Hotels

By Everett Potter Southern Ocean Lodge, the dramatic retreat that set the bar for small luxury properties in Australia, reopened today on the wild and windswept Kangaroo Island off the country’s southern coast. The Lodge opened in 2008 on a dramatic bluff, facing the relentless Southern Ocean surf below. Fabled

By Everett Potter It’s not a stretch to say that The Alfond Inn at Rollins, a boutique hotel in the heart of historic Winter Park, Florida, is unlike any other hotel in the country. Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, the property unveiled a $36 million expansion last week, including a

By Ann Abel Historic hotels seem to be a dime a dozen these days, from the grand old railway and harborside hotels that have been reinvented for the 21st century to luxury accommodations in old banks and prisons (two especially popular categories, for some reason). But the hoteliers, architects, designers

By Mark Sissons In a city globally renowned for its exquisite sense of fashion and beauty, the challenge of launching a new boutique five-star hotel is substantial. However, La Gemma Hotel, designed by the esteemed Italian architect Tito Bellini and owned by the Cecchi family, a passionate Florentine clan deeply

By Larry Olmsted Rome is known as the Eternal City for good reason – year in and year out it is one of the best places on the planet to enjoy an urban vacation. When I walk around Rome I can’t help but wonder if the locals are jaded, since

By Brian E. Clark In 1857, wealthy builder Alexander McDonnell asked architect and German emigrant August Kutzboch to design him “the best house money could buy.” The ostentatious McDonnell chose a wooded lot for his home on a promontory called Bug Hill on the isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona

By Everett Potter Lodging on the coast of Maine has been undergoing a transformation during the past few years, an ongoing story that I’ve been covering here at Forbes. Vintage hotels like The Claremont in Southwest Harbor have been reborn as upscale properties. At the same time, former mom-and-pop cottage compounds

By Everett Potter The Newbury opened as the country’s first Ritz-Carlton in 1927 and has what is arguably Boston’s best hotel location, across the street from the manicured Public Garden. It’s at the corner of Arlington Street and Newbury Street, the city’s upscale shopping boulevard.     Check your expectations

By Everett Potter The legendary coast of Maine has become more popular than ever in the last few years. You can credit the pandemic for that, a period when many new visitors headed north and discovered the state. That rising popularity has translated into sold-out summers, a season already short

By Mark Sissons Long before modern celebrity A-listers like George Clooney, Richard Branson, Gianni Versace and Madonna owned posh waterfront villas here, Lago di Como, the jewel in Northern Italy’s crown of glittering mountain lakes, was a popular retreat for Europe’s wealthy and famous. As far back as ancient Roman