a lounge overlooking a hill with stone walls
Photography by Nikolas Koenig.

7 Must-Stay Hotels and Resorts From Greece To The Catskills

From the Greek islands to the Catskills of New York, these seven hotels and resorts offer accommodations perfectly attuned to their strikingly disparate settings.

Connect With Nature At These Striking Locales

Gundari Resort by Block722

Whether you call it organic modernism, warm minimalism, or another denomination entirely, this 80-acre Greek island resort in Folegandros is undeniably design-forward yet it yields effortlessly to the contours of the craggy landscape overlooking the Aegean Sea. The 27 terraced villas and suites with cliffside heated pools and private open-air showers are grounded by rustic stone exteriors while interiors feature beige stone-slab floors, limestone plaster walls, natural timber built-ins, and earth-brown bed linens. In the reception area, the grace note is a marble check-in desk carved with imagery lifted from local myths.

Capri Hotel by Manola Studio

Tapped to reimagine the 1963 roadside hotel in Ojai, California, built in the Amalfi Coast–style, the Los Angeles–based practice leaned into the 30-room property’s mid century–modern roots while preserving its original Italianate glamour. Thus, the dolce vita palette—cream, pink, sage, burnt orange, with pops of indigo and lavender—and furnishings, which include plush velvet sectionals and snazzy leather-and-metal chairs, are juxtaposed with such Rat Pack–era elements as the lobby’s A-frame beamed ceiling and massive exposed-stone fireplace, or the guest rooms’ custom wood wall paneling and graphically tiled bathrooms.

The Riviera Maya Edition by Edmonds International and Rockwell Group

If not for the signature scent and spiral staircase, visitors may not know they’ve arrived at the 18th property, and first in the Caribbean, of this 11-year-old hotel brand in Kanai, Mexico, envisioned by Ian Schrager Company and Marriott International as unique, luxury microcosms of their locations. That’s because the architecture (Edmonds) and interiors (Rockwell) firms instilled a tropical yet powerfully minimalist theatricality throughout the 182-key, six-restaurant plus spa project—with nary a poncho, sombrero, nor other decorative cliché in sight—that sits atop nearly 9 acres of preserved mangroves. Particularly dramatic is the lobby’s 50-foot-long custom sofa cocooned by hundreds of native plants; the 35-foot-tall lobby bar, its textile colors derived from Mayan culture; a sculptural host stand carved from a felled local Guamuchil tree; and the bamboo yoga pavilion by Arquitectura Mixta, a Guadalajara-based collective focused on bio-architecture.

The Rounds at Scribner’s by Post Company

Scribner’s Catskill Lodge gets its own retreat within a retreat: a group of 11 shingle-clad cabins by the Brooklyn- and Jackson Hole, Wyoming–based firm, which has devised 12-sided rounded structures, each boasting a wraparound porch with an outdoor soaking tub. The airy interiors feature welcoming gas-stove fireplaces, custom conversation pit–style sunken couches, and vaulted ceilings with an oculus for stargazing. A central communal building, the Apex, includes a blue limestone bar and vintage furnishings mixed with contemporary pieces by local talents such as Brian Persico and Michael Robbins.

Explora Uyuni Lodge by Max Núñez Arquitectos

Intended for a nomadic travel experience, the Ramaditas, Bolivia, lodge comprises three separate compounds distributed around the vast Uyuni Salt Flat. Like its companions, this location features a trio of the Santiago, Chile-based architect’s prefabricated modular units, lightweight steel-framed structures that minimize on-site construction and are easily disassembled and relocated. Sitting on minimally invasive concrete footings, the buildings’ weathering-steel cladding blends harmoniously with the rugged landscape, while system components of varying sizes and functions accommodate living areas, bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens, all lined with warm-toned tropical mani wood, perfectly framing the stunning views through large windows.

La Roqqa by Palomba Serafini Studio

The 55 guest rooms at this boutique hotel and beach club in coastal Tuscany are themed in three distinct paint palettes: a burnt sienna that echoes the facades in nearby Porto Ercole, sage green to harmonize with the surrounding Mediterranean scrub, and a cloudy blue allusive to the Tyrrhenian Sea. The suites, meanwhile, have a white sand–colored base accented by renowned contemporary and modernist furniture from the likes of Faye Toogood and Achille Castiglioni, respectively.

Casa Montelongo by Néstor Pérez Batista

A 19th-century house and theater on the second largest of the Canary Islands have been converted into a pair of crisp-white, minimalist self-catering units—which can be rented separately or together—divided by a shared courtyard with pool. Rooting the outdoor area in the essence of the local environment is a wall sculpture by Tenerife artist Óscar Latuag that abstracts lichen, prickly pear, and agave leaves—a visual ode to the Fuerteventura, Spain, locale’s unique vegetation.

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