5 Must-See International Resorts With Stunning Vistas
Five fabulous international hospitality escapes, including a seaside resort in the Greek islands, make the most of stunning natural vistas.
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Hôtel des Horlogers, Le Brassus, Switzerland.
Following its Interior Design Best of Year–winning museum for Audemars Piguet, BIG now gives the Swiss watchmaker an equally striking hotel right next door. The 56-room boutique property, a collaboration with local firm CCHE, comprises five slablike levels arranged as a continuous ramp that zigzags down the hillside, a program that embraces the Vallée de Joux’s breathtaking topography while also evoking the winding route of the region’s famous watchmakers’ trail.
Fusion Design
Sanyea Sjór Seaside Resort, Shenzhen, China.
Right from the rich hue of its exterior—a deep red based on the color of the local soil—this 14-room, two-story resort draws on the tones, textures, and shapes of nature to conjure an atmosphere of quiet remove. Beach sand inspired the palette of the interior, where brick gridwork casts dappled light on the floor of reception, the check-in desk looks like a block of rough-hewn granite, and a sculptural spiral stair painted Yves Klein blue suggests the coiled power of the ocean.
Hirsch Bedner Associates
Conrad Tulum Riviera Maya, Mexico.
From the lobby’s pivoting-shutter walls and undulating rope ceiling installation to the spa’s cenotelike spaces, each centered on a circular pool beneath an oculus open to the sky, this 349-room resort—the brand’s debut property in the Mexican Caribbean—is infused with modern takes on Yucatan handcrafts, traditions, and materials. Even the guest rooms’ dark granite floors evoke volcanic rock while live-edge tzalam, often referred to as Mayan walnut, forms the handsome headboards.
GS Design
Sumei Skyline Coast Boutique Hotel, Sanya, China.
Rolling ocean waves were the inspiration for the multi-arch facade of this minimalist haven on Hainan Island in the country’s southernmost province. Inside, the arched windows not only frame an infinite panorama of blue sea and sky but also establish a program of curvilinear forms that includes a serpentine pool surrounded by sinuously shaped furniture in the lobby, ocular skylights above beds with rounded headboards in guest rooms, and colonnaded spaces melding circular and square geometries.
Block722
Casa Cook Samos, Potokaki, Greece.
Overlooking the Aegean Sea and surrounded by the forested landscape of Samos, this 128-room, adults-only retreat nods to traditional Greek village houses, melding the earthy tones and textures of local wood, stone, and leather with the sleeker effect of smooth materials like marble and terrazzo. Village life is also emulated, with the property laid out as a series of small neighborhoods each centered around a swimming pool that acts as the town square.
read more
Projects
Traditional Thai Style and Modern Design Merge at This Resort by Department of Architecture
At Sala Bang Pa-In—a river-island resort near Ayutthaya, Thailand, by Department of Architecture—traditional Thai style connects with a modern-design future.
Projects
Studio MK27 Brings Tropical Modernism to the Maldives
2021 Best of Year winner for Hospitality – Large Resort. Studio MK27 founder and architect Marcio Kogan’s lavish vision of tropical modernism has come to define the look of much residential design in his native Brazil….
Projects
Rubén Valdez, Yashar Yektajo Architects, and B-Huber Turn Up the Heat With a Desert-Inspired Resort in Baja California Sur, Mexico
Mountains and sea, cacti and palms—all influenced the Paradero Todos Santos resort in Baja California Sur, Mexico, by Rubén Valdez, Yashar Yektajo Architects, and B-Huber.
recent stories
Projects
Unwind In The Latest Green Oasis At Singapore Changi Airport
A biophilic atmosphere of greenery and waterfalls lands at Terminal 2 in Singapore Changi Airport, recently renovated by Boiffils Architectures.
Projects
Step Into This Supremely Suprematist Home In Kyiv
Dihome honors the Ukranian avant-garde Suprematism movement in the design of a 452-square-foot apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Projects
How This Earthy Sydney Home Embraces Multiple Eras
Studio Prineas crafts a modern family home in Sydney, blending contemporary style with nature through earthy tones that celebrate its lush surroundings.