Hotels

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

By Everett Potter Portland has been on the upswing for nearly two decades, thanks to a growing and much-acclaimed food scene and a rebirth that began in the cobblestone streets of the Old Port. That spirit of growth, renovation, and revival has now spread throughout this picturesque waterfront city, the

By Everett Potter I’ve just returned from Australia’s Silky Oak Lodge where my idea of an eco-lodge was turned on its head. Maybe it was because I could splash in the warm waters of the tropical Mossman River under the canopy of the Daintree Rainforest. Sit on my treehouse balcony undisturbed while

By Mark Orwoll The bedside monkey lamps at Vienna’s new Hotel Leo Grand will either amuse you or unnerve you enough to make you sleep in the bathtub. That is, assuming you can even find your guest quarters in the first place. Room 1, for instance, is on the top

By Ann Abel The best small hotels are nearly always passion projects and labors of love. Lisbon got its latest proof of this in October, with the arrival of Hotel das Amoreiras, a 19-room oasis beside one of the city’s most beautiful small parks. Pedro Oliveira, who founded the new hotel along with his