Conde Nast Traveler May/June 2021

One year ago we were working on Condé Nast Traveler’s annual Hot List issue as we anxiously watched this new illness advance across the world like a storm front. A couple of weeks before we had to ship the magazine off to the printers, our teams in New York and London were sent home. There was something awkward, we acknowledged, about publishing a list of the best new addresses in a moment when everyone was suddenly sequestered in their homes; as we wrote at the time, “We know that right now you’re probably wondering when you’ll be able to take your next trip. When you do, though, we encourage you to use these exceptional openings and launches as your guide. It will be worth the wait.” Well, one long strange year…

This year’s annual Hot List of the best new hotels from around the world is a story of resilience. Despite enormous hardship in the travel industry, exceptional properties have continued to open across the globe (nearly a thousand last year in the U.S. alone). As always with this endeavor, each of the 69 picks on this year’s list was safely vetted by our international network of correspondents. But as we’ve learned in the past year, everything is connected, which is why we’ve also expanded the scope of hot to include restaurants, transportation, and destinations, as well as more news we’re excited about set for later this year. In spite of it all, the following pages are full of successes. We think they’re a pretty great way to mark the 25th…

Spread across four open-air buildings on sprawling grounds, Hotel Magdalena is the latest from Austin’s homegrown hospitality firm Bunkhouse. The property occupies the former site of the Austin Opry House and is in a part of town long frequented by the city’s musicians, including Willie Nelson. The hotel pays homage to the neigh-borhood’s roots (rooms are decorated with works by local music photographer Scott Newton) while also drawing on Austin’s swimming hole culture. A 900-square-foot pool echoes the city’s popular Barton Springs, and tiered garden beds planted with cypress and sycamore evoke the Barton Creek Greenbelt. With their cool concrete floors, high ceilings ribbed with sustainable timber, and tiled bathrooms in glossy pop colors, the lake-house-like rooms are a respite from the heat. Conceived and executed largely by women, Magdalena…

With New Yorkers exploring their home state like never before, last summer’s well-timed arrival of the Maker gave design lovers a fresh excuse to head up to Hudson. Hugging a sunny corner of Warren Street, the town’s antiques-store-lined main artery, the 11-room jewel box channels the creative spirit of its location. It’s filled with one-of-a-kind decor worthy of its name: a metal writing desk made by a French black-smith, handwoven rugs picked up in Morocco. But unlike other design hotels, a large portion of its interiors are for sale, down to the vintage martini glasses. The four suites are odes to different makers—The Artist, The Writer, The Architect, and The Gardener. All rooms have luxe robes and cloudlike bedding. Downstairs, there’s a light-filled restaurant and a modest pool. The best…

Rajasthani opulence meets Wes Andersonian snap at this new take on old Jaipur. The five-suite hotel is discreetly located on a winding side street in the bustling Johari Bazaar (Jeweler’s Market). A lovingly restored 19th-century merchant’s haveli, The Johri is the second property from hospitality mavericks Abhishek Honawar and Siddharth Kasliwal, the ninth-generation owner of India’s oldest jewelry store, the Gem Palace. Interiors are a sea of pastels set off by whimsical touches, like the pair of tiger-shaped chairs and upholstered swing in the periwinkle Neelam Suite. A family temple on the first floor is a place of serenity, while the jungle-muraled Pukhraj Lounge above plies guests with “high chai” and evening cocktails. But it’s the rooftop terrace opening onto the walled Old Town’s maze of low-rises, with the cliffside…

Adrian Zecha’s latest hotel, Azumi Setoda, set on a quiet island in the Seto Inland Sea that’s famed for its lemon, is like a ryokan for modern times, with all the serenity you’d expect from the founder of Aman. An inner garden leads to 22 softly lit rooms where blissed-out guests return after a soak in the adjacent bathhouse. American landscape architect Madison Cox used more than 500 types of flora throughout the interiors at the Tokyo Edition Toranomon, the brand’s first foray into Japan, complementing the hotel’s temple-like tranquility (despite its location in a 38-floor skyscraper in central Tokyo). Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, a sophisticated outpost at Hokkaido’s much-loved Niseko ski resort, is a game changer, from its on-point butler service and personalized ski-gear fittings to its omakase-style dinners.…