Five stylish hotel suites

Villa North Island

(Image credit: Villa North Island, Seychelles © )

published 5 March 2021

The Bugatti of villas

Villas No 1 to No 10 on North Island, in the Seychelles, “are gold standard-plus and you will have a jolly nice time staying in one”, says Susan d’Arcy in The Times. But then there’s Villa North Island – which will make you feel like you’ve parked your “£10m Rolls-Royce Sweptail only to have a £15m Bugatti La Voiture Noire pull up alongside”. Dramatically perched on giant boulders, Villa North Island offers Robinson Crusoe-like isolation, but in classy surroundings spread over 8,000 sq ft. That compares with around 800 sq ft for the average British home, and it’s just for two. “Think lashed-together driftwood furniture, petrified tree stumps and seashell curtains, as well as a show-stopping waterfall of wooden decks with cabanas, hot tubs and fire pits that segue down to a golden beach.” From £10,000, all-inclusive; north-island.com/villa-north-island.

Among the cacti in Mexico

Paradero is a new hotel in Todos Santos, on the southern half of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Some might find it sleepy compared with San Jose del Cabo’s flashy resorts located an hour away, but “I find myself fascinated by the sprawling fields of sprouting tomatillos and poblanos”, says Michaela Trimble for Condé Nast Traveller. The architecture is “Brutalist-inspired”, prompted by the landscape’s “sunbaked hues”. The rooftop suite is “more a series of spaces than a traditional guest room”, with an outdoor seating area overlooking the cactus-studded desert below. Upstairs is the “star net” – a flat hammock bolted into the walls and suspended over the outdoor space. Lying in it creates the sensation that you’re floating in air while looking up at the sky above. Around $550, paraderohotels.com.

A retro hideaway for chess fanatics

The 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky, is situated in the home town of Beth Harmon, the protagonist and chess savant in the hit Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, says Annmarie Welser on Bloomberg. Drawing inspiration from the series, which is set in the 1950s, the hotel refashioned one of its 88 rooms into the “Harmon Room”, complete with retro-inspired knight-print wallpaper and a “larger-than-life” chess board with kings and pawns suspended from the ceiling, as imagined in the series. “Scattered throughout are copies of Chess Review magazine and mid-century modern furnishings on loan from a local bookstore and local antiques dealers.” Guests receive a guide to sites made famous by the show. Around $220, 21cmuseumhotels.com/lexington.

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A big suite in the Big Apple

The reimagined and renamed Empire Suite occupies half of the Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown’s 24th floor, with 180˚ views that stretch from lower to midtown Manhattan, says Sandra Ramani on the Robb Report. There is a master bedroom, a study, living, dining and media rooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen “with soft silks, bold marble and walls lined with felt, inlaid wood and hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper”. Guests can also enjoy round-trip helicopter transfers from New York’s three major airports, limousine transfers and a multi-treatment spa retreat. From $25,000, fourseasons.com/newyorkdowntown.

A room with a view

The Soho Hotel in London was a game-changer for the neighbourhood when it opened in 2004, attracting hipsters and “more conventional wealthy travellers”, says Francesca Syz in The Daily Telegraph. Inhabiting “a sizeable chunk” of the hotel’s fifth floor is the new two-bedroom Terrace Suite, with its wraparound terrace. “Mesmerising views of London aside – you could spend hours spotting quirky roof terraces, famous London landmarks and watching people scuttle about below – the focal point is the spectacular, light-filled drawing room with deep sofas and armchairs strewn with the plumpest hand-embroidered cushions arranged around a long, low rustic wooden coffee table.” The master bedroom is almost as big. From £3,500, firmdalehotels.com.

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.