Gold List 2022 hotels

The Aman Toyko, with its irresistible combination of hard-edged icy calm and soft fibrous warmth, best expresses the magic of the Aman brand.

A refresh of a storied classic that does not sacrifice any sophistication for modern perks.

The smartest new country-house hotel in years—time was taken to get this utterly right and it has paid off, with a dream team behind the food and design.

A palatial Andalusian finca, with golf on the side.

An emblem of hyphenated hotel-world majesty, of sun-struck Riviera grandeur, of dreams of open-top two-seaters and swaying palms and broken banks at casinos and Champagne corks a-popping.

One of the first luxe-but-laid-back hotels to open in the Indian Ocean, Fushi still delivers on fresh, cool charisma.

The location alone is reason enough to book this historic Hong Kong hotel, but the luxurious spa, excellent restaurants, and cool Captain’s Bar keep guests coming back.

A genteel and top-notch property in the heart of tony Mayfair, with dependable elegance and refinement.

Few hotels are as synonymous with their destination as La Mamounia is with Marrakech.

To stay here amid all the incredible old-world opulence is to really get a taste of Jodhpur’s gilded glory.

The gorgeous, low-key Four Seasons Resort Lanai, where the grounds are speckled with waterfalls, gardens, streams, and ponds, is on a cliff high above Manele Bay.

Rising with the sun is something I only do on holiday. At Nayara Tented Camp, I woke each day as the golden light stirred a colorful swath of jungle, with the smoking top of the mighty Arenal Volcano as the backdrop. The private plunge pool and the mug of steaming Costa Rican coffee help, but that view is enough to induce the earliest wake-ups. This is the third and most luxurious of Nayara’s trifecta of eco-retreats in central Costa Rica. Its hot-spring pools are carved non-invasively into the wild landscapes, and not a single tree was felled to make space for its 29 tented rooms, which take design cues from safari outfitters in Botswana. Reforestation is a cornerstone at Nayara, with an ongoing mission to plant fresh habitats for Costa Rica’s three-toed sloths. It means that you will spy these sluggish little guys all over the place, including Tony, the camp’s unofficial greeter, whose favorite spot during my stay was on the telephone pole by the entrance. The hotel grounds are also a sanctuary for jungle toads and morpho butterflies, which you’ll see on guided night walks. By day, Nayara is all about volcano-hiking, bird-watching in the thick rain forest, and getting up close with the grin-inducing creatures at the sloth sanctuary. The steak and Malbec at the wine bar tasted even better than they should—but the ultimate spot for a nightcap was back on my terrace, where the croaks of the tree frogs lulled me into a deep sleep, like nature’s own white noise. Doubles from $1,175. —Erin Florio

When you arrive, you're met with a dramatic, triangular roof meant to resemble a traditional Hawaiian canoe house.

An icon for all the right reasons, this Faubourg Saint-Honoré stalwart earns regulars who eventually feel like family.

The Carlyle is an Upper East Side institution that feels like its own world.

Scattered atop a seaside bluff, 30 acres of charming New England-style cottages.

For a long time, lodges in South Africa tended to be geared toward the Big Five. Grootbos, on the fynbos slopes near Walker Bay, south of Cape Town, is different. This 6,177-acre private reserve is about treasuring the smaller, finer things. With 889 plant species, seven of which are newly discovered, it is first and foremost a rare botanical treasure trove, in which owner Michael Lutzeyer has employed some of the Cape’s leading botanists and entomologists. The lodges are glassy and contemporary, but there’s a constant call outdoors—from the outside showers to tracking elusive aardvark and Cape leopard, or having lantern-lit dinners in a 1,000-year-old milkwood forest, all fairy-tale tangles. You can ride horses across the sands, past ancient sea caves; go on flower safaris, tree-planting expeditions, and whale-watching flights to see the calving Southern right whales that migrate inshore between July and December. Most of the food on the carbon-negative reserve is grown on site, and nothing comes from more than 30 miles away, with many of the staff graduates of the in-house hospitality academy. But the main takeaway of Grootbos is that just stopping and looking—at the interconnectedness and mad beauty of life—is the most mesmerizing thing of all. 

Location meets luxury at Park Hyatt Sydney with subtle sophistication and rooms with stellar views.

Reminiscent of a Bedouin village, the resort sits among the rolling dunes of the world's largest uninterrupted sand desert.

A big, serious hotel on the north-west coast of Cyprus, as good for families with free-wheeling children as it is for couples on the hunt for sunshine and downtime.