Australian travel magazine International Traveller has published a list of the 100 Best Hotels and Resorts in the World.
In an Australian first, the title ranked hotels and resorts from across the globe based on the scoring of a global expert panel.
“While most ‘best of’ lists are voted for by readers, we felt that an expert panel would provide a valid judgement of the best. And the results show it,” says publisher Quentin Long.
The top hotel in the world according to the list is French Riviera jewel Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The 118- room hotel has been a celebrity hang-out through the ages hosting such luminaries as Winston Churchill, JFK, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso and Audrey Hepburn.
Second on the list is Red Bull baron Dietrich Mateschitz’s private Fijian retreat Laucala. Guests of the idyllic private island pay a sum fit for a baron too; rooms start at US$5000 a night.
A lodge in Tanzania with just nine cottages was third on the list.
Singita Sasakawa in the Grumeti Reserves, next to the Serengeti National Park, is in the path of the Great Migration and offers guests colonial-like grandeur and regular “big five” safari experiences.
The magazine claims the list is the hotel and resort equivalent of the famous 50 best restaurants list published by a UK industry magazine. “The beauty of having a panel of travel writers is they collectively have more than 230 years experience and have seen and stayed at the best the world has to offer. Like the 50 Best Restaurants reviewers, these are the only people in the world with the qualifications to decipher the good from the great from the best,” Long says.
Some of the experts involved include local luminaries like former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements and global writers like former Condé Nast Traveller managing editor Claire Wrathall.
The list was supported by Hotels.com, a leading provider of hotel accommodation worldwide. Katherine Cole, regional marketing director said: “We’re proud to be associated with one of Australia’s leading travel magazines. International Traveller’s 100 Best Hotels and Resorts in the World showcases some of the world’s most unique and luxurious resorts and provides travellers endless inspiration.”
The 100 Best Hotels & Resorts in the World app for iPad is available for download from the App Store.