An Edwardian courtyard approached through wrought-iron gates and a carriageway gives Rosewood London a distinctive entrance on High Holborn. Inside, a grand marble staircase anchors the hotel's manor-house character, while its public rooms make space for a more playful expression of British taste. Scarfes Bar pairs Gerald Scarfe's caricatures with velvet armchairs, antique books and live jazz; Holborn Dining Room gives traditional British cooking a prominent place, with a dedicated pie kitchen and a takeaway hatch. Art carries through to the Mirror Room's Monet-inspired afternoon tea. Together, these details give the hotel a personality rooted as much in illustration, craft and cooking as in architectural grandeur.
The Connaught’s martini trolley makes a ceremony of a drink, with guests choosing aromatic bitters to shape their preferred version. That attention to individual taste gives a useful introduction to this Mayfair hotel, where original art and traditional craftsmanship bring character to the interiors. A historic wooden staircase anchors the public spaces, while suites include personal butler service and, in some cases, private terraces above the city. Hélène Darroze’s three-Michelin-star restaurant makes dining a substantial part of the draw. Outside, the Mount Street neighborhood puts boutiques, Bond Street and Hyde Park within easy reach, giving a stay here a distinctly Mayfair frame.
English gardens provide the design thread at The Dorchester: their colors and motifs shape the rooms and suites, while an extensive art collection explores the British landscape tradition. Outside, Hyde Park stretches across from the hotel’s Park Lane address in Mayfair, with Bond Street’s boutiques nearby. That connection to its surroundings gives this grand London hotel a character beyond its dining credentials, which include contemporary French cuisine at the three-Michelin-starred Alain Ducasse restaurant. The Promenade supplies a more everyday rhythm, serving breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner with live music. Together, these spaces make the hotel as much a place to spend an afternoon or evening as a base for exploring London.
Tribeca’s apartment life provides the reference point for Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown, whose suites draw on the neighborhood’s lofts, art collections, and contemporary furniture. The Oculus Suite frames views of Santiago Calatrava’s sculptural transit hub, while the Gotham Terrace Suite pairs custom furnishings with a balcony above the city. On Barclay Street near the World Trade Center, the hotel makes a useful base for exploring Lower Manhattan, with Fulton Center and PATH connections less than a ten-minute walk away. There’s reason to spend time inside, too: Wolfgang Puck’s CUT steakhouse sits just off the lobby, and a dedicated wellness floor brings together a seven-room spa, lap pool, and fitness center overlooking downtown.
The Artists’ Gate Suite has 13 large windows overlooking Central Park and Sixth Avenue, plus a billiards room—a particularly expansive expression of this hotel’s Manhattan townhouse aesthetic. Across the 253-room Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, wood accents, curated artwork and residential furnishings carry that idea through rooms and suites, with park views available in select accommodations. Its Central Park South address puts the park at the center of a stay, while Contour Gastro Lounge and Bar supplies a gathering place from morning coffee through dinner. The bar’s daily Manhattan Minute offers a small local ritual: a taste of its namesake cocktail, a little cocktail history and a recipe card to take home.
Jacques Grange gave The Mark a distinctive design vocabulary: bold black-and-white stripes, custom furnishings, and art and lighting commissioned specifically for the hotel. Working with Parisian antiquaire Pierre Passebon, he brought in contributors including Ron Arad, Vladimir Kagan, and Mattia Bonetti, giving the public spaces the appeal of a design collection. Upstairs, rooms take a more uncluttered approach, with views over Madison Avenue, East 77th Street, or townhouse gardens. The Upper East Side address puts Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art within easy reach, while Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant and Caviar Kaspia—with its caviar-topped twice-baked potato—give visitors reasons to linger downstairs.
Christian Liaigre’s restrained interiors give The Mercer its particular take on SoHo loft living: high ceilings, open layouts, oversized windows, and an emphasis on proportion. Set inside a landmark Romanesque Revival building at Mercer and Prince Streets, the independently operated hotel has 73 rooms and suites facing the neighborhood’s cobblestoned streets or an interior garden. Some add exposed brick or wood-burning fireplaces; the Courtyard Loft Suite opens onto its own 1,000-square-foot terrace. Downstairs, Sartiano’s serves Alfred Portale’s Italian menu in a Studio Sofield–designed dining room with Carrara marble counters and leather bar seats. The restaurant also supplies the guest-only lobby, making that private space a useful extension of the rooms upstairs.
Nightly live entertainment on the Atrium’s stage gives The Ned NoMad a social center, fitting for a hotel that shares its home with a private members’ club. Set in the 1903 Johnston Building on Broadway, its 167 bedrooms and suites carry the period character upstairs: Deluxe rooms and Atrium Studios feature Beaux-Arts touches, while the Johnston Terrace Suite adds separate living and dining rooms and a private terrace. Public dining is part of the draw, too. Cecconi’s takes its cues from mid-century Italian trattorias, and Little Ned pairs classic cocktails and bar food with Empire State Building views. The mix of historic interiors, dining and club life gives this Manhattan address its particular identity.
Afternoon tea beneath The Palm Court’s soaring stained-glass dome gives The Plaza Hotel its clearest expression: formal, theatrical, and deeply attached to New York tradition. Architect Thierry Despont’s renovation drew on nearby Central Park, bringing ceiling-high palms, trellis details, and cane-accented furnishings into a room that has been part of the hotel since 1907. Outside, Fifth Avenue meets Central Park South; inside, restored reception rooms and elaborate guest-room finishes sustain the sense of occasion. The 282 rooms and suites include guest rooms with sitting areas, mosaic bathroom floors, and gold-plated Sherle Wagner fixtures, while the Legacy Suites introduce commissioned art and a more contemporary residential style. It’s a hotel whose public spaces deserve as much attention as its bedrooms.
Kim arrived at the Plaza hotel in New York last Friday wearing sheer tightsKim, vendredi dernier, est arrivée à l’hôtel Plaza de New York en collant transparent
La Samaritaine’s 1928 Art Deco building gives Cheval Blanc Paris its architectural backbone; Peter Marino’s apartment-inspired interiors give it a more personal scale. Overlooking the Seine, the 72-room-and-suite hotel brings together custom-designed furniture, works by Sonia Delaunay and Vik Muniz, and intricate metalwork that carries the building’s decorative heritage indoors. Ingrid Donat’s gilded bronze panels greet guests outside the elevators, while Sophie Mallebranche’s woven-metal staircase connects the entrance hall to the Dior Spa. Rooms offer differing perspectives on the city, from the Louvre colonnade to river views framed by winter gardens or private balconies. On the seventh floor, Langosteria pairs Italian seafood cooking with views across Paris.
Three restaurants sharing six Michelin stars make dining central to the identity of Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris. Christian Le Squer’s modern French cooking at Le Cinq anchors the lineup, while Le George takes an Italian-Mediterranean direction and L’Orangerie serves seasonal menus beneath a glass canopy overlooking the marble courtyard. The setting carries equal weight: a 1928 Art Deco landmark in the Golden Triangle, just off the Champs-Élysées. Inside, La Galerie’s collection of 19th-century art and the Parisian Suites’ classical or Empire-style works give the hotel a distinctly formal character. Some suites open onto terraces with Eiffel Tower views, adding a broader Paris panorama to a stay centered on art and the table.
Kim Kardashian ... At the start of the evening, Kim, 33, received a delivery of 15 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne at her suite at the Four Seasons Hotel George V
Le Bristol Paris has a yacht above its rooftops: naval architect Cäsar Pinnau designed its sixth-floor indoor pool with teak decking and a trompe-l’oeil stern, with views toward the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur. That playful space adds a distinctive chapter to this grand hotel on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, whose rooms and suites follow an elegant Parisian style. A 13,000-square-foot courtyard garden gives guests room to linger, while the kitchens reveal how much is made here: the hotel mills its own flour, bakes its bread, and produces chocolates in-house. Three-Michelin-starred Epicure anchors a stay in which French cooking deserves as much attention as the address.
Versailles provides the architectural cue for Le Meurice’s Alain Ducasse restaurant, where Philippe Starck reinterpreted the château’s Salon de la Paix. That interplay of classical grandeur and artistic invention gives this Paris hotel its character: Starck also designed Le Dalí, drawing on the surrealist’s playful imagination. Facing the Tuileries Garden on rue de Rivoli, with the Louvre a five-minute walk away, Le Meurice puts art within easy reach both indoors and out. Food is an equally compelling reason to linger, from the two-Michelin-starred restaurant to Cédric Grolet’s pastries sculpted to resemble fruit. In the evening, Bar 228 offers deep leather armchairs and live jazz—a more intimate setting within the hotel’s ornate world.
Acoustic guitars in the guest rooms give an early clue to Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris’s artistic temperament. Philippe Starck’s reworking of the hotel carries that spirit through interiors filled with contemporary art, while suites draw on the lines and colors of the 1940s and ’50s, with books and messages scrawled on lampshades adding personal touches. The collection extends beyond the bedrooms: more than 300 works, a contemporary gallery and the 99-seat Katara Cinema make culture part of a stay. On Avenue Hoche, near the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, this hotel has welcomed artists and writers since 1928; its present-day character gives that history a tangible expression.
Kim Kardashian ... Kim arrives in Paris, where she settles in at the Royal Monceau hotelKim Kardashian ... Kim arrive à Paris où elle s'installe à l'hôtel Royal Monceau
Royal blue in the lobby, a grand staircase and rooms furnished with silks and antique art give the Ritz Paris its richly layered character. César Ritz chose a private mansion on Place Vendôme for the hotel he opened in 1898; he and his wife, Marie-Louise, approached it as a vast private home, mixing periods and French decorative traditions. That residential idea still gives shape to a stay, from individually styled accommodations to the wood-paneled Salon Proust, where books and armchairs frame afternoon tea. Outside, the Grand Jardin extends the hotel’s sequence of salons into greenery, with magnolias, a fountain and wooden alcoves along a trellis gallery.
Aman Tokyo takes the design language of a Japanese ryokan into the upper floors of Otemachi Tower. Wood, granite and washi paper give its expansive interiors a restrained character, with ikebana displays and engawa platforms lending definition to the vast lobby. Suites pair shoji sliding doors and deep stone furo baths with floor-to-ceiling views of the capital; some look across the Imperial Palace Gardens toward Mount Fuji on clear days. The same attention to Japanese traditions carries into Musashi, where Edomae-style omakase sushi is served at a hinoki cypress counter. A 30-meter indoor pool and Japanese-style bathing facilities make time at the hotel as much a part of a Tokyo stay as exploring the city below.