The Newest Edition of The Hotel Guide: Travel Worth Remembering

There are more beautiful hotels in the world than ever before.

That isn’t the challenge.

The harder question is: Which ones actually stay with you?

That question kept coming back to me while putting together the newest edition of The Hotel Guide.

For more than three decades, we’ve covered hotels, destinations and experiences around the world. The industry has changed enormously during that time. Travelers have changed with it.

The traditional markers of luxury still matter. Great design matters. Service matters. Food matters. The room certainly matters.

But something else is becoming increasingly important.

How does the experience make you feel?

That idea runs throughout Volume 33, Issue 5 of The Hotel Guide.

Where Curiosity Becomes the Luxury

Our cover story takes us deep into Costa Rica beneath the Arenal Volcano to The Vessyl.

Trying to label The Vessyl is part of the problem.

Calling it a wellness resort feels too narrow. Eco-retreat doesn’t quite capture it either. Spread across 118 acres of rainforest and intentionally limited to a small number of guests, it brings together nature, adventure, emerging technology, ancient practices and human connection while giving people the freedom to determine what the experience means for themselves.

That’s what stayed with me.

There isn’t one prescribed version of the experience.

You can explore. You can go deeper. Or you can simply eat well, sleep deeply and enjoy being in Costa Rica.

Sometimes luxury is having that choice.

A Different Kind of Wellness

That philosophy carries into our feature on The Retreat Costa Rica.

Perched on a crystal-quartz mountain above the rainforest, The Retreat offers the spa, movement, food and wellness experiences guests might expect—but the property doesn’t make wellness feel like another assignment.

During my stay, what stood out wasn’t how much there was to do.

It was the permission to do less.

That distinction matters.

Wellness shouldn’t become another schedule we’re trying to complete.

Around the World

From there, this edition travels widely.

We head to Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps, where the intimate Guarda Golf Hotel & Residences demonstrates how personal hospitality can feel when scale works in the guest’s favor.

We explore HOSHINOYA Bali, where the transition into a new year becomes quieter and more rooted in Balinese tradition. We look toward Niseko, Japan, Vienna, Turks & Caicos and other destinations offering very different interpretations of the holiday season.

We also step outside traditional hospitality with Terminal One Motor + Yacht Club, where ownership, hospitality and community intersect in a new kind of lifestyle destination on Seattle’s waterfront.

And throughout the edition you’ll find culinary experiences, wellness, cruising, golf and ideas shaping where travel is heading next.

The Bigger Story

There are a lot of destinations in this edition.

But that’s not really what this issue is about.

It’s about experiences.

The places that slow us down.

The meals we still remember.

The conversations that happen because we finally have time for them.

The hotel that somehow changes the rhythm of a trip.

The destination that makes us wonder whether we could stay a little longer.

Travel has always been about movement.

The best travel gives us something more.

It changes our perspective.

And sometimes, it changes us.

Welcome to the newest edition of The Hotel Guide.

Explore Volume 33, Issue 5 at www.TheHotelGuide.com.