Duxton Reserve

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 one of the originators of the boutique-hotel movement, the British designer and hotelier Anouska Hempel.

It’s won awards for its restoration, and inside, it’s just as impressive — decked out in elegant black, white, and gold, it’s both a retro fantasy and a thoroughly modern hospitality experience. And while it’s aesthetically unique, it draws on quite a lot of hard-earned expertise — it’s owned by the Garcha Group, a local luxury-hotel concern, and operated by Marriott under the Autograph Collection banner.

The result is something that’s playful and surprising yet thoroughly professional; the rooms and suites are theatrical and romantic, and equipped with all the modern must-haves, from British-made Naturalmat organic mattresses to Bose sound systems and Diptyque bath products. Meanwhile Duxton Reserve’s restaurant, Yellow Pot, serves modern Chinese cuisine with a healthful philosophy, and Anouska’s Bar takes its inspiration from the optimistic excesses of the ’70s and ’80s.