"Our editors' favorite hotels of the year are as varied and vibrant as they come, reflecting our wildly different travel styles, but with one non-negotiable throughline: unforgettable design. Some of us chase fully immersive, off-the-grid, barefoot escapes where time dissolves entirely; others want a bustling city hotel with a strong bar scene and museums just a few blocks away. Still, others are happiest at a considered farm stay or upstate hideaway, where the pleasure lies in quiet mornings and befriending animals on the farm."
"What unites us is an almost instinctive way of noting how a space actually works once you're living in it-and, just as crucially, how it makes you feel when you finally turn in for the night. Between design fairs, reporting trips, and vacations that are never entirely not research, our team spent much of the year on the road-mentally filing away the details that separate a merely good hotel from one that lingers long after checkout."
Editors' favorite hotels of 2025 span varied travel styles but share unforgettable design as a nonnegotiable element. Stays range from fully immersive, off-the-grid barefoot escapes to bustling city hotels with lively bars near museums, and to considered farm stays or upstate hideaways focused on quiet mornings and befriending animals. An instinctive attention to how spaces function in lived experience and how they make guests feel defines the selection. Extensive travel — from private islands in the Seychelles and rice paddies in Northern Thailand to Gothic Revival landmarks in Belgium, barefoot Caribbean hideaways, Osaka, and Edinburgh — informed judgments. Each selected stay succeeded by getting design exactly right.
Read at Architectural Digest
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