Travel + Leisure magazine has released their 10th annual editors’ choice awards, picking 43 properties they deemed to be 'transformative hotels' for 2015.
Hotels that made the cut fit into tidy categories such as “Far-flung Fantasy,” “Style setter,” “Instant Classic,” and “Design Star.”
Among the stand-outs is the Pikaia Lodge on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, the only property singled out for being an “Eco-Pioneer.”
Located on a plateau on top of two extinct volcano craters, the lodge boasts rights to being called the archipelago’s first carbon-neutral five-star resort and offers sweeping views of the Galapagos islands. Rooms are modern and spacious and activities include island expeditions by boat, snorkeling, scuba diving, and mountain biking.
If you want to roll like an “A-Lister,” meanwhile, The Brando, in French Polynesia, is the place to go. The remote, secluded resort is a 20-minute flight from Tahiti and features 35 ultra-private villas, all built to respect the local environment as well, with seawater-powered air conditioning, and the use of local, recovered wood. The resort is the fruition of late actor Marlon Brando’s lifelong dream.
Another interesting find is Cape Weligama, classified as a “Far-Flung Fantasy” for being located on the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka. Forty private terracotta-tiled retreats overlook the Indian Ocean and offer private butler services, gardens, dining and spa facilities.
And in the category of “Indie Darling,” a boutique hotel in a quaint, but sleepy part of Ontario, Canada, Prince Edward County, is given nods for generating buzz and attracting creative, urban professionals to the rural area. It helps that the Drake Devonshire Inn was opened by the same folks who run the Drake Hotel, a hipster hotel and Toronto hotspot. The county is known for producing some of the best Pinot Noirs in the country.
Source: Relaxnews