LONDON, Sept 30 — European properties dominate this year’s edition of Fodor’s 100 Hotel Award Winners, taking 30 of the top spots in categories such as best gastronomic hotels, sleek city addresses and creative conversions.
In the Creative Conversions category, the publication’s senior editors include Hotel Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, a luxury boutique hotel that pays tribute to its past as an historic coffee plantation mansion by using natural and ecological materials like dark tropical woods and banana tree fiber, as well as folk art created by local and native artisans.
The hotel is a Relais & Chateaux member and was also named Brazil’s Best Hotel Stay by National Geographic in 2011.
For this list, Fodor’s invited its 500 contributors around the world to nominate the best hotels in the destinations they live and write in. Senior editors then whittled down 4,000 properties to a tidy list of 100 hotels they deemed to represent global hospitality trends shaping the industry this year.
After Europe, the US was the most represented with 28 hotels making the cut.
Overall, hotels in 43 countries are represented.
Here are a few highlights:
Creative Conversions: Hotel Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Hotel du Vin, Edinburgh, Scotland
Enduring Classics: The Gritti Palace, Venice, Italy; The Peninsula Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Home Suite Homes: Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada; Casa Lecanda, Mérida, Mexico
Culinary Gems: Eden Rock, St. Jean, St Barthélemy; Hotel Metropole, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Exotic Hideaways: Hotel Benesse House, Naoshima, Japan; Uma by COMO, Punakha, Punakha Valley, Bhutan
Local Characters: Su Gologone, Sardinia, Italy; Volcano House, Hawaii, US
Sleek City Addresses: Le Citizen Hotel, Paris, France; Hyatt Union Square, New York, US
Blissful Beach Retreats: Banyan Tree Seychelles, Mahe, Seychelles; Pimalai Resort and Spa, Joh-Lanta, Thailand
For the full list visit http://www.fodors.com/hotel-awards/2013/. — AFP-Relaxnews
