PORTOFINO
Belmond Hotel Splendido Portofino Review
A century and a quarter after Ruggero Valentini turned a Baratta family summer house into a hotel, the Splendido remains the Ligurian Riviera's defining…
Vol. I · No. 1 · The Reviews desk
Reviews
Field reports from stays we have completed in person.
26 pieces on file · most recent first
LONDON
The Connaught Review: Mayfair, the Bar, the Hélène Darroze Floor
Two decades into Maybourne ownership and nearly two since Guy Oliver's restoration, the Connaught reads as the most operationally unfussy of London's…
LONDON
Claridge's Review: Brook Street, Art Deco, the Foyer at Five
Claridge's runs the most-visited grand-hotel public room in London — the Foyer — and the property's continuing claim is that the public theatre and the…
VENICE
Belmond Hotel Cipriani Venice Review: Giudecca Still Wins
Sixty-eight years after Giuseppe Cipriani opened on the tip of Giudecca with backing from three Guinness sisters, the Cipriani remains the canonical Venice…
LAUSANNE (OUCHY)
Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne Review: 165 Years on the Lake
From the 1861 Beau-Rivage to the 1908 Palace wing, the Lausanne grande dame remains the most under-appreciated grand-hotel proposition in Switzerland.
PORTOFINO
Hotel Splendido Mare Portofino Review: The Village Square Sister
Belmond's village-square sister to the Splendido on the hill has, since its 2021 redesign, become the more honest of the two Portofino propositions for a…
PARIS
Cheval Blanc Paris Review: 72 Keys, Peter Marino, the Samaritaine
Four and a half years into Cheval Blanc Paris, the LVMH flagship in the restored Samaritaine has settled into the city it intends to define — Peter Marino…
CAP D'ANTIBES
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc Review: The Cap Still Sets the Bar
Cap d'Antibes' grande dame remains, after 137 years as a hotel, the single most exacting test of what a Riviera season means.
SAINT-JEAN-CAP-FERRAT
Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat Review
The 1908 palace on the Cap-Ferrat peninsula remains the most-architecturally-serious Riviera arrival — Gustave Eiffel's rotunda above the Mediterranean,…
NEW YORK
The Greenwich Hotel Review: TriBeCa, De Niro, the Shibui Spa
Robert De Niro's TriBeCa hotel runs 88 keys with no two alike, an underground pool that is genuinely one of New York's best spaces, and a service team that…
ROME
Hotel de Russie Review: Rocco Forte, the Secret Garden, Valadier
Twenty-six years into the Rocco Forte ownership and twenty-five since the Tommaso Ziffer and Olga Polizzi renovation reopened the property, the Hotel de…
TAVARNELLE VAL DI PESA, TUSCANY
Como Castello del Nero Review: The Castle Still Holds
The 12th-century castle between Florence and Siena, operated by Como Hotels since 2019, has delivered the rare Tuscany property that justifies its rate on…
ANDERMATT
The Chedi Andermatt Review: Gathy in the Alps, 60 sqm minimum
Thirteen years after Jean-Michel Gathy opened the Chedi Andermatt as an Asian-alpine hybrid no one had asked for, the property has settled into the most…
NEW YORK
The Carlyle Review: Madison Avenue, Bemelmans, the Tony Chi Refit
Six years into the Rosewood-commissioned Tony Chi guestroom redo, the Carlyle reads as the most operationally coherent grand-hotel arrangement on the Upper…
DUBAI
The Lana Dubai Review: Foster + Partners' Dorchester Debut
Two years after the Dorchester Collection's first Middle East property opened, the Foster + Partners-designed Lana has answered the question of whether…
SABI SAND GAME RESERVE
Singita Ebony Lodge Review: Sabi Sand, 12 Suites, Leopards
Thirty-three years after Luke Bailes opened Singita Ebony on the family's 45,000-acre Sabi Sand concession, the original Singita lodge remains the…
SAVELLETRI DI FASANO, PUGLIA
Borgo Egnazia Puglia Review: A Sixteen-Year-Old Apulian Village
The Melpignano family's 2010 invention — a luxury hotel built from scratch as a fake Apulian village — has, sixteen seasons in, become the most-imitated…
ST MORITZ
Badrutt's Palace St Moritz Review: 130 Winters On
The Engadine grande dame, opened by Caspar Badrutt in 1896, remains the canonical St Moritz winter proposition — and the only one still owned by the…
FLJÓT VALLEY, TROLL PENINSULA
Eleven Deplar Farm Review: A Sheep Farm on the Troll Peninsula
Ten years into Eleven Experience's reworking of an abandoned 19th-century Icelandic sheep farm, Deplar Farm runs as the most-distinctive private-adventure…
POSITANO
Le Sirenuse Positano Review: The Sersale House Still Holds
Three-quarters of a century after the Sersale siblings turned Villa Giulietta into a hotel, the eight-rooms-and-a-terrace original remains the Amalfi…
MARRAKECH
La Mamounia Marrakech Review
A hundred and three years after the Sultan's son gave Henri Prost the brief, La Mamounia remains the urban centre of gravity for luxury Marrakech.
FIESOLE (ABOVE FLORENCE)
Villa San Michele Fiesole Review
The Belmond reopening of Villa San Michele above Florence has delivered a 39-key reset to a 15th-century Franciscan monastery — and the Michelangelo-school…
VENICE
Aman Venice Review: 24 Keys, Tiepolo Ceilings, the Grand Canal
Thirteen years after Aman took over Palazzo Papadopoli on the Grand Canal, the property remains the most architecturally serious hotel in Venice — and the…
GSTAAD
The Alpina Gstaad Review: A New Build in a Hundred-Year Pause
Fourteen years after the Alpina opened as Gstaad's first new five-star hotel in a century, the property is settling into its second act — under HBA-designed…
ROME
Hotel Hassler Roma Review
More than 130 years after the Hassler opened above the Spanish Steps, the property remains the only family-owned, six-generation, single-building grand…
MARRAKECH
Royal Mansour Marrakech Review: 53 Riads, a King's Brief
Sixteen years after King Mohammed VI's three-year, 1,500-craftsman commission opened, the Royal Mansour remains the most architecturally maximalist hotel in…