1. ALPINE FALLS RANCH , Superior, Montana, USA
Alpine Falls Ranch takes the classic mountain-lodge aesthetic that its name implies and simply executes it with commitment, verve, and a rare tastefulness. The landscape, after all, is the real star of this show, and the best approach a hotel can take is to complement it rather than distract from it.
2. PARADERO TODOS SANTOS , Todos Santos, Mexico
An hour up the coast from Cabo is a place whose charms are a little more austere, though no less spectacular. Paradero is a luxurious, all-suite, boutique hotel in a highly disciplined Brutalist style, which seeks, in part, to draw the eye outward to the architecture of the landscape and the untouched surrounding ecosystems.
3. VILLA LIVIA, Ischia, Italy
Across the Bay of Naples from Capri is Ischia, a bigger, wilder, and in some ways more spectacular island. And Villa Livia's four rooms are set on what might be one of the most memorable corners of Ischia, looking out across the Bay of Cartaromana to the picturesque, island-bound Castello Aragonese.
4. CANTO DE LUZ , Porto, Portugal
Following a very thorough five-year renovation at the hands of its French owners, this once-abandoned house in a residential part of Porto is now the the poetically named Canto de Luz. This is a luxurious little boutique hotel in a style that’s decidedly modern yet as warm and welcoming as anything else in town.
5. DUXTON RESERVE , Singapore
Singapore’s Chinatown is one of the world’s most unique neighborhoods, and it’s here, in a row of five well-preserved 19th-century shophouses, that you’ll find an equally memorable hotel: Duxton Reserve, a spectacular French-accented boutique hotel with interiors by British designer and hotelier Anouska Hempel.
