Food & Dining
The Return of the Grand Hotel Bar
After years of speakeasy pastiche, the world's best drinking is happening where it started: in the bars of the great hotels. A tour of the rooms leading the revival.
6 min read
Rafael Mendes
Hotels Editor
Rafael oversees Browntravels' hotel coverage, from grande-dame institutions to the newest resort openings. He is particularly interested in how service culture, architecture and design come together to define a property's character.
Stories by Rafael Mendes
Wellness
Beyond the Beach Class: Yoga Retreats Come of Age in Serious Hotels
The hotel yoga retreat has graduated from sunrise stretching on the lawn to rigorous, teacher-led programmes in remarkable settings. How to find the real thing.
6 min read
Hotel Openings
The Best New Luxury Hotel Openings
The openings reshaping the luxury map right now — the debuts and revivals earning genuine acclaim, and what each one signals about where hospitality is heading.
6 min read
Travel News
To the Ends of the Earth, Comfortably: The Expedition Cruising Boom
Ice-class hulls with butlers aboard, polar itineraries selling out years ahead — how expedition cruising became luxury travel's fastest-growing frontier.
6 min read
Hotel Openings
Six Senses Kyoto: Wellness Luxury Arrives in the Old Capital
Six Senses chose Kyoto's temple-dense Higashiyama district for its Japanese debut — a hotel that filters the brand's wellness philosophy through the aesthetics of the Heian court.
6 min read
Food & Dining
Lunch on the Water's Edge: Poolside Dining Done Properly
Between the lounger and the white tablecloth lies hospitality's trickiest service. What separates the great poolside and beach-club kitchens from the overpriced afterthoughts.
6 min read
Rankings
The Best Hotel Beach Clubs, from the Riviera to St Barths
The beach club is where a great resort shows its hand. These are the hotel-run clubs that define the form — and what separates them from the velvet-rope pretenders.
7 min read
Inspiration
Stone Ancestors: The Palazzo Hotels and the Architects Behind Them
From Venetian Gothic facades on the Grand Canal to Palermo's art nouveau seafront, Italy's palazzo hotels preserve the work of masters. A tour of the buildings — and the hands that made them.
7 min read
Hotel Openings
Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island: A Private Coral Atoll, Fully Staffed
On a remote coral island south of Mahé, Waldorf Astoria's Seychelles debut pairs castaway seclusion with grand-hotel polish — and a serious conservation mandate.
6 min read
Rankings
The Best Hotels in Hong Kong for Skyline Views
Victoria Harbour remains one of the world's great urban spectacles. These are the Hong Kong hotels renowned for putting that skyline at the centre of the stay.
6 min read
Food & Dining
The Trolley Returns: Inside the Room-Service Renaissance
Written off a decade ago as a loss-making relic, room service has been reborn as one of the sharpest expressions of hotel craft. How dinner behind your own closed door became desirable again.
6 min read
Family Travel
Family Ski Hotels Done Properly: The Alpine Week That Works for Everyone
The family ski trip is luxury travel's most complex logistical exercise. The hotels that have mastered it share a set of habits worth knowing before you book.
7 min read
Rankings
The Most Extraordinary Luxury Hotels in Dubai
From gravity-defying towers to palm-fringed beach palaces, these are the Dubai hotels consistently regarded as the emirate's finest — and what genuinely sets each one apart.
8 min read
Rankings
The Best Lakeside Hotels: Still Water, Serious Luxury
Lakes ask something different of a hotel than coastlines do — calm over drama, reflection over surf. These are the lakeside properties that understand the assignment completely.
7 min read
Travel News
The Democratisation of the Jet: Private Aviation Edges into the Mainstream
Charter apps, seat-sharing and semi-private shuttles are widening the top of the aviation funnel. What the normalisation of flying private means for luxury travel.
6 min read
Hotel Openings
The Emory: What London's First All-Suite Hotel Signals About the Top of the Market
Maybourne's Knightsbridge newcomer opened as London's first all-suite hotel, in a tower conceived by Richard Rogers. It is also a statement about where ultra-luxury city hotels are heading.
6 min read
Rankings
The Best Hotel Rooftop Pools: Where Swimming Meets Skyline
A great rooftop pool turns a hotel stay into urban theatre. These are the properties consistently regarded as having perfected the form — and what separates them from the merely photogenic.
6 min read
Hotel Openings
Bulgari Hotel Roma: The Jeweller Comes Home
Facing the Mausoleum of Augustus from a restored 1930s palazzo, Bulgari's Roman hotel is the maison's most personal opening — and the Eternal City's most polished new stay.
6 min read
Suite Reviews
The Presidential Suite at Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc: The Riviera's Quiet Throne
The legendary Antibes estate reserves its finest rooms for a suite whose guest list spans a century of statesmen and stars. We examine the apartment at the top of the Riviera's most mythologised hotel.
6 min read
Suite Reviews
The Peninsula Suite, Hong Kong: Above the Harbour at the Grande Dame of the East
The Peninsula Hong Kong's signature suite pairs one of the world's great harbour views with the service culture of Asia's oldest grand hotel. We took a close look at what the top floor delivers.
7 min read
Food & Dining
Dinner at Altitude: The Ascent of Hotel Rooftop Dining
The hotel roof has been promoted from service space to signature restaurant. What separates the great rooftop tables from the merely elevated — and where the form is heading.
6 min read
Rankings
The Best Ski Hotels in the Alps for a Flawless Winter
From St Moritz's palatial originals to Zermatt's Matterhorn-facing classics, these are the Alpine hotels that turn a ski trip into a genuine grand stay.
8 min read
Rankings
The World's Greatest Hotel Bars, Ranked by Atmosphere
A great hotel bar is theatre, history and hospitality in a single room. These are the bars our editors return to — and what makes each one impossible to replicate.
7 min read
Family Travel
Villa, Suite or Connecting Rooms? Solving Family Travel's Oldest Puzzle
The way a family sleeps shapes the way it holidays. A considered guide to the three configurations of luxury family accommodation — and when each one earns its premium.
7 min read
Travel News
Twenty Hours Aloft: Ultra-Long-Haul Flying Enters a New Golden Age
Non-stop routes once dismissed as impossible are becoming the backbone of premium aviation. How the twenty-hour flight is reshaping luxury itineraries at both ends.
6 min read
Hotel Openings
Raffles London at The OWO: Whitehall's War Office Opens Its Doors
The Old War Office — where Churchill once worked — has been reborn as Raffles' London flagship after one of the most ambitious restorations the capital has seen.
7 min read
Suite Reviews
The Penthouse at the Hôtel Martinez: Cannes from the Seventh Floor
Above La Croisette's art deco landmark sits one of the Riviera's most storied suites — a penthouse whose terrace has hosted a century of festival history. We examine what makes it the definitive Cannes address.
6 min read