A Lume is the distinction of Lumina’s hotel guide. It goes to a hotel that gives more than the others of its place and price range: in the 2027 edition, 110 of 335.
Being in the guide is already a choice. We choose the hotels ourselves, one at a time, and every page says in one line why that hotel is here.
A hotel without Lumi is a hotel we recommend, for the trip its page describes.
Lumi say how far a hotel stands out from the others of its place and price range. Luxury has nothing to do with it: a lodge with a handful of rooms and a palace in town are each measured against their neighbours.
Gives more than the other hotels of its place and price range.
82 hotels of 335
Exceptional: two of our three readings say so.
25 hotels of 335
Exceptional: guests, critics and we all say so.
3 hotels of 335
The black edition of Three Lumi: no weak side on any of the 5 things that matter.
1 hotel of 335
We read every hotel three times, each reading independent of the others.
Guests: the reviews with text, read one by one, on the five things that matter, which are the location, the room, the staff and service, breakfast and the bill.
Critics: the other guides and the press, such as the Michelin Keys, the Forbes Travel Guide stars and The World’s 50 Best Hotels. On the hotel’s page we name them one by one.
Ours: our reading of the official pages, the photographs and the videos, weighed on price, on what you get for it and on the place.
One Lume: one reading says the hotel is exceptional. Two Lumi: two readings confirm it. Three Lumi: guests, critics and we all say so.
The data nominates and vetoes: where the voices are few, there is no Lume. Then the person who signs the guide decides.
Eclipse is the black edition of Three Lumi. It goes to a hotel with no weak side on any of the five things that matter: a high average is not enough, none of the five may fall behind, with enough voices behind each and the bill judged inside its price range.
An Eclipse hotel’s page is black. It is renewed with every edition, as the Lumi are.
A badge says for whom that hotel is a rare place: an experience travellers look for, in a few words.
Every badge has a written rule, a fact that proves it and a number, how many hotels in the guide hold it. A hotel shows five at most, the rarest first, and every badge has its first of the guide.
An island or a house with no children, in black and white.
Held by a hotel that states a minimum age of 12 or more for its guests.
8 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeA club that takes the little ones too, and parents who confirm it.
Held by a hotel whose club takes children aged 4 or younger, and where at least 30 guests write about children and nearly all of them write well of it.
8 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeYou hear the sea, or nothing.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top tenth for what guests write about the quiet: at least 30 of them must mention it.
14 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeA breakfast worth getting up early for.
Held by a hotel in the top sixth for breakfast, among the guide’s hotels where at least 30 guests write about it.
15 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeFew guests, and nobody next door.
Held by a hotel with 40 rooms or villas at most.
15 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeSwimming beside manta rays or whale sharks, with someone who knows where they are.
Held by a resort for which a source says where and when manta rays or whale sharks are met: a named site, a season or the time it takes to reach them.
16 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeYou step out and the city is already there.
Held by a city hotel in the top third of the guide’s city hotels for what guests write about its location: at least 30 of them must mention it.
17 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeMask and fins, and the reef is right there: you walk in from the beach.
Held by a resort whose reef you can swim to from the beach and which, among such resorts, is in the top 15% for what guests write about it: at least 30 of them must mention it.
17 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeStaff who get there before you ask.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top 8% for what guests write about the staff and the service: at least 30 of them must mention it.
18 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeA beach and a lagoon you never need to get up from.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top tenth for what guests write about the beach and the lagoon: at least 30 of them must mention it.
18 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeThe people who paid say it was worth it.
Held by a hotel where at least 30 guests write about the price and at least 6 in 10 find it fair.
19 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeNewly-weds really do go, and write about it.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top tenth for how many of the reviews that say who was travelling are honeymoons: at least 50 reviews must say so.
19 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeAn island far from everything, minutes from the airport.
Held by a resort in the Maldives on an island of its own, 20 minutes or less from the airport.
20 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeA spa that is reason enough to go.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top tenth for what guests write about the spa, when at least 30 of them mention it, or by a hotel whose spa has, in our reading of its official pages, one of the highest readings in the guide.
28 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeThe food is good enough to be a reason to go.
Held by a hotel in the guide’s top tenth for what guests write about the food, when at least 30 of them mention it, or by a hotel whose table has, in our reading, one of the highest readings in the guide.
30 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeA hotel with a real history you can still see.
Held by a hotel whose character has, in our reading, one of the highest readings in the guide, and whose history begins before 1950.
31 hotels of 335 hold it.
The hotels with this badgeNo one. No hotel pays to be in the guide, for a Lume, for Eclipse or for a badge, and none can ask for them: we award them. The links to the hotels carry no commission.
We publish the counts, because a distinction everyone holds says nothing.
The edition is renewed every year: a Lume is confirmed, earned or lost.
| Hotels in the guide | 335 |
|---|---|
| One Lume | 82 |
| Two Lumi | 25 |
| Three Lumi | 3 |
| of which Eclipse | 1 |
Every hotel with a Lume in the 2027 edition, from Three Lumi down.
Palmschoß, Brixen
62 suites at 1,800 metres on the Plose, between a house of 1912 and 3 timber towers, with a 2,000 m² spa and the Odle in every window
What guests love most: breakfast, 96 in 100 happy.
Paris · Avenue George V
A Marble Courtyard, a 17 m pool and 3 starred restaurants.
What guests love most: the location, 98 in 100 happy.
Gardens, Cape Town
The pink 1899 hotel below Table Mountain, the city’s most famous tea and 9 acres of garden.
What guests love most: the location, 98 in 100 happy.
Midtown, New York
If you love Aman, you know them far away, in a desert or on an island. This one is 3 minutes from Central Park, in a 1921 tower, and in every suite the fire is already lit.
St. Moritz, Engadin
Badrutt’s Palace is the towered grand hotel Caspar Badrutt opened in 1896 above the lake at St. Moritz: 163 rooms and suites, and the place where the town gathers for tea and for New Year’s Eve.
Savelletri di Fasano, Puglia
Borgo Egnazia looks like a Puglian village that has always stood there, yet it was built stone by stone among the olive groves of Savelletri.
Campo Marzio, Rome
Bulgari Hotel Roma has the Mausoleum of Augustus across from its front door and, down in the spa, 8 marble columns standing in the water.
French Quarter, Hanoi
Capella Hanoi is Bill Bensley’s tribute to the opera: 47 rooms in the French Quarter, 474 metres from the Opera House, with 3 MICHELIN Keys.
Circular Quay, Sydney
Capella Sydney, the group’s first hotel in Australia, fills a sandstone government building of 1912 to 1930: 192 rooms, 4 minutes on foot from Circular Quay.
Cannes, Côte d’Azur
Carlton Cannes stands on La Croisette, with its Belle Époque façade, beach club and an infinity pool in the enclosed garden.
Paris · Quai du Louvre
Cheval Blanc Paris stands on the Seine, above La Samaritaine: 72 rooms and suites, a 30-metre pool and the 3 Michelin stars of Plénitude.
Mayfair, London
Plenty of people walk into Claridge’s only for tea, among the Foyer’s jade-striped china. Those who stay the night find the rest: 203 rooms and suites, 3 bars and a pool beneath Brook Street.
Corniche, Abu Dhabi
Emirates Palace is a real palace at the end of Abu Dhabi’s Corniche, with 114 domes, 85 hectares of garden and 1.3 km of private beach: its smallest room is 55 m², and Mandarin Oriental has run it since 2020.
Mid-Beach, Miami Beach
Faena is the old Saxony on Mid-Beach, reopened in 2015 in red velvet and gold leaf, where the beach, Francis Mallmann’s fire-cooked dinner and the cabaret sit under one roof.
Paris · Place de la Concorde
Hôtel de Crillon stands on Place de la Concorde: 124 rooms and suites among historic salons and contemporary interiors.
The Tridente, Rome
Behind Via del Babuino, Hotel de Russie hides Valadier’s terraced garden, climbing to the Pincio among orange trees, fountains and nymphaeums: breakfast, Le Jardin and the Stravinskij Bar are all out there.
Positano, Amalfi Coast
Since 1970 the Cinque family’s hotel has stepped down the cliff at Laurito, 2 km from Positano: a lift through the rock leads to a beach kept for guests, and up top is Zass, with one MICHELIN star.
Medina, Marrakech
Behind Marrakech’s walls, facing the Koutoubia, an 18th-century royal orchard became a hotel in 1923: today a garden with 27 fountains, a Murano-glass pool and 209 keys.
Paris · Avenue Gabriel
La Réserve Paris, on Avenue Gabriel, has 40 rooms and suites, each with a dedicated butler, among salons, a library with a fireplace and an indoor pool.
Paris · 8th arrondissement
Le Bristol is a Paris Palace opened in 1925 on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré: a 1,200 m² garden, an indoor pool on the sixth floor and Epicure’s 3 Michelin stars.
Moltrasio, Lake Como
Passalacqua, at Moltrasio on Lake Como, is a late-18th-century villa of 24 rooms and suites, where Bellini wrote La Sonnambula.
Fashion District, Milan
At Portrait Milano the first room is a piazza: from Corso Venezia you walk into a courtyard open to the whole city, framed by the loggias of a former seminary. Reception comes later.
Whitehall, London
Raffles London at The OWO, at 57 Whitehall in London, is the 1906 Old War Office, where Churchill had his office, opened as a hotel in 2023.
Medina, Marrakech
Inside Marrakech’s walls, 10 minutes on foot from the Koutoubia, the King of Morocco built a private medina in 2010: 53 riads over 3 floors, each with a roof terrace and plunge pool.
Mayfair, London
The Connaught, on Carlos Place in Mayfair, London, is the hotel of the Connaught Bar and of Hélène Darroze’s 3 MICHELIN stars.
Adlisberg, Zurich
The Dolder Grand is the 1899 Curhaus on the hill above Zurich, with wings by Norman Foster: a 4,000-square-metre spa, more than a hundred works of art and Heiko Nieder’s 2-star cooking.
Karaköy, Istanbul
The Peninsula Istanbul fills 4 buildings on the Karaköy quay, 3 of them from the old port: 177 rooms and suites, gardens on the Bosphorus and the old city across the water.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
On the Fari Islands the Ritz-Carlton Maldives draws everything in curves: rounded pool villas along bending jetties, a spa that closes a ring over the lagoon and a butler, the Aris Meeha, for every villa.
Otemachi, Tokyo
Aman took the top 6 floors of the Otemachi Tower for its idea of Japan: 84 suites in timber, washi and stone, the smallest 71 m², and a 2,500 m² spa with a 30-metre pool above the city.
Canyon Point, Utah
Amangiri stands alone on 900 acres of desert in southern Utah: low concrete walls round a sandstone outcrop, 34 suites, 10 tented pavilions and a pool that wraps round the rock.
Baa Atoll, Maldives
Amilla, in Baa Atoll, is made of villas and large residences, each with a private pool and at least 100 m² indoors, with 3 categories adapted for guests with reduced mobility.
Baa Atoll, Maldives
Anantara Kihavah is built on 2 rare things: SEA, a restaurant below sea level, and a reef that rings the whole island, in Baa Atoll; all 80 villas have a pool.
Palm Jumeirah, Dubai
Atlantis The Royal, on Palm Jumeirah’s crescent in Dubai, opened in February 2023: 44 suites and penthouses have a private pool, and every room includes breakfast and the waterpark.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
Baros has welcomed guests since 1973, one of the first island resorts in the Maldives: 75 villas for couples and a house reef that begins 20 metres from shore, home to more than 20 resident hawksbill turtles.
Ravello, Amalfi Coast
Caruso is an 11th-century palace at the top of Ravello, 350 metres above the sea: 50 rooms and suites among frescoed salons, terraced gardens and an infinity pool facing the whole Amalfi Coast.
Bürgenstock, Lake Lucerne
You reach Bürgenstock Hotel by boat and on the funicular that has climbed here since 1888; at the top are the 10,000 m² of the Alpine Spa and an infinity pool at 35°C, with Lake Lucerne beyond its edge.
Castello, Venice
Ca’ di Dio is the pilgrims’ hospice of 1272 that Patricia Urquiola turned into a hotel on the Arsenale waterfront: from the Biennale it is a 5-minute walk back to shelter, away from the crowds.
Oia, Santorini
Canaves Oia Suites gives every suite its own pool on the caldera, where Oia begins: 46 white cave suites and villas, Petra’s 10 tables and a lift through the rock.
Sentosa, Singapore
Capella Singapore stands on a knoll of Sentosa Island, in Singapore: 38 villas, each with its own plunge pool, and 2 colonial bungalows of the 1880s joined to a curving wing by Foster + Partners.
Montalcino, Val d’Orcia
Castiglion del Bosco is a 12th-century hamlet restored by the Ferragamo family on an estate of about 2,000 hectares near Montalcino: 42 suites and 11 villas with pools, with its own wine, its own golf course and a Michelin-starred table.
Noonu Atoll, Maldives
Cheval Blanc Randheli is LVMH’s maison in the Maldives: 46 villas, each with a 12.5-metre pool, 11 French courses at Le 1947 and a Guerlain spa on an island of its own.
Meemu Atoll, Maldives
Hakuraa Huraa is an adults-only resort in Meemu Atoll, rebuilt in 2019 on 2 islands joined by a walkway, with glass-floored water bungalows and an all-inclusive plan that covers the snorkelling boat too.
Vaavu Atoll, Maldives
Cinnamon Velifushi, in Vaavu Atoll, has water villas with steps down into the lagoon and bungalows on the beach, about 25 minutes away by seaplane.
Taplow, Berkshire
Cliveden House, above the Thames at Taplow in Berkshire, 40 minutes from London, is a house of 1666 rebuilt by Charles Barry, where the Astors threw their parties and the Profumo affair began.
Vaavu Atoll, Maldives
At Cocogiri the reef starts under the ladders of the water villas: 40 villas on a Vaavu Atoll island you can walk round in minutes, with blacktip sharks, rays and turtles off the steps.
Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Cocoon is an island in Lhaviyani Atoll, 30 minutes by seaplane from Malé, where the 150 villas, the restaurants and the bars are furnished by the Italian brand LAGO and every stay is all inclusive.
South Ari Atoll, Maldives
The Conrad has the world’s first undersea restaurant, Ithaa, and the Muraka, a residence with a bedroom 5 metres under the sea, on 2 South Ari islands joined by a 500-metre bridge.
Milano Centrale, Milan
The Gallia is the 1932 Art Deco palace facing Milano Centrale: the door is a 3-minute walk from the train, and 7 floors up you swim beneath a skylight, beside the Shiseido spa.
Vouliagmeni, Athens Riviera
Four Seasons Astir Palace has a pine-covered peninsula to itself at Vouliagmeni, on the Athens Riviera: 3 private beaches, 2 pools by the sea and Athens half an hour up the coast.
Florence, Tuscany
Four Seasons Hotel Firenze pairs frescoed rooms with 4.45 hectares of private garden in the historic centre.
Hong Kong
Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong brings Central together with a year-round heated infinity pool overlooking Victoria Harbour.
Baa Atoll, Maldives
Four Seasons at Landaa Giraavaru has an 18-hectare island in Baa Atoll and sets beside its 103 villas a marine biology centre working with the Manta Trust and AyurMa, an Ayurvedic spa with its own doctors.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
Gili Lankanfushi is an island of 45 villas, all over the water, half an hour by speedboat from Malé airport: you arrive without a seaplane, go barefoot and have your own Mr. Friday.
Karen, Nairobi
Giraffe Manor is Kenya’s giraffe hotel: breakfast is taken with the windows open, and from 6am to 9am giraffes put their heads in, looking for pellets.
Blasieholmen, Stockholm
The Grand Hôtel has been Stockholm’s grand hotel since 1874: 279 rooms on the quay that faces the Royal Palace across the water, where the first Nobel banquet was held in 1901.
Tremezzo, Lake Como
At Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a 1910 palace on Lake Como, the pool floats on the water with Bellagio opposite, and the day is spent between the lido, the vintage boats and the spa in Villa Emilia.
Oberbort, Gstaad
Gstaad Palace has looked down on the village from its hill since 1913, and its indoor pool is the one in The Return of the Pink Panther.
Raa Atoll, Maldives
Heritance Aarah, in Raa Atoll, is an all-inclusive with 7 restaurants and 5 bars, the overwater IASO spa and villas between beach and lagoon.
Bel-Air, Los Angeles
Hotel Bel-Air, in Stone Canyon in the hills of Bel-Air, Los Angeles, opened in 1946 around a lake: you arrive over a footbridge above the swans of Swan Lake, in 12 acres of gardens.
Giudecca, Venice
On the tip of the Giudecca, Hotel Cipriani has what is rare in Venice: lawns, a vineyard, a red clay tennis court and a saltwater pool, with St Mark’s opposite, 5 minutes away by launch.
Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo opens onto Place du Casino, with Le Grill on the 8th floor and a connection to Thermes Marins.
Innere Stadt, Vienna
The Sacher has faced Vienna’s State Opera since 1876 and has belonged to the same family since 1934: 152 rooms and suites, and the home of the Original Sacher-Torte.
Nakagyo, Kyoto
Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto stands where the Mitsui family’s house stood for more than 250 years, facing Nijo-jo Castle: 160 rooms, a 1,300 m² garden and a hot spring beneath the hotel.
Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Hurawalhi is a small, adults-only island in Lhaviyani Atoll, with 90 villas, a reef a few strokes off the beach and 5.8, the all-glass restaurant under the sea.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
Huvafen Fushi is worth the trip for 3 things on one small island, half an hour by boat from Malé: the spa under the sea, a cellar dug below ground and a reef that starts 25 metres off the beach.
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo
Janu Tokyo is the first hotel of the brand Aman created to be more sociable: 122 rooms by Jean-Michel Gathy in Azabudai Hills, with 4,000 m² of pool, gym and spa beneath Tokyo Tower.
Raa Atoll, Maldives
JOALI BEING is a whole island in Raa Atoll given over to wellbeing: 68 pool villas, 37 treatment rooms, programmes of 5 to 10 nights and Three MICHELIN Keys.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
Joy Island is the all-inclusive resort that makes the Maldives easy for a family: 151 villas 40 minutes by speedboat from the airport, The Market’s buffet and Kiddie Cove, the club for children aged 3 to 12.
Umm Suqeim, Dubai
Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab, on an island off Umm Suqeim in Dubai, opened in March 2025 beside the Burj Al Arab: every room has its own terrace, and the smallest is 67 m².
Noonu Atoll, Maldives
Kuredhivaru is a resort made up entirely of pool villas, 105 between beach and lagoon in Noonu Atoll, at a price that stays reasonable for the Maldives; since 2025 it has been on its way from Mövenpick to Mondrian.
Centre, Lausanne
Lausanne Palace, open since 1915, looks over Lausanne from above: Lake Geneva beyond the rooftops from the right rooms, and in the house a 2,100-square-metre spa and the 2 Michelin stars of La Table.
Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Le Méridien Maldives is a big resort by Maldives standards, 35 minutes by seaplane from Malé: 134 villas, 97 over the water, 6 restaurants and bars, a Kids Hub and an overwater spa with a glass floor.
Paris · Tuileries
Le Meurice faces the Tuileries, with classical rooms, Alain Ducasse’s dining room and Cédric Grolet’s pastries.
Positano, Amalfi Coast
Le Sirenuse is the Sersale family’s 18th-century house above Positano’s Spiaggia Grande, a hotel since 1951: 58 rooms, an artist’s pool and a dining room lit by candles.
South Ari Atoll, Maldives
Machchafushi is a South Ari island ringed by its own house reef: you snorkel from the villa among turtles and reef sharks, and the Kudhi Maa, a 52-metre cargo ship, lies wrecked just off the island.
North Malé Atoll, Maldives
One&Only Reethi Rah takes up one of the largest islands in North Malé Atoll: 44 hectares and 12 beaches to tour by bicycle, 45 minutes by boat from the airport, with no seaplane.
Pantheon, Rome
In the 1620 palazzo behind the Pantheon, a hotel since the 19th century where Stendhal stayed, La Minerva reopened in 2025 as the first Orient Express hotel, with a rooftop restaurant beside the dome.
South Ari Atoll, Maldives
Maafushivaru is a small barefoot island in South Ari Atoll where the all-inclusive opens every restaurant and guests also have Lonubo, an uninhabited island a few minutes away by boat, to themselves.
Marunouchi, Tokyo
There has been a Palace Hotel at this address on the Imperial Palace moat since 1961: today it has 284 rooms of 45 m² or more, Grand Kitchen’s terrace beside the water and an underground passage to Otemachi station.
Brera, Milan
At Palazzo Parigi you enter by a staircase made for an opening night. Then comes something rare in central Milan: every room has a balcony or a terrace, over the garden or over the city.
Gaafu Alifu Atoll, Maldives
Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa is a small island in Gaafu Alifu Atoll with the reef all the way round: beach and overwater villas, and the marine biologists of Blue Journeys to take you out on it.
Osaka Castle, Osaka
Patina Osaka is a 20-storey tower opened in May 2025 beside the Naniwa palace park: 221 rooms, and the Ōtemon gate of Osaka Castle 9 minutes away on foot.
Paris · Avenue Montaigne
Plaza Athénée is the hotel with the red awnings on Avenue Montaigne: 154 rooms and 54 suites, some with the Eiffel Tower in the window, and dinner at La Grande Table.
South Ari Atoll, Maldives
Radisson Blu has Huruelhi, in South Ari Atoll, to itself: 128 villas, each with its own pool, and boat trips from the island to the whale sharks that stay in these waters all year.
Civic District, Singapore
Raffles Singapore has stood on Beach Road since 1887: 115 suites, each with a butler, in white colonial buildings, and the bar where the Singapore Sling began.
Paris · 1st arrondissement
Ritz Paris is the hotel César Ritz opened in 1898 at 15 Place Vendôme: 142 rooms and suites, the 25-seat Bar Hemingway, tea in Salon Proust and a 16 × 9 m indoor pool.
Noonu Atoll, Maldives
ROBINSON Noonu is an all-inclusive club on a barefoot island in Noonu Atoll, where the food, the reef 150 metres out and the club’s evenings bring the same families back year after year.
Hong Kong
Rosewood Hong Kong looks across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon, with 53 m² rooms and a 6th-floor infinity pool.
Holborn, London
Rosewood London fills the Edwardian former head office of Pearl Assurance on High Holborn: you enter through a carriage courtyard and stay in for the evening, at Scarfes Bar with its live music or Holborn Dining Room.
Taormina, Sicily
San Domenico Palace in Taormina occupies a former convent, with sea views from a 21 m infinity pool above the coast.
Paris · 16th arrondissement
Shangri-La Paris occupies Roland Bonaparte’s former home at 10 avenue d’Iéna: 100 rooms and suites, a 17-metre pool in the former stables and the Eiffel Tower across the Seine.
Laamu Atoll, Maldives
Six Senses Laamu is the only resort in Laamu Atoll and is built around the sea: a marine biology centre, turtles beneath the villas, manta rays all year and surf that starts from the beach.
Baa Atoll, Maldives
Soneva Fushi is Soneva’s first resort, opened in 1995: a jungle island you cross by bicycle and barefoot, with more than 60 villas and The Den, a children’s club of more than 1,365 m².
Noonu Atoll, Maldives
Soneva Jani is the resort of a private lagoon in Noonu Atoll, where you sleep in water villas of more than 500 m², with a pool, a slide into the lagoon and a bedroom roof that opens to the sky.
Portofino, Liguria
Splendido is a former monastery on the hill above Portofino: 53 rooms and suites, and a terrace that takes in the whole village at a glance, with the harbour, Castello Brown and the open sea.
Noonu Atoll, Maldives
Iru Fushi keeps families and couples on the same 52-acre island: a kids’ club for ages 3 to 11, an adults-only infinity pool and a private pool at each of its 221 villas.
Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives
Sun Siyam Vilu Reef is a small island of palms and white sand in Dhaalu Atoll, 35 to 40 minutes by seaplane from Malé: 153 villas on the beach and over the water, and the reef a few strokes from the shore.
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
On Sunset Boulevard since 1912 and pink since 1948, the Beverly Hills Hotel keeps film-town Los Angeles inside its walls: the Polo Lounge, the striped pool cabanas and 23 bungalows in the gardens.
Tetiaroa
The Brando is the only hotel on Tetiaroa, Marlon Brando’s atoll 60 km from Tahiti: 35 villas with pools on a lagoon run like a nature reserve, where naturalists lead the excursions.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
In 1918 Spencer Penrose wanted a European grande dame at the foot of the Rockies: the Broadmoor is still there, pink, around Cheyenne Lake, with 3 golf courses and a camp in the clouds.
NoMad, New York
The Fifth Avenue Hotel joins a 1907 mansion by McKim, Mead & White to a 24-storey glass tower in NoMad: 149 rooms, a butler for every stay and Café Carmellini downstairs.
San Marco, Venice
The Gritti is a Gothic palazzo of 1475 on the Grand Canal, a hotel since 1895: 82 rooms and suites of damask and Murano glass, with a private landing stage and a terrace on the water facing the Salute.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
The Peninsula Hong Kong combines rooms from 41 m² and an indoor harbour-view pool with life in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Paris · 16th arrondissement
The Peninsula Paris, on Avenue Kléber, has 200 rooms, 93 of them suites, in a historic building renovated in 2014, with a 20-metre pool and L’Oiseau Blanc above Paris.
South Beach, Miami Beach
The Setai joins a 1937 Art Deco hotel and a 40-storey tower around a courtyard of teak and still water: suites only, 3 pools at 75, 85 and 90°F in a line towards the ocean, and the sand of South Beach behind.
Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives
On the private island of Vommuli, the St. Regis Maldives has 77 villas, each with a private pool and a butler, in architecture shaped after the lagoon: the overwater villas are manta rays, the Whale Bar a whale shark.
Admiralty, Hong Kong
Upper House Hong Kong starts at 68 m² in Studio 70, above Pacific Place in Admiralty.
Cernobbio, Lake Como
Villa d’Este, at Cernobbio on Lake Como, is Cardinal Gallio’s villa of 1568, a hotel since 1873, with a pool that floats on the lake.
Macau
Wynn Palace suits travellers who want rooms from around 68 m², fountains below the windows and dinner within a large Cotai resort.
Raa Atoll, Maldives
You & Me is an adults-only island in Raa Atoll, almost all of it over the water: 99 of its 109 villas stand in the lagoon, the all-inclusive covers 5 à la carte restaurants, and lunch at H2O is 6 metres under the sea.
This guide is written with Lumina, the marketing system for hotels.
