Fancy spending the night in an old London police cell or chilling out in a floating cabin in Swedish Lapland?
Here we pick the hottest hotel openings for 2020 from around the globe, including the best for art-lovers, safari fans, budgeteers and more.
Scroll down for the full list…
LONDON
NoMad
The NoMad opens in the summer just off London’s Drury Lane and the old cells have been turned into bedrooms
Sleeping might not have come easy in this building’s former life. Just off Drury Lane, this was once the famous Bow Street Magistrates’ Court and police station, where the Pankhursts and Oscar Wilde felt the force of the law. The NoMad opens in the summer and the old cells have been turned into bedrooms. The restaurants and bars will be under the direction of Michelin-starred Daniel Humm. Room rates to be confirmed, thenomadhotel.com/london.
Zedwell
When the Zedwell opens in Piccadilly on February 1, the staff want you to sleep as soundly as you might in the middle of the countryside. All 700 rooms will have state-of-the-art soundproofing, filtered air and fuss-free decor. Other aids to restfulness include a yoga studio and chillout lounge, while a separate lift takes revellers to a rooftop restaurant and bar. Doubles from £69 a night, zedwellhotels.com.
ENGLAND
The Harper
Swish: Expect four-poster beds, yoga classes, a spa and swimming pool at The Harper (pictured)
North Norfolk will get an injection of cool in the spring when this 32-room hotel opens in a former glass factory in the village of Langham.
Expect four-poster beds, yoga classes, a spa and swimming pool. There’s also room for two restaurants, Stanley and Ivy. Rooms from £175 a night, including breakfast. Visit theharper.co.uk.
Fairmont Windsor Park
In a Georgian building near Windsor Great Park, a sister hotel to The Savoy opens in the summer and will also be a great venue for wedding receptions. Ballroom? Absolutely. Invite 700 guests who can spill out into the landscaped gardens. Meanwhile, a champagne bar, gin bar and tea lounge reinforce the opulent Savoy heritage. Guests checking in to one of the 200 rooms and suites will have access to their own parkland. The spa and wellness area will be spread over 2,500 square metres and feature indoor and outdoor swimming pools, plus a hammam and a Japanese-style foot spa. Doubles from £495 a night, fairmont.com.
Bike & Boot, Scarborough
Hikers rejoice. The first of a new British-owned chain of hotels will put out the welcome mat for walkers and cyclists when it opens in May. There will secure storage for bikes, a drying room and a dog-grooming station, plus all-day restaurant and lounge with complimentary teas, coffee and cakes for human refuelling, plus secure parking for vintage cars and motorbikes. Doubles from £75 a night, bikeandboot.com.
SCOTLAND
100 Princes Street, Edinburgh
A Scottish sibling to London’s wildly popular Hotel 41 will open in the autumn. It’s very much a treat-based hotel. Check in and the complimentary food won’t stop coming, whether it’s cream teas, canapes or a champagne trolley when you arrive.
Expect lush, fun rooms – just 30 of them – and guests will also get a lounge with splendid views of Edinburgh Castle. Room rates to be confirmed, redcarnationhotels.com.
WALES
Plas Weunydd
This hotel close to Snowdon is set to open in May. Outside, it’s all very active, with zip wires and caverns to explore, as well as the Antur Stiniog Mountain bike tracks. After a hard day adventuring on site or walking in the hills, relax in one of 24 rooms with warm woollen throws, or head to the cosy restaurant and bar. Doubles from £100 a night, plasweunydd.co.uk.
EUROPE
Iniala, Malta
The history of the Unesco-protected city of Valletta means it’s hard for new hotels to open, but in the spring a row of four townhouses overlooking the Grand Harbour will welcome the first guests. There will be bold suites with plunge pools, plus a rooftop bar, restaurant, indoor pool and gym. Doubles with breakfast from £301 a night, iniala.com/malta.
Le Grand Controle, Paris
Fit for a Queen: Le Grand Controle at Versailles will have a restaurant from Michelin-magnet Alain Ducasse and a spa
The hotel will favour an 18th-century style, with architect and interior designer Christophe Tollemer in charge of its design. Pictured are renderings of the interior
Anyone who ever wanted to be Marie Antoinette should form an orderly queue to stay in this 14-room hotel due to open in her palace of Versailles in the spring.
There will be a restaurant from Alain Ducasse and spa. Doubles with breakfast from £1,107 a night, airelles.com.
Can Ferrereta, Majorca
The art-gallery town of Santanyi will see a 32-room hotel open in a 17th Century building this spring. It’s very Balearic, with private terraces, gardens leading to bars and restaurants, a large pool and a hammam. A 40-minute drive from the capital Palma, the hotel is next to the Mondrago Natural Park and has easy access to beautiful beaches. Doubles with breakfast from £270 a night, hotelcanferrereta.com.
Arctic Bath, Sweden
Quirky: Pictured is one of the floating cabins at Sweden’s Arctic Bath
Next year’s most conceptual hotel opening happens next to the Lule River in Swedish Lapland. The floating hotel has six private cabins, a spa, saunas, shop, bar and a restaurant with access from the shore via footbridges.
There are also a handful of cabins on terra firma. Doubles with breakfast from £777 a night, arcticbath.se.
Hotel Panzano, Italy
With just five rooms, the Hotel Panzano in the middle of the Chianti vineyards of Tuscany is set to be very special
With just five rooms, this hotel is set to be very special. In the middle of the Chianti vineyards of Tuscany, it’s filled with antiques, while outside you’ll find olive groves, swimming pools and magnificent views. Seven-night stays with breakfast from £326pp, available only through Simpson Travel, simpsontravel.com.
USA
Aman New York
Leading lights: The Aman Group’s first hotel in New York
The Aman group, which has some of the most beautiful hotels in the world, heads to the Big Apple for the first time in 2020. The hotel, just off 57th and 5th Avenue and a stone’s-throw from Central Park, will be serene and architecturally amazing – but you probably won’t get much change out of £1,000 a night. Room rates to be confirmed, aman.com.
Quirk, Charlottesville
The American South is increasingly hip, and the contemporary art-focused Quirk will be hitting the zeitgeist when it opens in February in Charlottesville, Virginia. Expect to find a whisky bar that concentrates on local distilleries. Doubles from £226 a night, retrohospitality.com.
Four Seasons Napa Valley
Connoisseurs will find much to love when the Four Seasons opens in the heart of California’s wine country. The 85 rooms have earthy tones and all come with fireplaces and private terraces. Venture into the five-acre vineyard and you’ll find cabins offering spa treatments by day and candlelit private dining at night. Doubles from £405 a night, fourseasons.com/napavalley.
THE REST OF THE WORLD
Hotel Kimpton, Tokyo
Opening in April before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics, this hotel is close to the famous Shibuya pedestrian crossing and surrounding youth culture. Mixing contemporary art and Japanese artisan tradition, the Kimpton Shinjuku will have three restaurants, ranging from The Jones, a casual cafe, and Eighty Six, a rooftop bar open only to VIPs. Room rates to be confirmed, ihg.com.
Six Senses Shaharut, Israel
One of the private pools at Six Senses at Shaharut. The hotel will also have its own camel stables
Possibly the only hotel opening next year that will have its own camel stables. Six Senses will bring all its wellbeing knowledge to the fore when it launches in April, with an Alchemy Bar that allows guests to use local herbs and fruits to create their own lotions and potions. Doubles with breakfast from £772 a night, sixsenses.com.
One&Only Gorilla’s Nest, Rwanda
Home to some of the world’s rarest primates, Rwanda also has some of the most luxurious lodges in Africa in the foothills of the Virunga Volcano range. The 14 rooms and seven suites have floor-to-ceiling windows and African-influenced modern decor. Room rates to be confirmed, oneandonlyresorts.com.
Xigera, Botswana
The most exciting safari camp launch of 2020 mixes animals and art. When it opens in June, Xigera will have 12 suites, all decorated by contemporary South African artists. As well as traditional game drives to see the Big Five, guests can explore the Okavango Delta by canoe, glass-bottom boat or speedboat. Full-board doubles and activities from £2,048pp a night, xigera.com.
Rosewood Little Dix Bay, British Virgin Islands
In 2017, Hurricane Irma may have wreaked havoc on the BVIs but Little Dix Bay will rise like a phoenix next month. In the 1960s, this resort was started as a philanthropic exercise. For the 21st Century it’s been built from the ground up again, with 80 rooms and suites set amid a pristine beaches and 500 acres of gardens. Guests arrive from Tortola by catamaran. Doubles with breakfast from £1,280 a night, rosewoodhotels.com.
… and six stylish trends that your hosts will offer next year, from booking a date with Delia to the butlers in camo gear!
Libraries
All of the coolest new hotels have shelves of books to leaf through, including The Heathman (heathmanhotel.com) in Portland and The Wayfarer (wayfarerdtla.com) in Los Angeles. And this trend is at its most fun at the hip Standard Hotel in London’s Kings Cross. Thousands of books from the 1970s and 1980s have been sourced to fill the shelves of the Library Lounge, allowing you to curl up with a cocktail while thumbing through Delia Smith’s One Is Fun (you’ll find it in the Romance section), standardhotels.com/london.
Philanthropy
The great outdoors: Unwinding at Cambodia’s Shinta Mani Wild
The first hotels in the Western world were run in the Middle Ages by nuns and monks. Today Bill Bensley, who has designed some of the most famous hotels in Asia, is just as charitable. His Shinta Mani Wild hotel in Cambodia exists to protect endangered animals from poachers. Guests get a good deal too – there’s a lot of fun to be had from the zip line that you arrive by to the 15 extravagant tents, staffed by camo-wearing butlers (Ed Sheeran liked his butler so much when he stayed that he hired him for his latest tour), bensleycollection.com/shintamani-wild.
Back to the 1950s
A collection of eyesore buildings are being turned into trendy hotels. The Dewberry in Charleston, South Carolina, was once a government admin building. Now it’s been spruced up and is the trendiest hotel in the city. The UK is also getting in on the act – the former HQ of the Coventry Evening Telegraph newspaper swaps ink stains for cocktails when it becomes the very groovy Telegraph Hotel this autumn, telegraph-hotel.com.
Banning plastic
The new Club Med Miches (clubmed.com) in the Dominican Republic has banned single-use plastic. Back in London, so has the Inhabit (inhabithotels.com) group. And that’s just the start. Other hotels are cutting down on waste too – the gorgeous new Treehouse in Oxford Circus is abolishing little bottles of shampoos, treehousehotels.com.
Scent
Sniff around any posh hotel group these days and you’ll find that it has its own scent to seduce guests. Check in to the Ritz-Carlton Central Park in New York and you’ll be reminded of elderflower, mint and ripe strawberries, a scent designed to evoke the greenery outside. At Cliveden in Berkshire, top London candle-maker Rachel Vosper has designed a scent that evokes the kitchen garden, clivedenhouse.co.uk.
Posh farm stays
Forget muddy walks and the odd sheep to pet – these days farm stays come with a luxury touch. In South Africa, Babylonstoren (babylonstoren.com) has picture-perfect pasturelands, alongside a garden with 300 varieties of vegetables. In the UK, The Newt in Somerset is leading the way – the estate mixes Victorian-style hothouses to grow tropical fruit with a modish mushroom farm, thenewtinsomerset.com.