After a Night at These Luxurious New International Hotels, You’ll Never Want to Come Home.
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For every global traveler, there is a dream hotel—whether it is a five-star paradise straight out of The White Lotus or an urban getaway with the best lobby scene in town. As travelers spin their globes for vacation inspiration, new and breathtaking hotels are opening their doors. The options range from a stay in a luxurious treehouse retreat in Panama to a chic and sunny guest respite in Athens to a proper soul reset in Bali. Whatever your jet-set fancy, there’s a place for you. Here, a dozen of the hottest new international hotels of 2023.
Nobu, Marrakech
The interiors at the new Nobu are decidedly not La Mamounia. Definitely not Royal Mansour. Originally designed by Jacques Garcia and reimagined by Mahmoud Slimane, the 71-suite hotel, located in the city’s Golden Triangle, stands on its own aesthetically: modernist restraint over glitz. The interior color scheme is a mix of aubergine and burgundy hues and the vibe decidedly moody with a Mediterranean influence.
Portrait Milano, Milan
Portrait Milano is the result of an ambitious restoration of a 1564 building that is a former archiepiscopal seminary. Milanese architect Michele De Lucchi led the four-year renovation of historic elements like a Baroque entrance and loggia, while Michele Bönan oversaw the decoration of the property’s 73 rooms, which overlook an internal piazza and garden. Of particular note is the swimming pool excavated from the seminary’s old basement dining hall.
Vogue, Montreal
Montreal’s Vogue Hotel has always had a prime downtown location in the heart of the city’s Golden Square Mile. This summer, the hotel also got a striking modernist redo at the hands of local firm Sid Lee Architecture. A new glass facade leads to a redesigned lobby where a chandelier by Lambert & Fils (also Montreal based) hangs from a double-height lounge. There is a “Cabinet of Curiosities” library, 148 Parisian-inspired guest rooms, and Yama, a new restaurant featuring Japanese cuisine by the celebrity chef Antonio Park.
Pa.te.os, Melides, Portugal
Christian Louboutin’s hotel, Vermelho, may have put Portugal’s village of Melides on the travel map. But for architecture lovers, the nearby Pa.te.os resort is a sublime destination. Designed by the Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus, the resort consists of four discrete houses on an 80-hectare hilltop property surrounded by vineyards owned by the hotel’s owners, Miguel and Sofia Charters. The couple handpicked all the furniture, tableware, lighting, and books, and a Michelin-starred chef, Sergi Sanz Blanco, is on hand to prepare a home dining menu with dishes like cod cooked Alentejo style. Meanwhile, the property’s infinity pool overlooks spectacular sunsets.
Further, Bali
After you’re done eating and praying, it’s time to let love in. This month in the village of Pererenan on Bali’s southern coast comes a calm and moody new hotel of 11 suites designed by MORQ with interiors by Studio Wenden. A week in this place will leave you refreshed and ready to completely rethink your life at home.
Bulgari Hotel Roma, Rome
The storied Roman high-jewelry house Bulgari has been expanding its hotel portfolio, opening its property in Tokyo earlier this spring. Now there are nine. Last month, the brand unveiled the jewel in the crown: Bulgari Hotel Roma, in its own hometown. The late 1930s building was renovated by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel of ACPV Architects and features an original 1 B.C. Pentelic marble statue of the emperor Augustus, 114 lavish guest rooms and suites, and a 16,000-square-foot spa designed like a Roman bath.
Maroma, Riviera Maya, Mexico
Designer Tara Bernerd brings her brand of approachable luxury to update Belmond’s 72-room hotel on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Come for the white sand beaches and jungle environs; stay for the spa’s menu of ancient Mayan healing rituals.
&Beyond Punakha River Lodge, Punakha, Bhutan
Known for its luxurious hotels throughout sub-Saharan Africa, &Beyond is expanding its elephantine footprint into the Himalayan land of “gross national happiness.” The new property consists of six tented suites and two villas—one with a private pool. All linens and upholstery are of handwoven Bhutanese wools, and a blue-poppy motif runs through the interiors. The ultimate kickstarter to a glorious day hiking in the Himalayas? A plein-air meal along the shore of the Mo Chhu River.
Apollo Palm, Athens
The Greek isles are nice and all, but they’re overrun with party people for most of the summer. If you’re looking to take it easy (i.e., no endless nights funneling ouzo) while still experiencing the glamour and pulse of a sun-soaked Hellenic summer, try Athens. The new Apollo Palm recently opened there to much fanfare on account of its 48 cool and breezy white-on-white guest rooms designed by Studio Sans-Rival and its killer views of the Acropolis.
Thompson, Madrid
With its first European locale, Thompson Hotels (Hyatt’s luxury urban brand) has planted a flag in the Spanish capital. The 175-room, 22-suite hotel overlooks Playa del Carmen, a small plaza near the city’s Gran Via and major sites like the Plaza Mayor. The art-filled lobby by Lopez y Tena boasts a bar and cozy leather lounge seating, many of the guest rooms have soaking tubs and balconies, and the roof terrace has 360-degree views—plus an infinity pool and cocktail bar—that are some of the best in town.
Nayara, Bocas del Toro, Panama
The first two of five 50-foot treehouses designed by Elora Hardy’s Bali-based firm, Ibuku, are now open at this luxurious off-the-beaten-path Central American resort. It’s the ultimate rustic digital-detox cocoon of bamboo and reclaimed wood for the person who absolutely, positively needs to disappear from work life for a while. Here, no one will find you.
Tenuta di Murlo, Perugia, Italy
Set on an astounding 18,000 acres featuring olive groves, vineyards, rivers, and woods, this Umbrian paradise comprises nine villas and three hotel rooms. Between the fact that the property is the size of a small country and that it has belonged to the Carabba Tettamanti Radziwill family for five centuries, this place defines a kind of old- continent-chic seclusion.
Dorchester, London
Built in 1931, London’s luxurious Dorchester Hotel has long been an Elizabethan favorite—that is to say, a regular haunt of everyone from the late monarch to the actress Elizabeth Taylor, who first stayed there on a family visit when she was 17. This year the Mayfair icon got a spectacular overhaul, with a stunning new lobby and 241 guest rooms and suites by Pierre-Yves Rochon and a new spa and bar designed by ELLE DECOR A-Lister Martin Brudnizki.
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