Luxury Defined
Each year, Condé Nast Traveler indexes the best, brightest openings, but for the 26th edition of Condé Nast Traveler's Hot List, they've upped the ante: This time, editors at all seven worldwide editions had a hand in scouting and selecting the entries. At its heart, this is still a hotel list—a whopping 96 made the cut this year, which is a true testament to the industry's resilience. But because (almost) no hotel is an island, they widened the lens to include the restaurants, culture, transportation, and cruises you need to know, and best of all, the destinations that are reinventing themselves. They mean it when they say this may be the hottest Hot List yet. Here, are four of the destinations around the world Condé Nast Traveler thinks you should consider travelling to next.
Luxury in Bermuda
Maine, USA
Momentum has been building around Maine for some time, but 2021 was its year. That’s thanks in part to a slew of nature-minded projects and comfortable places to spend the night that weren’t confined to the coast. New trails like the Great Circle Trail and the Bold Coast Scenic Bikeway made the rugged 100-Mile Wilderness and Downeast areas more accessible. Up north, glamping favorite Under Canvas’s first East Coast outpost and reimagined indie boutique The Claremont opened up Acadia National Park’s 26 peaks to a larger travel set, while fresh-opening Captains Collection kept classic Kennebunkport more relevant than ever. —Todd Plummer
Piedmont, Italy
This proud, polished northern Italian region is giving Tuscany and Puglia a run for their money, thanks to a boom in its southern Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato areas. Two game-changing openings are making these wine-centric areas more accessible to travelers. Sophisticated Nordelaia is a stylish 12-room conversion of a 19th-century villa, with a persuasive fresh-and-local restaurant. Farther west, surrounded by its own sweep of vineyards and truffle-rich woods, 39-room Casa di Langa is a terracotta-red riff on the traditional Piedmontese farm estate, with a contemporary-art collection including works by Ai Weiwei, Sean Scully, and Carla Accardi. —Lee Marshall
Budapest
Hungary’s sophisticated capital used the COVID pause well. The city restored institutions like the UNESCO-listed Buda Castle Quarter and The Guard House and opened up in fresh ways via new access to sites like the Hapsburg Palatine crypt, while Budapest’s landmark neo-Renaissance Opera House reopened in March after five years of restoration work. Fitting, too, that historic Matild Palace debuted as a Luxury Collection hotel in June, glamorous with Art Nouveau–inspired public spaces like the buzzy Duchess rooftop bar. Never has the nickname "The Paris of the East" felt more resonant. —Jen Murphy
Mexico City
It seems as if every creative on Earth has relocated to Mexico City or is considering a move to this buzzy and still-affordable megalopolis. We get it: The seemingly always-75-degrees city has a ton going on just now. Its strong hotel landscape got stronger with the opening of The Ritz-Carlton along the jacaranda-lined Paseo de la Reforma. In the posh Polanco, The Alest opened with 19 smart rooms, and Casa Polanco is set to open soon inside a 1940s former mansion. The city’s main green space, Bosque de Chapultepec, welcomed LAGO ALGO, a restaurant, café, and cultural center set in a renovated 1960s building. The dining scene flourished too, with the leafy La Condesa neighborhood reemerging as a hot spot. At Anónimo, the Mexican German chef Klaus Mayr serves delicate pastas, while at Botánico, Sergio Meza plates dishes like sustainably sourced fish wrapped in Malbec leaves. In Roma Norte, tucked away off the bustling street of Álvaro Obregón, the passageway El Parián opened with dozens of new businesses, including the concept shop PCH, showcasing the city’s top female brands, and Jarilla, an upscale grab-and-go for sandwiches, jarred Mexican delicacies, and natural wine. —Michaela Trimble
From Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Hot List by CNT Editors