Words Vidula Kotian and Ruby DaviesDate 15 December 2021
They will be newly treasured moments—or even months—to truly tap into places both new and familiar, and to understand the people that create them. So when we think about the road ahead next year, we do it through the vividly inspired lens of the most magical thinkers we know—our hoteliers. This is why we want to take you behind the curtain—to give you a peek at the process and to introduce you to the projects that we are most excited for in 2022. We’d love you to meet the rule-breakers and culture makers who are fueling our wildest travel dreams and keeping us looking forward. With so many passion projects in our line of sight, our eyes can’t help but be drawn to the horizon.
Guerrero, Mexico
We’ve long been fans of the Pacific Coast—with its raw coastal jungle landscape sloping into endless Pacific blue—and can’t wait to visit Hotelito by MUSA, set to open in the first quarter of 2022. Positioned on a naturally secured peninsula between spirited seaside towns and vibrant traditional communities in Guerrero, Mexico, the property is set to redefine modern jungle living while integrating local traditions in a sustainable, community-minded way. The Mexican-forward tropical modernist design will highlight ceramics from Guadalajara, local Parota and palm wood carpentry, and traditional stone detailing.
At MUSA, a community utopia is defined by spaces for artistic and meaningful collaborations will be nurtured; self-development through holistic wellness programming encouraged; and work, live, surf, and creative environments activated. Spread across 165 acres of sprawling palm groves and raw, untamed landscape, MUSA is being built within a completely self-sustaining model geared towards regeneration.
Hotelito by MUSA is a tropical modernist utopia in Guerrero, Mexico
Umbria, Italy
Known as Italy’s green heart, Umbria is painted in a glorious pastoral scenery—olive groves, vineyards, and cypress-topped hills—as well as plenty of vantage points from which you can gaze at this dreamy landscape, such as the medieval walled town of Panicale where Rastrello invites you to experience typical Italian village life. The 500-year-old building has kept its original walls, beams, and ironworks and boasts a Renaissance garden filled with lavender, ivy, and myrtle pruned topiaries. Views from the hotel’s seven rooms look right out of Perugino’s paintings with Lake Trasimeno as their backend.
The passion project of first-time hotelier Christiane Wassmann, Rastrello is filled with little details that will stay with you long after you’ve left, such as harvesting your own olives at the hotel’s nearby grove, eating incredibly fresh and delicious food (supplied from the hotel’s biodynamic farm) at the hanging gardens, enjoying rotating exhibitions of local art, and having singular experiences of those in the know.
Views over the medieval town of Panicale which neighbors Rastrello
Oaxaca, Mexico
We’re rightly excited by the second collaboration of Grupo Habita and Alberto Kalach in Oaxaca. Hotel Terrestre is set in an ecological and regenerative development spanning 20,000 square meters in Puerto Escondido. Opening in the first quarter of 2022, the villa-only property has a Brutalist bent and is being built with a zero-kilometer policy for construction materials. The design philosophy thus follows a raw materiality with local building techniques and craftmanship that are given a modern Mexican flavor. Each villa with a private pool and terrace will be centered around sunlight and views of the stunning seascapes.
Grupo Habita’s Carlos Couturier and Moisés Micha have long been leading the way in innovative design and experience in Mexico’s hospitality scene. On Puerto Escondido’s coast, they’ve gone a step further by building a true community—first with Hotel Escondido (also with Alberto Kalach), then the artists’ retreat Casa Wabi by Tadao Ando, and now Hotel Terrestre.
Santorini, Greece
While we don’t really need a reason to visit one of Greece’s most spectacular islands, Santorini beckons us once again next year with the gorgeous Noūs Santorini. Yes Hotel’s fourth hotel and the first one outside of Athens, Noūs takes this archetypal Greek isle beyond its volcanic identity to redefine it through art and design. Expect nested suites, all with private pools, in a xeric landscape that follows the natural slope of the terrain. A changing roster of young contemporary Greek artists will grace the public spaces and the spa—a dedicated space for adults—will follow the Greek principles of Ef Zin (well-being) for a holistic program attuned to the body and mind.
High-design meets the Greek principles of Ef Zin at Noūs Santorini
Arcadia, Greece
K-Studio’s brand of luscious modern Greek interiors always gives us a keen case of wanderlust. At Manna, set in an abandoned sanatorium 1,200 meters above sea level in Arcadia on the Peloponnese peninsula, the design studio reinterprets ancient Greek Arcadia for today. The result is warm mountain interiors that favor wood, rattan, wool, linen, and velvet. Add to that a sultry vintage feel with copper taps and tubs, wood screens, and rattan ceilings, and the second half of 2022, when Manna opens its doors, can’t come soon enough.
At Manna, ancient rhythms of Arcadia usher in silence
Umbria, Italy
Now you have two reasons to head to Umbria next year. Set to open in the first half of 2022, Vocabolo Moscatelli, a former monastery, pays respect to the building’s beautiful bones and its aged decadent charm. Within this frame is a midcentury dialogue between steel, wood, linen, and terracotta, spelling a timelessness for the ages. Apart from 12 spacious rooms, a plants-forward restaurant will entice palates with the rich harvest of the Umbrian soil.
Frederik Kubierschky has brought his many years of experience in hospitality to his first hotel where his service-first vision will translate to “spoiling my staff with trust so that they have the freedom to make their own decisions and follow their passions. I will be looking beyond hotel schools to recruit people from the local area. This helps create a community—one that includes interesting people both in terms of guests and people working there.”
A former monastery in Umbria invites a new dialogue at Vocabolo Moscatelli
Marcus Fairs, founder and editor-in-chief of Dezeen
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Untouched jungle, tropical islands, and rich wildlife make Borneo one of the most naturally dramatic places in the world. It’s why we’re so excited about our first hotel in Kota Kinabalu, The Luma Hotel. Opening in the first half of 2022, the environmentally conscious 115-room hotel takes on an urban design approach, drawing inspiration from its abundant natural surroundings.
Here, a connection to the local Sabah community is built-in, with cultural programming and a culinary hub lead by top local chefs delivering the best regional experience. All in all, The Luma is set to be a new social hub.
The Luma comes with a built-in connection to the local Sabah community
Bolzano, Italy
From French mansions resting atop ancient limestone cliffs to 500-year-old settings, South Tyrol has a cinematic charm that is best captured by local hotelier Klaus Dissertori, whose award-winning 1477 Reichhalter and Villa Arnica have earned a dedicated fan following. So, it is with our feet drumming that we impatiently wait for the 2022 opening of Parkhotel Mondschein, his latest hotel in the region. Expect much of what makes Dissertori’s properties special: a simplicity that’s underlined by midcentury appeal, world-class dining, and a welcome trip to another world where time stretches languidly, and delights await at every turn.
Sumba, Indonesia
Tucked away on a little-explored Indonesian island of Sumba, Cap Karoso is a showcase for local crafts with a modern twist. Here, contemporary Indonesian art abounds, as do Ikat-inspired wooden panels, handmade ceramics, and furnishings of bamboo, rattan, and teak, which complete a picture of tropical bliss. The visionaries behind Cap Karoso, Evguenia and Fabrice Ivara, “both share a passion for craftmanship,” enthuses Evguenia, whose background working in product development for such brands as Louis Vuitton and Dom Perignon has led her to appreciate the know-how of handmade things.
Conceptually and physically, the resort revolves around its farmland: three hectares of organic agricultural land keep the pantries stocked at the two restaurants found within the traditional huts and modernist structures dotting the property.
Contemporary Indonesia is thoughtfully crafted by locals at Cap Karoso
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast is a stunner, shingled with starfish-studded sands, palm-tree forests, and roads so orange they resemble strips of bronzing powder. This is a true tropical paradise—one where we finally have our first property in Abidjan, La Maison Palmier. Located in the residential enclave of Les Deux Plateaux, the city’s first boutique hotel is a leafy oasis of contemporary design with vintage panache. Here, you enter a calming world of low-slung structures with terrazzo floors, warm linens, local art, and bespoke carpets in earthy reds and greens. At the center is a sparkling pool checkered in green marble. While the restaurant and bar draw locals in, the hotel offers itself as the perfect springboard to this fascinating, underexplored coast.
La Maison Palmier leafy oasis of Les Deux Plateaux in Abidjan
Lisbon, Portugal
Scheduled to open at the end of 2022 in Belém-Alcântara, one of Lisbon’s most acclaimed cultural areas alongside the Tagus River front, The Curator is part of an innovative project that integrates a new modern and contemporary museum, a hotel, and a deconsecrated chapel with a cultural program dedicated to the performing arts and literature.
A desecrated chapel joins The Curator as a new culture destination
Located in the old Palácio dos Condes da Ribeira Grande (Counts of Ribeira Grande’s Palace) from the beginning of the 18th century, the MACAM (Museum of Contemporary Art Armando Martins) complex will feature a modern extension to the north rear designed by local architectural practice Metrourbe, a restaurant, cafeteria, and shop, as well as a garden and a small auditorium that will present a diverse array of cultural activities beyond the visual arts.
Lisbon, Portugal
A world collaboratively conceived by artists, designers, chefs, and wellness experts looking to shape the unexpected and the intemporal into a singular Lisbon property, Hotel Hotel is a 40-room inclusive wonder. The reborn historical structure presents the hotel as a plural space—a place that creates and nurtures community through immersive dinners, meditation workshops, live music, the occasional artist residency, and digital nomads buzzing about the garden and pool. Hotel Hotel’s noble goal is to produce connections, surprises, and unrepeatable experiences.
Handmade tiles protrude from the façade at Hotel Hotel in Lisbon
Berlin, Germany
It’s been a while since we’ve had a new hotel opening in our home base of Berlin and we have to say that Wilmina in Charlottenburg has definitely been worth the wait. Set in a calm inner courtyard on the bustling Kanstrasse, the hotel is housed in a former courthouse and women’s prison. A historic aura pervades the listed structure from 1896, which was renovated by the internationally renowned Grüntuch Ernest Architects in sensitive dialogue with the existing spaces, materials, and traces of former uses. A highlight at Wilmina—when it opens its doors in the first half of 2022—will be the green-terraced restaurant helmed by Sophia Rudolph whose stint at the city’s Panama Restaurant has made her a firm favorite on the culinary circuit.
Bacalar, Mexico
Touted as the next Tulum minus the crowds, Bacalar on Mexico’s east coast is setting an example for sustainable tourism going forward. A region of tangled mangroves, dense jungle, and lagoons that change from dark blue to lavender, the destination is actively protecting its fragile ecosystem with a low-impact development policy for hotels, tourist education, and encouraging others to follow environmental best practices.
Slated to open in the second half of 2022, Boca de Agua is a new conscious form of hospitality—a poetic habitat immersed in the natural wonder that is the Bacalar Lagoon—consisting of 22 casitas immersed in unspoiled lush Yucatán jungle within an 82-acre natural reserve and reforestation site. Boca de Agua is a lagoon-front destination where life, work, wellness, and recreation coexist in effortless synergy. This hidden oasis by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo is founded on a culture of conscious and livable spaces designed to maximize well-being, privacy, and inspiration through reconnection with nature.
Boca de Agua’s poetic habitat is ensconced by Bacalar Lagoon
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