Top 10 Fashion Designer Hotels from ForbesTraveler

ForbesTraveler just keeps putting out lists that I love like 400-count sheets and 15th floor ocean-views. This time they have released their take not on designer hotels but hotels created by top Fashion Designers:

“What do Versace, Christian Lacroix and Ralph Lauren have in common (besides presumably impressive walk-in closets)? They all have hotels—and they’re in good company. The Italian fashion houses of Missoni and Moschino will both open fashion/hospitality hybrids this year in Milan. Giorgio Armani recently announced ambitious plans to build branded hotels in New York, Dubai and London. And Versace will add a second resort to its empire this year in Dubai (naturally).

From the whimsical styles of LaCroix to the classic lines of Lauren, how does the spirit of fashion translate to the guest experience? We went to several industry experts for their thoughts on the parallels between these design worlds and the growing presence of fashion hotels.

Style guru Todd Oldham believes that clothiers have a sensitivity to the body that is often overlooked in interiors. “Fashion designers are more sensual in their approach as to how to ‘wear’ a room,” said Oldham. “They’ll design rooms that people look good in, as opposed to rooms people litter by being in.”

Uh, well. Ok, Todd. I agree with you in theory, I think, although I’m not sure how much I appreciate being called litter. Then again, didn’t you just release a La-z-boy line of furniture?

Visit ForbesTraveler to read the rest of the article.

Here is the list of hotels from ForbesTraveler:

The G Hotel, Galway, Ireland

Round Hill Hotel and Villas – Montego Bay, Jamaica
Hotel Lungarno – Florence, Italy
Byblos Art Hotel, Verona, Italy
The Hotel – Miami, Florida
Hotel Petit Moulin – Paris, France
Morrison Hotel – Dublin, Ireland
The G Hotel – Galway, Ireland
Tortuga Bay, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Palazzo Versace – Gold Coast, Australia
Hotel Miro – Bilbao, Spain

Zagat Survey’s Top Luxury Large and Small Hotels Worldwide

For those of us who love to “live vicariously” through our “friends and families” by listening to their “detailed cave explorations in the Andes” and their “digital slideshows of over 1,000 beautiful landscapes,” Zagats has always been and always will be the epitome of sound-bite reviews. Trip Advisor might be more popular with longer reviews, but Zagat’s will always hold a warm place in my heart.

So, it was nice to see that the Zagat Survey today released the results of its 2007/2008 World’s Top Hotels, Resorts and Spas survey. The guide is based on the experiences of 21,783 frequent travelers and 1,626 professional travel agents who averaged 36.9 hotel nights per year. It includes rates and reviews of 1,287 of the best places to stay and play in the world as well as 48 leading hotel chains.

The following lists show the leading chains, hotels, resorts and spas:

Hotel Chains:

1. Amanresorts
2. Four Seasons
3. Mandarin Oriental
4. Raffles
5. St. Regis
6. Ritz-Carlton
7. Rosewood
8. Orient-Express
9. Oberoi
10. Shangri-La

Large Hotels (100+ rooms):

Peninsula, Los Angeles

1. Four Seasons George V, Paris
2. Peninsula, Chicago
3. Peninsula, Bangkok
4. Peninsula, Hong Kong
5. Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
6. Four Seasons, Chicago
7. Four Seasons, Budapest
8. Mandarin Oriental, Miami
9. Peninsula, Los Angeles
10. Four Seasons, Las Vegas

Resorts (100+ rooms):

Four Seasons Punta Mita, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

1. Four Seasons/Hualalai, Hawaii
2. One & Only, Baja Peninsula, Mexico
3. Four Seasons Wailea, Hawaii
4. Four Seasons, Canadian Rockies
5. Burj Al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
6. Four Seasons Resort, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
7. Halekulani, Hawaii
8. Ritz-Carlton, Cayman Islands
9. Four Seasons Resort, Provence
10. Four Seasons, Punta Mita, Mexico

Small Hotels, Resorts & Inns (less than 100 rooms):

Amanjiwo, Borobudur, Indonesia

1. Singita, Kruger Area, South Africa
2. Amanjiwo, Borobudur, Indonesia
3. Four Seasons Tented, Golden Triangle, Thailand
4. Como Shambala, Bali
5. Four Seasons, Chiang Mai, Thailand
6. Oberoi Udaivilas, Rajasthan, India
7. Amankila, Bali
8. Gidleigh Park, Devon, U.K.
9. Four Seasons Sayan, Bali
10. Blanket Bay, Queenstown, New Zealand

10 Best Luxury Eco-Resorts from Forbes Traveler

These days, everything is about going green: hybrid cars, radiant cooling in houses, carbon offsets, CESiak resorts. Right now, if you get a certain package from W hotels, they will plant 100 trees for your reservation.

If you are a die-hard or casual reader of the Suite Life, you’ll know that I love Top 10 lists. I also love environmentally-friendly happenings around the country and around the world. So when I found this new Top 10 list on green travel and luxury eco-resorts, well, I just had to bring it to your attention.

The Top 10 Eco-Resorts:

Finca Rosa Blanca Country Inn, Costa Rica

Views of volcanoes, cloud forests and coffee plantations abound from this resort in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, which is at an elevation of 4,000 feet above sea level and sits on 10 acres of fruit trees and tropical flora. Guided tours to nearby national parks, cloud forests, biological rain forest reserves, and botanical gardens offer a multitude of eco-educational opportunities.

Jungle Bay Resort & Spa, Dominica

This Dominican resort, found midway down the chain of Caribbean islands near Guadeloupe and Martinique, includes 35 cottages elevated on wooden posts and perched like bird’s nests under a jungle canopy. The visitor center sits on a seaside cliff. A yoga center, a volcanic stone swimming pool, live entertainment and dancing are popular diversions.

Ranweli Holiday Village, Sri Lanka

Just 11 miles from Colombo International Airport, Ranweli Holiday Village sits on a 22-acre peninsula of mangrove and freshwater rivers abutting the ocean on land that was originally a coconut plantation. Bungalows and buildings sit amongst the rows of coconut trees. The onsite Ayurveda Centre provides beauty therapies, herbal oil massage and other holistic treatments.

Centro Ecológico Sian Ka’an (CESiaK), Mexico

Built on a peninsula within Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve — a large UNESCO World Heritage Site two hours south of Cancun — CESiaK promotes ecological education via immersion in the local environment, including guided kayaking, boating through mangrove channels, birding, exploring Mayan ruins and snorkeling the Mesoamerican Reef just offshore. Beachside palapas and an onsite restaurant run by local chefs adds ambience to the paradisiacal escape.

EcoCamp Patagonia, Chile

Geodesic domes reminiscent of the local Kawesqar people’s huts were constructed for guests visiting EcoCamp Patagonia, which is in Torres del Paine National Park. Trekking into the Patagonian wonderland of mountains, fjords, volcanoes, pampas and ice fields is a top activity.

Nimmo Bay, British Columbia, Canada

Piney, green and pristine, Nimmo Bay is on the British Colombian coast north of Vancouver Island. Its main lodge building and an attached bakery were built on giant floats, a bobbing foundation that made no impact on the land. A water-powered generator and a fast-flowing waterfall supplies 80 percent of the resort’s power needs. Rafting, catch-and-release fishing and sea kayaking are popular day trips.

Avalon Coastal Retreat, Australia

Tasmania’s Avalon Coastal Retreat on Great Oyster Bay is a private eco-cottage with elements like rainwater tanks and indigenous landscaping. In its three guest rooms and common areas, the resort encourages soaking up the austere, otherworldly environment of light playing on rocks and waves crashing on a craggy shore. Its architecture — all glass and timber and steel — lends a modernist mien to the concept of an eco-lodge.

Lapa Rios Ecolodge, Costa Rica

Minnesota natives John and Karen Lewis liquidated their assets to purchase the land for Lapa Rios Ecolodge, a resort with bungalows lining three rainforest ridges. A three-story hardwood circular stairway in the main lodge and a lookout onto the rainforest canopy are highlights. Activities focus on the forest and the nearby ocean, with hiking, birding, kayaking, horseback riding and surfing among the most popular distractions.

Tiamo Resorts, Bahamas

On South Andros Island, a little-developed sanctum of the Bahamas, Tiamo Resorts bills itself as the Caribbean’s most environmentally sensitive tourism operation, with thermal hot-water heaters, low-flush composting toilets, solar paneling, low-impact architecture and other eco-amenities. Guests sleep in private beach bungalows, taking nature hikes, snorkeling or casting for elusive bonefish during the day.

El Pescador Resorts, Belize

El Pescador was long known as a world-class fishing destination. But since coming under new ownership in 1997, the resort has established itself as an eco-friendly tropical getaway, including a recent commitment to offset all carbon emissions generated by its guests flying to Belize. El Pescador offers accommodations in guests rooms within its large mahogany main lodge, as well as with several beachfront cabins that have unencumbered views into the Caribbean blue waters beyond.

Maho Bay/Concordia, St. John

Since 1976, one of the world’s most renowned eco-resorts has existed on this least-populated island of the USVI. Today, 114 tents make up Maho Bay Camps inside Virgin Islands National Park, while three sister resorts have been added. Solar power, rain collection, recycled building materials and elevated walkways are just a few of the eco-techniques employed across the island, which offers differing levels of comfort (without sacrificing eco-standards). The tents at Maho Bay, for example, are very basic, while the Estate Concordia Studios offer nine luxe suites with features like vaulted ceilings and wraparound decks with full ocean views.

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All-Inclusive Luxury Vacations on the Rise

Once the domain of the budget-minded, all-inclusives are courting travelers who typically stay in five-star hotels.
“The stigma (of all-inclusives) is very fast going away,” says Luis Namnum, worldwide marketing vice president for Occidental Hotels & Resorts. “Similar to the cruise lines, there are different segments” within all-inclusive chains.

Each year brings ever-more-luxurious resorts with meals, activities and premium booze included in the daily rate.

• Last fall, Occidental’s flagship property — the Royal Hideaway Playacar on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, where rates start at about $750 nightly a couple — earned AAA’s prized five-diamond rating for the first time. So did another all-inclusive: Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort in Nuevo Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

• Butlers who unpack or draw baths are standard at Karisma Hotels’ 3-month-old Azul Blue Hotel + Spa, in Tulum, Mexico. Its 96 suites boast marble baths, plasma-screen TVs and iPod docking stations. Daily rates start at $586 a couple in April and May.

• Golf, scuba diving — even manicures and pedicures — are included at SuperClubs’ Grand Lido Negril Resort & Spa in Jamaica, where VIPs such as Usher, Queen Latifah and Monaco’s Prince Albert have stayed. “We’re not renting a room on the beach, we’re selling a dream,” says SuperClubs Resorts executive chairman John Issa. Bathrooms with jetted tubs and suites with plunge pools are new fixtures at some SuperClubs.

• Sandals Resorts — another big name in all-inclusives — is turning its top-level suites into world-class hideaways. The new Rondoval Suites at Sandals Grande St. Lucian on St. Lucia have whirlpool tubs, private plunge pools, 50-inch plasma TVs and butler service.

Vacationers want “better than what they have at home,” says Sandals chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart. “Our rooms, our bathrooms, get bigger and bigger.” Meanwhile, “value” all-inclusives such as Club Med are upgrading, too. Its renovated Club Med Cancun Yucatan has a new “Jade Villa” concierge wing for those who demand extra amenities.

And luxury hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort in Rose Hall, Jamaica, offer all-inclusive packages in addition to room-only rates.