9 Amazing Hotels and Resorts For Your Dream Trips

1/ Phinda Homestead, South Africa
Small-scale and utterly luxurious, the Phinda Homestead is a family-size lodge situated on a private game reserve within the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. No one around but you, the lodge staff, and the wildlife.

 

2/ Conrad Maldives Hotel
With its glass-bottomed bungalows and underwater rooms, the Conrad Maldives Hotel has serious appel. To reach it, you have to take a 30-minute private seaplane, but on arrival you can enjoy any of their 101 carefully curated cheeses and 20,000 wines, while being surrounded by whale sharks, manta rays, dolphins, turtles, and “an excellent coral reef.”

 

3/ Hotel Kakslauttanen, Finland
If you’ve never heard of this place, you’ve probably spent an enviably small amount of time on the internet. With its infamous glass igloos and log cabins, the Hotel Kakslauttanen offers an exclusive inside-while-outside winter experience. You know, so you can be immersed in the beauty of frozen forests and incredible winter auroras while simultaneously safe and comfortable inside your own private bubble of warmt.

 

4. Loisaba Star Beds, Kenya
Two sets of outdoor “star beds” can be found in the Kenyan wilderness — the “Kikobo” beds overlook the waterhole from which they take their name, and the “Koija” beds sit on stilts over the Ewaso N’giro river. Each “star bed” is partially sheltered and contains a “Mukokoteni” (a specialty handcrafted bed on wheels, for moving into and out of the shelter). Kenya is known for its wildlife, so you’re bound to see some amazing creatures in this outdoor getaway.

5. Hotel de Glace, Quebec, Canada
The first (and only) true ice hotel in North America, Hotel de Glace opened in 2001 and has been rebuilt every December since. With a three-month lifespan, the features of this hotel are different each year, but it’s famous for its recurring chapel, bar, and grand ice slide.

6. Äscher Cliff, Switzerland
More of an inn and restaurant than a luxury resort, this getaway built right into an Ebenalp cliff is the best spot to take a breather on your trek up the northern Alps. The views here will keep you charged as you continue your trip through the Swiss mountains.

7. Cocoa Island Resort, Maldives
Just a 40-minute speedboat ride from the archipelago’s main airport, Cocoa Island floats as a cluster of 33 over-water suites (straight out from those sweeping white sand beaches you’ve seen in every tropical island fantasy you’ve ever had). With two private diving reefs to explore, who’s got time for spa treatments?

8. Manta Resort, Tanzania
Ever wanted to be able to go down the stairs of your resort room, hoist the blinds, and be stared down by schools of fish? Can you get over the fact that in doing so, you’ll be painfully aware that your accommodations are anchored offshore? If you answered yes to both of those questions (as I have), then the photos of the Manta Resort have probably inspired you to add Tanzania’s Pemba Island to the bucket list.

Photographer: Jesper Anhede

9. Ubud Hanging Gardens, Bali
One part boutique hotel, one part epic infinity pool over the Ayung gorge, one part Payangan jungle, and one part architectural masterpiece combine to make one smooth cocktail of a resort. While the Ubud is known for its terraced tree villas, it’s really all about the award-winning pool. (Literally, this pool has won awards.)

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9 Amazing Hotels and Resorts For Your Dream Trips.

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Ubud Hanging Gardens hotel of Bali

With a backdrop of emerald green terraced rice-fields and the tumbling waters of the Ayung flowing below, Ubud Hanging Gardens is set at the heart of Bali.

The hotel is only 20 minutes from the centre of Ubud, accessed by a complimentary scheduled shuttle bus service. The airport and Ubud Hanging Garden’s sister hotel and recently refurbished Jimbaran Puri Bali are 90 minutes away by car. A 15 minute helicopter transfer to Denpasar Airport can also be arranged.

 

Perched adjacent to steep rice terraces with sweeping views across the Ayung river gorge to the ancient Pura Penataran Dalem Segara temple on the opposite hillside, Ubud Hanging Gardens has 38 villas, which are all constructed in contemporary Balinese style on gravity defying wooden pillars with thatched alang-alang roofs. The resort’s accommodation, restaurants, pool and spa cascade down the hillside to the valley floor below and can be reached by a funicular.

The resort’s garden was conceived by the landscape architect William Warren (author of “Balinese Garden”, Thames & Hudson), together with John Pettigrew, (another devotee of botanical gardens who created the garden at Begawan Giri). It is planted with exotic trees and tropical shrubs such as cocoa, coffee, fruit trees, durian, rambutan, lychees, a variety of tropical bamboos, flame trees, bird of paradise flowers and orchids.

The hotel has four categories of villa-style accommodation: 15 deluxe Pool villas, of approximately 100m², 15 panoramic view deluxe Pool villas, of approximately 100m², two panoramic view suite pool villas of 160m² and six 2-bedroom Family Pool villas of 160m².

The villas were designed by Anglo/ French architect Gordon Shaw and all have king sized four poster beds, handmade batik cotton fabrics, an interior bathroom with hand moulded bath, terraces with open air showers and dramatic Java stone plunge pools with adjoining Bales (a traditional Balinese relaxation area). Shaw used precious woods throughout the property, including Merbau flooring for the interiors, Benkirai for the exteriors and wooden furniture with sculpted doors in the Balinese tradition.

Ubud Hanging Gardens The uber-luxurious hotel of Bali.

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