Our peripatetic correspondent plowed through 20 countries in 2012. Along the way, he discovered that the year's best new—or newly renovated—hotels didn't follow trends. Rather, they were brave enough to invest in their own singular sense of style to offer a true sense of place.
Pictured: Fireplace at The NoMad, NYC -- Courtesy of Sydell Group, Photo by Benoit Linero
No one feeds the Anglophile's thirst for thoroughly cracked style than Firmdale Hotels and their in-house designer/owner Kit Kemp. Her Mrs. Dalloway meets Miss Havisham redo of this Regency-era townhouse in Marylebone focuses guestrooms around epic padded headboards upholstered in hallucinogenic prints, from pinwheels to paisleys. For a fittingly classic English experience, keys are available for a respite in the private Dorset Square garden, and afternoon tea from the Potting Shed restaurant is served in the hotel's Drawing Room.
Re-Opened: June
Rates: from £150
Pictured: The Dorset Square Room, one of Kit Kemp's inimitable designs -- Courtesy of Dorset Square
A two-and-a-half hour drive south of Athens (or 25 minutes by helicopter) on the Peloponnese coast, Aman Resort's first Greek property is an operatic homage to local culture and aesthetics. Layered up an olive and pine tree–dotted hillside, like an amphitheater overlooking the Aegean, its 38 free-standing pavilions are classically styled, with stone courtyards, beds tucked into marble alcoves, and pergola-shaded terraces beside private pools. A central stone "acropolis" houses a library, boutique, restaurant, and spa complete with two hamams. Culinary foraging tours (olive picking, pomegranate harvests) are also on the think-like-a-Greek menu.
Opened: September
Rates: from €825
Pictured: Amanzo'e pavilion and pool -- Courtesy of Aman Resorts
A nice alternative to Manhattan's abundance of branded behemoths and self-conscious dives, this renovated Beaux Arts landmark in the newly hot hood north of Madison Square Park is all stage-set whimsy. Though the interiors are supposedly based on designer Jacques Garcia's Parisian childhood, the look is more Wes Anderson Americana—crackled brown leather club chairs and headboards, claw-foot bathtubs, a two-level library anchored by a spiral staircase. Three-star chef Daniel Humm, of Eleven Madison Park, oversees the eponymously named lobby restaurant, so even the bone-marrow-crusted beef is photogenic.
Opened: March
Rates: from $395
Pictured: NoMad Guest Room -- Courtesy of Sydell Group, Photo by Benoit Linero
Israel's most dynamic new boutique hotel, sitting north of Haifa, is a bespoke surprise hewn from two 19th-century Ottoman villas—but offering only twelve rooms. The best of the dozen are crowned by painted ceilings that were restored by Italian artisans into an exuberant whirl of pistachio and aqua floral wreaths, their giddy whimsy offset by straight-lined contempo furniture. Arched windows overlook the sea and the ancient port of Acre, an inviting surprise in itself; so is the hotel's 900 year-old Byzantine wine cellar where you can settle in for Yiddish tapas and some serious Israeli pours.
Opened: March
Rates: from $315
Pictured: One of 12 guest rooms -- Courtesy of Efendi
Banyan Tree's latest seaside resort sits on Canh Duong Beach, a paradisiacal crescent bay just north of Da Nang in central Vietnam. Amid a boom that is morphing this stretch of sand into the next big Southeast Asian retreat, it's a masterful rendition of considered organic opulence. Guests can spend their days lounging in villas on timber sundecks with private plunge pools or opt for more active pursuits like catamaran sails and snorkeling at the resort's sea sports center or fishing expeditions with a local guide.
Opened: November
Rates: from $735
Pictured: Banyan Tree Lang Co's pool villa -- Courtesy of Brandman PR
Favoring the sensual over the monastic with cherry-picked Italian antiques and Jerusalem stone bathrooms, this converted 17th-century monastery doesn't stint on the lush life—no surprise given that its nuns were famous for their pastries and cascading gardens. Indulgences include garden spa treatments and divine meals, such as a plate of fusilli with baby squids, eaten on a terrace overlooking the Gulf of Salerno. It's all a much-needed jolt to the Amalfi Coast, which was starting to seem like some crusty relic of la dolce vita. We imagine the sisters would have wanted it that way.
Opened: May
Rates: from $413
Pictured: Garden cabanas overlook the Gulf of Salerno -- Courtesy of Monastero Santa Rosa
The ingenious pay-it-forward scheme of Britain's Landmark Trust—renovate a property, rent it out for long weekends or four-day midweek stays, plow those profits back into restoring even more historic properties—lets you play queen of the castle and prop up England in the process. Its latest in the West Midland's Warwickshire (birthplace of George Eliot and Shakespeare), houses up to eight in the partially reclaimed ruins of a proper manor house, complete with state-of-the-art kitchen and picture windows with views of the gardens and14th-century church. Split between friends you will be paying less than the bleakest B&B for a fully-furnished country escape. Best part: there's a moat.
Opened: July
Rates: from £892
Pictured: Guest room with a view of the church -- Courtesy of Astley Castle
Outdoorsy types who don't really want to rough it head to this pop-up campsite-cum-eco lodge in tranquil Baja, the Mexican antidote to overheated Cancun and the overdeveloped Mayan Riviera. Mounted on steel stilts, the property's 20 cubist bungalows each come with their own clay chiminea and side terrace. If you want the full-on cultural immersion, you can take the cooking or winemaking classes; if you don't, just grab one of the local labels from the winery and get tipsy by the pool.
Opened: June
Rates: from $185
Pictured: Hotel Endémico interior and chiminea -- Courtesy of Design Hotels
French-Algerian designer Imaad Rahmouni (a former associate of Philippe Starck) dreamed up a splendid fantasia with this Taj Mahal-like opus located 15 minutes outside the medina in a desert hush all its own. Public spaces are pure pan-oriental opulence: Murano chandeliers, damask, domes, fountains, pools, gardens, and archways for days. By contrast, the 41 guestrooms—in suite, villa, and palace form—are refreshingly low-key refuges with contemporary décor in neutral shades that feel more Malibu than Marrakech. It's as far a cry as you can get from the dizzying din of a riad stay in the city.
Opened: April
Rates: €590
Pictured: Nighttime fantasy at the pool -- Courtesy of Palais Namaskar
Designed as a template for future Four Seasons hotels, Toronto's new flagship tower in Yorkville works on every level. (The haute chain started here, but the city's original property became such a scrapper that the home team decided to start over from scratch.) From the charming hanging installation of a windblown dandelion in reception to the quietly swish Yabu Pushelberg–designed guest rooms punctuated by curvy sofas and soaking tubs, you get a whiff of understated Canadian pride.
Opened: October
Rates: from $545 CAD
Pictured: Four Seasons Toronto's gleaming new tower -- Courtesy of Four Seasons Toronto
The year's most memorable new (or newly renovated) properties