Week #17: New Hotel News

What’s happening in the world of super cool new hotels? Check out our latest five most noteworthy openings of 2021 as featured by the editors at HotelMap? & Roomcard?.

An off-the-grid Indonesian retreat adds a new private island, a labour of love revives an Italianate-style mansion in North Carolina and Six Senses sets its first foot in Brazil. Visit this week’s top five new hotels and you’ll also discover a wellness retreat on an unspoilt Greek island and a curvaceous brick-built boutique hotel on Mexico’s southern coast.

Casona Sforza, Oaxaca City | Opened March 2021

MEXICO: Mexico’s “laid back” (Thrillist) surf spot Puerto Escondido “now has one more card up its leafy sleeve” (Wallpaper*). Nestled in “serene landscape” (Sleeper), fronting the Pacific Coast, is the “unusual structure” (Sleeper) of brick-built boutique hotel Casona Sforza. Inspired by “sustainable luxury” (Sleeper) and a strong ‘ecological commitment’, 11 round-roofed brick buildings are each “set in a green oasis around a circular pool” (Wallpaper*). They’re by Mexican architect Alberto Kalach who’s also behind “the largest public library in Latin America" (Architectural League). Not just pretty to look at, the curved sand-yellow brick buildings “reflect the sun’s rays” and they’re “earthquake-proof” (Amazing Architecture). Inside, the furniture - from rugs to hammocks - is made using “traditional Mexican crafts” (Wallpaper*) helping create a “calming environment”.

Our favourite feature: Vaulted buildings strung together to create a unique structure.

Elang, Bawah Reserve | Opens 2021

INDONESIA: The “absurdly idyllic” (Stylist) and “fabulously secluded” (The Times) Bawah Reserve opens an adult-only private island at Elang in Indonesia’s remote Anambas Islands, with just six cliffside lodges. Set amidst five “lush jungle-covered islands” (Telegraph) in a marine conservation area, the island retreat has a “saltwater infinity pool” (Traveller) and communal clubhouse with a two-storey open-air dining room. Three hours from Singapore, it’s part of “one of Indonesia’s most exclusive, off-the-grid resorts” (Singapore Tatler). Singaporean designer Sim Boon Yang created the new lodges, adding a new layer of exclusivity to the Bawah Reserve - a collection of 35 safari tent-like villas “made from recycled teak and local bamboo" (Conde Nast Traveller). Each new lodge will have its own “butler, a foliage-fringed balcony and a private path” (Stylist) to the sea. In the words of Tatler: “One can’t fail to fall in love with Bawah”.

Our favourite feature: Complete seclusion on a private Indonesian island.

Heights House Hotel, North Carolina | Opens 6 May 2021

USA: A true “labor of love” (Fathom Away), the opening of this nine-room boutique hotel in North Carolina restores an Italianate-style mansion to its former glory. Husband and wife team, Sarah and Jeff Shepherd, who walked past the house for years, have made their dream a reality. “North Carolina’s most exciting hotel opening of 2021” (Visit Raleigh), local landmark Montfort Hall - a mansion “rooted in pre-civil war history” (The Local Palate) - has been lovingly restored with gorgeous white oak floors reinstated and a circular wooden railing to replicate the 1858 original. Working with Maurer Architecture, Greg Paul Builders and Bryan Costello Design, the decor is a careful balance of curated new furniture, scallop wallpaper, brass details and unique antique treasures. It promises to be “unlike anything else in the city” - Fodors.

Our favourite feature: The palpable love lavished on restoring this historic landmark.

Six Senses Botanique, Mantiqueira Mountains | Opened 11 February 2021

BRAZIL: A wonderfully “intimate resort” (Financial Times) two and a half hours from S?o Paulo, the “eco-friendly” (Business Traveller) Six Senses Botanique offers seven suites of sustainable luxury in the main hotel and 13 private villas dotted in the hills around. Set in “700 acres of forested land” (Fodors) in Brazil’s lush Mantiqueira Mountains, Six Senses has taken the former Botanique Hotel & Spa - one of “Brazil’s first genuinely sustainable retreats” (Financial Times) - into its fold, adding 16 new villas and three dozen branded residences. In an area known for its many springs and rivers, mineral water drip feeds into the spa as well as the glass. With “wellness at the heart of the operation" (Hotel Designs), the signature spa includes an isotonic pool, Brazilian botanicals and rainforest mist.

Our favourite features: Sustainability, wellness & the suspended fireplace in the restaurant.

The Rooster, Antiparos | Opens 1 June 2021

GREECE: It may have caught the attention of Tom Hanks (who has a holiday home here) but Greek island Antiparos has “managed to stay off the mass-tourism radar” (Forbes). Promising laid back luxury, “organic cuisine and wellness-focused activities” (Robb Report), The Rooster is the island’s first full resort and wellness retreat. A “passion project” (Forbes) of Athenian Athanasia Comninos, who spent summer family holidays on nearby Naxos, the resort is a “slow living” (Globe Trender) retreat, emphasising “peacefulness, nature and culture” (Forbes). Seventeen “rustic-chic” (Robb Report) rooms, all in separate ‘houses’, feature natural materials such as “wood, marble, cotton and stone” (Forbes) as well as terraces and sundecks, outdoor showers, freshwater pools plus “views of either the gardens or the Aegean” (Robb Report). Less than a mile from the main property is the freestanding three-bedroom farmhouse, a private villa with all the perks of a five-star hotel.

Our favourite feature: Luxury with a respect for nature on an unspoilt Greek island.

Previous New Hotel News editions:

Week #16: New Hotel News | Sleek newcomer The Londoner sets up the deepest habitable hotel in the UK capital, trendy London brand The Hoxton launches a new hotel in Rome and a secluded countryside hotel settles into a picture-postcard Spanish island.

Week #15: New Hotel News | A new Colonial-era hotel in Puerto Rico’s capital, Japan’s first ‘castle hotel’ and the most hotly anticipated hotel to launch in Los Angeles this year are highlighted in this week’s top five new hotels to open in 2021 across the globe.

Week #14: New Hotel News | This week’s five alluring new hotels include the first of a new brand by the founder of the Aman group, one of the world’s highest infinity pools atop a towering new hotel in Dubai and a cool coastal retreat in Santa Barbara.

Week #13: New Hotel News | Japan’s latest hotel taps into the health benefits of volcanic hot springs, an iconic Italian hotel is given a Parisian makeover and Ibiza’s little sister gets a grown up hotel by Pacha. New Yorkers can escape to a riverside retreat, and a former boot factory in Bristol becomes a new arty hotel. These are the top five hottest new hotels of 2021 we’ve highlighted this week.

Week #12: New Hotel News | Raise a glass to the new Four Seasons set within a Napa Valley vineyard, enjoy laidback and soulful luxury in Ibiza, and explore a hotel set within the cactus-studded desert landscapes of Mexico. Our five top hotels this week also invite you to discover the vertical garden at the Rosewood in S?o Paulo and a meticulously restored medieval castle in Umbria.

Week #11: New Hotel News | Basketball courts become luxury suites in L.A, an oasis of peace arrives on a Greek party island and a new desert camp is set up in Saudi Arabia. Our five favourite new hotels this week also include a glamorous, grand palazzo in Palermo from Rocco Forte and the first hotel outside America by the buzzy NoMad brand.

Week #10: New Hotel News | Across the globe, from the Maldives to Montenegro, the Israeli desert to the African bush, we explore five stunning new hotels launching in 2021. Book your own private island, sleep under the stars in a baobab-shaped treehouse, dive into the One&Only’s luxury spa, stay overnight in the Negev Desert and see the revamp of the Spanish hotel Cesar Ritz set up over 100 years ago.

Week #9: New Hotel News | This week we look at five of the best new hotels (including one owned by Pharrell Williams) opening across the globe this year. There may be a global pandemic but that hasn’t stopped these new hotels from rising up. From a long list of over 120 new hotels set to open in 2021, we’ve chosen five hip new places to stay in New York, Paris, Nago and Miami – and reveal what the experts say about them.