15 January 2026
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As children, we used our imaginations to create worlds of joy and wonder. We don’t do that nearly enough as adults. We do something better: we travel. Nothing inspires feelings of childlike amazement more than finally arriving to a far-flung destination you’d always dreamt of visiting.
Those are the moments we live for, and they’re the kind of moments this collection of hotels aims to provide. If this isn’t where the sidewalk ends, it’s close enough.
Explora Rapa Nui — Easter Island, Chile
What it's all about: On the island of the famous Moai statues, a collision of architecture and adventure.Easter Island is some 2,237 miles from the American continent, and a hefty five-hour flight from the closest airports in Santiago and Tahiti. Explora Rapa Nui is well worth the trek, though, melding raw architectural materials with a hyper-contemporary, open-plan layout against some truly outstanding views.
But don’t come just for the hotel — rumor has it the island also hosts a few sites of modest archaeological interest.
Amankora — Paro, Bhutan
What it's all about: A series of high-end lodges spread across one of Asia's most compelling destinations.As if it weren’t already difficult enough to visit, Bhutan strictly limits the number of tourists admitted in an effort to protect its pristine natural environment and ancient Bhutanese culture. All the better for you if you can make the guest list.
And if you can, you should stay at Amankora, a series of lodges spread across the valleys of central and western Bhutan — with locations in the extra-remote locales of Punakha, Gangtey and Bumthang.
Estancia Cristina — El Calafate, Argentina
What it's all about: First-rate facilities, hikes and horseback rides in Patagonia.If you’re going to embark on a Patagonian trek, you may as well get deep in it. From the already remote outpost of El Calafate, you board a small boat for a three-hour ride across the deep blue Lago Argentino and up into its long glacial fingers, ringed by impossibly tall peaks.
When finally you arrive at Estancia Cristina you’ll feel — with some justification — as though you’ve arrived in another world entirely.
Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort — Vanua Levu Island, Fiji
What it's all about: Coral reefs and phenomenal diving accompanied by the in-house marine biologist.Fiji is far from being a hidden gem, but that doesn’t make it any less of a challenge to get there. It is, after all, a cluster of small islands in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. But if there’s a good excuse to make the long flight, aside from the warm blue seas and coral reefs, it’s the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, where the son of Jacques has created the ultimate island resort idyll.
While high tides mean the beautiful beaches are not those for a typical day of lounging, guests who make the trek have before them endless choices of adventure, cultural immersion and ecological discovery amidst the island's rainforests, reefs and waterfalls.
The Kumaon — Himalayas, India
What it's all about: A miracle of construction by Sri Lankan disciples of modernist master architect Geoffrey Bawa.That the Kumaon even exists is almost unbelievable. High among the Indian Himalayas, nine hours by automobile from Delhi, it takes the better part of a day to get here. When the owners found it, no roads led to the site.
A simple log cabin would have been challenging enough to construct. The Kumaon is no log cabin. It is a work of hotel art, a feat of tropical modernism superimposed on a mountaintop almost entirely by hand.
Wanosato — Gifu, Japan
What it's all about: A serene,160-year-old ryokan folded into the forest.Arriving at Wanosato feels nothing less than magical. You ascend by train through the mountains to the town of Takayama, a settlement that took shape in the 16th century and remained, for many years, wonderfully isolated due to its high elevation and distance from Japan’s population centers.
That feeling is only amplified at the 160-year-old ryokan itself, ensconced as it is in the forest well outside of town.
Longitude 131 — Yulara, Australia
What it's all about: A Two-Key candidate for our inaugural Local Gateway award.Longitude 131° refers to the precise east-west location of Uluru, the rust-colored monolith and primary attraction in Australia’s remote Red Centre. Not quite the only lodging within sight of this popular tourist destination, Longitude 131° is the most luxurious, and offers the best view — each of the tent-like guest cabins looks through full-length windows across six miles of desert at the thousand-foot-high rock.
Manshausen — Nordskot, Norway
What it's all about: A One-Key standout for outdoor, Nordic exploration.Even by Norwegian standards, Manshausen Island is out there. This island in the Steigen Archipelago was once a traders’ outpost, and the hotel’s 1880s-vintage main house is a relic of this era.
But the sea cabins are quite a bit newer. These pared-down larchwood-and-glass structures perch right at the water’s edge, affording vertiginous views through full-length windows from living rooms furnished with mid-century reproduction furniture.
Six Senses Zil Pasyon — Felicite, Seychelles
What it's all about: A high-end , private island Two-Key with a leading spa and wellness program to boot.Deep into the Indian Ocean, on a private island in the Seychelles called Félicité, you’ll find Six Senses Zil Pasyon. And while there’s not a bad island in the Seychelles, they’re not all as pristinely beautiful as this.
652 acres of dramatic elevations and virgin forests are home to just 30 extraordinarily luxe timber villas, each of which includes a sundeck and an infinity plunge pool among its many high-end comforts.
Fogo Island Inn — Newfoundland, Canada
What it's all about: Luxe rooms, spectacular views, and whale-watching excursions at one of Canada's only Three-Key hotels.Perhaps the only thing stopping the Fogo Island Inn from becoming the most famous high-design luxury hotel in the world is its far-flung location, on a tiny island off the coast of Newfoundland, closer to Greenland than to Montreal or New York.
Of course, its remoteness is key to its appeal, along with its architecture, an ultra-modern reinterpretation of traditional, utilitarian Maritimes architecture.
Aurora Villa — Fairbanks, Alaska
What it's all about: A beacon of style and luxury for observing one of the great natural phenomenons.The word “aurora” in Aurora Villa is entirely literal. Here, at the end of a country road a half-hour from Fairbanks, in the Alaskan interior, the Northern Lights are a regular feature of the night sky.
Aurora Villa’s Nordic-style minimalism is, in some ways, incongruously stylish in a place where rustic lodges are the norm — but at this latitude, it stands under the same night sky as Iceland and northern Scandinavia.
Los Cauquenes Resort & Spa — Ushuaia, Argentina
What it's all about: An extremely plush base camp on the very edge of Argentinian Patagonia.Among the many places that claim to be “the end of the world,” the Tierra del Fuego, at Argentina’s extreme southern end, might have the strongest case. It’s here, on the Beagle Channel just outside of Ushuaia, within sailing distance of Antarctica, that you’ll find Los Cauquenes — a high-end lodge and spa surrounded by a dramatic landscape that few other contenders for the title “most remote resort” can match.
Bay of Many Coves Resort — Arthur’s Bay, New Zealand
What it's all about: An impossibly pretty, only-in-New Zealand setting with no roads in or out besides hiking trails.We know that New Zealand is home to almost five million people, and that many of them live within hours of Bay of Many Coves. But for the other 7,595,000,000 of us, it’s a bit of a trek, so it’s fitting they’d have a hotel on this list.
Especially this particular hotel, which requires a few final exciting steps to reach its scenic, serene expanse — there are no roads in, so your arrival comes via helicopter, seaplane or ferry.
Alila Jabal Akhdar — Nizwa, Oman
What it's all about: Spacious suites and private stone balconies facing the spectacular scenery.It requires some effort to get to Alila Jabal Akhdar, and if you’ve read this far, you’ll know that’s exactly the appeal. Located in a remote corner of the Middle East, in Oman’s Al Hajar mountain range, this is not just a boutique hotel with serious design chops: it’s an oasis, secluded and self-contained, with a spectacular spa and an infinity pool that’s perfectly placed for drinking in views of the stark landscape.
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Top image: The remote Estancia Cristina in Patagonia, Argentina. ©Estancia Cristina
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