Everyone loves a decadent hotel stay that spoils you rotten with its amenities, oozes style, and provides the perfect backdrop for a blissful time-out. The choices are endless with so many new hotels opening for the first time or changing ownership and undergoing luscious renovations.
Luxury hotels go beyond the ordinary, giving you moments of oohs and aahs upon arrival with unexpected nuances of decadence that make you quiver in anticipation. Guests look for the total luxurious experience: check-in is personal with face-to-face interaction, tech in guest rooms allows individual control of lighting and temperature, unique design, authentic local cultural experiences on offer, while food and drink are readily available and top-end quality. The more personal touches, the better: acknowledgment of return clients, concierge services, personalized notes, or welcome gifts in the room. Many luxury travelers look for options to enhance their wellness, such as fitness hubs, spas, and the incorporation of outdoor spaces, giving them room to breathe. They want to see the green tick of environmental and sustainability awards.
Luxury hotel brands are crystal ball gazing for what travelers with deep pockets are looking for in these new offerings in 2024:
Auberge Collegio alla Querce, Florence, Italy
In Tuscany, Florence is synonymous with food, art, and architecture. Names rumble around your brain: Michelangelo, Giotto, and Brunelleschi. The commanding reputation of Auberge Resorts has created a fanfare base of luxury travelers with the opening of Auberge Collegio alla Querce, a boutique property of only 61 rooms and 20 suites. Akin to a countryside house of an Italian fairytale, the hotel is a collection of 16th Century buildings totally revamped into awesomeness hidden down a cypress-lined entrance surrounded by magnificent layers of Baroque gardens with a backdrop of Chianti vineyards to one side, while the other panoramic view scopes the iconic Duomo and terracotta roofs of beautiful Florence.
This property is overflowing with OMG moments soaked in museum-quality art where you can strut from the elegant pool area to a wine-tasting room to a cigar lounge or dine in elegance at your whim.
Soneva Secret, Maldives
If you are on the rich list, Soneva Secret will be on your radar for escapism where shoes are banned—it’s unquestionably a decadent barefoot destination of sophistication where you will have at your beck and call a barefoot guardian, a barefoot assistant, and a dedicated chef to look after you in your wickedly and sinful villa floating on the ocean. And, when you want a change of view, your villa can be towed to any part of the island that your fancy takes—it's the stuff of dreams and big spenders. The first boutique hotel of its kind, your villa is only one of 14 for the ultimate water babies with gold flippers. You will have access to the resident marine biologist for underwater happenings and an astronomer for the stars twinkling above the sliding roof. Quirky happenings include ziplining to the retreat's dining venue in a tower if you don't want to take advantage of your personal chef, or fulfilling your childish wishes of sliding down a water slide into the crystal clear Indian Ocean.
The Chedi Hegra, Saudi Arabia
You will have to hold your breath until August 2024 for the opening of The Chedi Hegra, which will take you back to the beating heart of the ancient Nabataean site, a UNESCO World Heritage location. The unadulterated luxury of only 35 bespoke guest rooms is being fused with contemporary architecture on this ancient site, preserving the integrity of historical mud-brick constructions of the old Hegra Fort, railway station, and other unique buildings. Adventurous souls can journey through time in luxury with the hotel's planned spa, swimming pool, and three fine dining venues, one of which will have a restored Ottoman-era train, plus a café. The buildings will be draped in an overhead canopy of unique art that will sway with breezes and allow the light to filter through. The most mind blowing experience awaits with the hotel’s planned exclusive access to the 109 tombs of the ancient city of Hegra.
Six Senses Kyoto, Japan
The lure of Japan is gaining momentum in the tourist industry, and the internationally renowned hotel brand Six Senses has never missed a beat in offering travelers luxurious accommodations. Mingling with Buddhist temples, palaces, and Shinto shrines, Six Senses Kyoto is the latest addition to the Six Senses property portfolio. With the draw of cherry blossoms, ancient traditional Japanese architecture, and vistas of mountains smothered in ancient trees, Kyoto is a feast for the senses, as is the hotel with its guest rooms hinting at Kyoto folklore amidst the modern Japanese style of clean lines and striking art pieces. Amenities and facilities sinfully indulge the guests in this boutique offering of 81 rooms and suites over six floors with a courtyard garden in its heart. Follow the footsteps along pilgrim routes in the mountains, chase that zen feeling in a temple, or savor the array of culinary delights in the bustling streets of the Higashiyama district of Kyoto.
Stay at one of these delicious properties and get the bragging rights.
Gail Palethorpe, a self proclaimed Australian gypsy, is a freelance writer, photographer and eternal traveller. Check out her website Gail Palethorpe Photography and her Shutterstock profile.
