The winners of T&C's Hotel Awards in the April 2024 issue are organized into six categories: wilderness, city, country, beachside, minimalist, and high-design. For the full list, see T&C Hotel Awards 2024: The Best-Looking New Hotels on the Planet.
Sea Cabins at Manshausen, Norway
Even by Norwegian standards, 14-acre Manshausen Island is out there, a place for close encounters with the extreme north.It’s also home to one of Norway’s architectural wonders: The Sea Cabins at Manshausen. The glass-walled Sea Cabins, brain child of Arctic explorer Borge Ousland, give you front-row seats on some of nature’s most impressive spectacles, from the midnight sun to the northern lights. Two new "sea towers," named Nansen and Amundsen, for two of Norway's famous explorers, even have glass roofs so you can count the stars from bed. More arduous pursuits? Plenty. Such as the Nordskot Traverse, a trail with cliffs falling away to each side.—John Newton
To book a trip to Norway, contact Torunn Tronsvang of UpNorway, torunn@upnorway.com
Boca de Agua, Mexico
Star Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, who in 2018 designed London’s Serpentine Pavilion and is at work on the modern and contemporary wing of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, has built a hotel on Yucatan’s aqua-blue Bacalar lagoon. The 26 understated rooms of Boca de Agua use tropical woods (responsibly sourced), are flooded with sunlight that pours in through what are more windows than walls, and sit atop pillars—creating a treehouse effect and reducing environmental impact. Escobedo’s hope is that over time the hotel will further integrate into its tropical setting; as you'll wish you could after a few days here.—John Newton
To book a trip to Mexico, contact Zachary Rabinor of Journey Mexico, zach@journeymexico.com
The Bolder, Norway
Not far from Stavanger in southern Norway, Lysefjord cuts a dramatic path through mountains that rise thousands of feet along each of its shores. The latest addition to this visual feast is some cutting-edge Scandinavian design by Snøhetta, the Norwegian firm behind the Oslo Opera House and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt: The Bolder and its minimalist concrete-and-glass Sky Lodges, which appear to float above the fjord. Their muted interiors are pared back but warm, and the effect is somewhere between a cozy treetop aerie and a Bond-like modernist lair.—John Newton
To book a trip to Norway: Torunn Tronsvang of UpNorway, torunn@upnorway.com
Otro, Oaxaca
Hotels in this culinary and cultural capital of Mexico can often go overboard with handicrafts when it comes to their interiors. The 16-room Otro Oaxaca, from Mexico’s Grupo Habita (which over more than two decades has worked with talented architects and designers, both Mexican and international), opts for a very different look: that of a soothing oasis, at once modernist and inspired by ancient Mesoamerican sites like nearby Mitla. Raw concrete and brick buildings sit on the hotel’s courtyards offering picturesque perspectives while a rooftop terrace has views of the nearby Santo Domingo church, a Baroque gem. The rooms may feel spartan to some, but their simplicity focuses attention on the local elements of their design, like woven bedspreads and reclaimed wood walls.—John Newton
To book a trip to Mexico, contact Zachary Rabinor of Journey Mexico, zach@journeymexico.com
Longfellow Hotel, Portland, Maine
This new independent, family owned and operated hotel takes to heart the philosophy of its namesake, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who once wrote, “In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” Think less a modernist aesthetic here, more a certain timeless New England restraint. The guest rooms at the Longfellow are comfortable and not flashy, with soaking tubs and views of Portland from TRNK couches. (The design is by Brooklyn-based Post Company, masters of an inviting vintage aesthetic.) The hotel also leans into a wellness theme, with its Astraea spa and healthy menu options at the Twinflower Café. When cocktail hour rolls around at the Five of Clubs lounge, you’ll arrive glowing.—John Newton
To book: Longfellow
Our Method: To compile this list of great-looking new hotels around the world, we followed not whimsy but rules: 1) They had to have opened no earlier than 2023. 2) They had to have been nominated by either T&C’s well traveled editors or our roundtable of 37 globetrotting travel advisors (preferably both). There were 172 nominees, and 53 made it through our vetting process. Bon voyage!
This story appears in the April 2024 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
Klara Glowczewska is the Executive Travel Editor of Town & Country, covering topics related to travel specifically (places, itineraries, hotels, trends) and broadly (conservation, culture, adventure), and was previously the Editor in Chief of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.
