s shimmery red lobby and lounge, earthy spa and “sand room” were designed to create a continuous flow in both form and space. The 77 guestrooms, including four studios and one penthouse, feature dramatic bed frames that wrap around the bathtub and sink, forming a sculptural statement as the room’s centerpiece. Noticeably minimal, the chosen color scheme of primarily neutral tones, whites and dark oak, with the occasional deep red accent, keeps attention on the rooms’ rounded edges and rich textures, like (artificial) ostrich leather and soothing slate. Continue reading “Hotel Q!: Berlin, Germany” »

W Hotels Worldwide unveils W Retreat & Spa Bali – Seminyak, its third Retreat to open within the past 12 months. The newest W Retreat, W Bali is located in the trendy enclave of Seminyak and reinvents the exuberance of its locale, where designer boutiques, diverse galleries, lively restaurants, and modern cocktail bars and clubs hold court. The first W Hotel in Indonesia, W Bali brings a ‘new scene unseen’ to the Island through its modern design and signature bars and restaurants that allow guests and locals alike to mix and mingle or disappear into their private escape.

Located on the Grand Canal, Palazzina Grassi is a luxury five-star hotel, lovingly restored by entrepreneur Emanuele Garosci. Once home to generations of noble and haute-bourgeois families and a Roman spa, the building now invites guests to feel temporarily Venetian. The interior has been beautifully designed by Philippe Starck with traditional Venetian materials and decorations, including mirrors, mahogany, glass and old bricks combined with innovative contemporary design. Each guest is pampered with 24hour services aimed to bring the fantasy of Venetian life to fruition. This includes the exclusive Krug Lounge (the second in the world) where guests can taste vintage Krug champagne combined with typical cicchetti – Venice’s version of tapas. The PG’s Club Restaurant offers a tailor made ‘experience with the chef’, which begins with shopping at city markets and ends with a dinner cooked with a chef at a seven-meter long show kitchen table. Guests can also choose from dinners in the homes of Venetian nobles, a guided discovery of the city’s best-kept secrets, picnics on the islands in the lagoon and many other personalized ‘Venetian experiences.’ Continue reading “Palazzina Grassi: Venice, Italy” »

Salvatore Ferragamo has finally exported his exquisite model of hospitality, Lugarno Hotels, beyond the walls of Florence and into the Eternal City, Rome. Portrait Suites, located on Via Condotti in the heart of the Italian capital, boasts views of the Spanish Steps, the Quirinale, the Pincio and Monte Mario.

The innovative hotel was designed as an Italian luxury townhouse in which the intimate hospitality and warm, welcoming atmosphere allow guests to feel extraordinarily at home. Even the name, Portrait Suites, bears witness to the made-to-measure hospitality, as though the hotel is a reflection of each guest and his desires.

Situated in the same elegant palazzo as the Ferragamo’s Men’s store, Portrait Suites’ décor is importantly associated with the concept of a fashion designer’s atelier. The hotel’s 8 studios, 5 suites, and penthouse are handsomely endowed with the most comfortable of contemporary conveniences and are all afforded with ample living and breathing space. Designed and decorated once again by Michele Bönan, the hotel, constructed with only the finest materials and the most elegant furniture, provides the ideal location from which to see the best of this magnificent city and to appreciate its rich history, the fruits of its traditions in craftsmanship, and of course, its luminary hospitality.

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On one of Barcelona’s most emblematic streets, Passeig de Gracia, guests will find El Palauet Living Barcelona, a collection of 6 exclusive double suites each grazing 150sqm. An eccentric blend of modernist architecture and structural ornamentation with the simple grace of contemporary and classic design and luxury, visitors to El Palauet Living Barcelona will undoubtedly have a unique experience. Each spacious suite is endowed with a dining room, office, lounge area and terrace, fully equipped kitchen and 2 suites, as well as every technological amenity that a business or leisure traveller might desire. The Tibidabo double suites additionally offer bathtubs with colour therapy and terrace views of the Pompeya Monastery and the Tibidabo Mountain. Guests are invited to unwind in the private spa, lined with local stone and a delicate glass and steel framed roof that sports a Finnish Sauna, massage room and relaxation areas. A personal assistant with a fresh and cool attitude is available to take care of any logistical arrangement, maximizing the comfort of an individual’s stay and minimizing the hassle of everyday life. El Palauet Living Barcelona is located in the city’s most prestigious central spot, offering guests access to the best and most vibrant of this incredible Catalan city’s soul.

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