The last two years brought a striking crop of new hotel openings: not the usual expansion of familiar chains, but restoration projects, ultra-remote silent hotels, adult-only retreats where you actually hear yourself think, and buildings where architecture and place come first.
The ten new hotels below are the ones we’ve been watching most closely. A former U.S. Embassy in London brought back to life by David Chipperfield. A castle in the Dolomites that has been a stronghold, a Benedictine convent, and now a hotel — running under nearly a thousand years of continuous story.
A settlement of restored shepherds’ houses in the Corsican maquis. Norway’s most remote island retreat, sixty kilometers off the mainland in the Træna archipelago. Mongolia’s first international-standard ultra-luxury property, with a new spa built in partnership with Switzerland’s Clinique Nescens. Between them, they range from tropical Bangkok to the Kenyan highlands to the Azores’ UNESCO volcanic vineyards.
Every hotel below has been verified against its own official site. Each entry includes the full street address, opening date, architect, room count, and the specific angle we think matters — whether that’s an adult-friendly silent retreat, a proper eco-property, or a genuine new spa worth the flight.
For more of our travel guides see travel insights, best boutique hotels in Mallorca, and travel apps we actually use.
TOP New Hotels
1. Ytri — Træna Archipelago, Norway
Opened spring 2026 · Vardehaugen Architects · Norway’s most remote island retreat
Address: Ytri Island Retreat, Fløholmen 8, 8770 Træna, Norway Book: ytri.no
If a silent hotel is what you’re after, this is probably the extreme version. Ytri sits sixty kilometers off the Norwegian coast, on an archipelago you reach by ferry — 477 islands scattered in the Norwegian Sea, human history on them going back over nine thousand years. The hotel’s own line for itself is “Norway’s most remote island retreat,” which the ferry crossing makes hard to argue with.
The project was proposed in 2016 by residents of Træna who wanted a place where guests could experience island life year-round. It opened in spring 2026 after a decade in development. Vardehaugen Architects designed the buildings; the reference is the fishing village — timber houses, exposed piers, structures shaped by Arctic storms. Interiors are by Bonaparte Interiør: a pale palette, natural materials, the kind of restrained Scandinavian design that photographs badly and lives well.
Alma, the on-site restaurant, offers a four-course dinner or a twelve-course Chef’s Table drawing on the archipelago’s fishermen and small producers. Packages are unusually specific: a Girls’ Getaway and a Guys’ Adventure that pair sauna and hot-tub rituals with fishing and diving; a Guest Artist Weekend with Kari Bremnes; a Relax & Recharge menu for solo travelers who want quiet days without an itinerary. The hotel belongs to New Nordic Luxury, Relais & Châteaux, and De Historiske — three affiliations that keep the standard honest.
Best fit for: silent-hotel seekers, groups of friends who want a proper reset, solo travelers who don’t mind the ferry.
2. 1 Hotel Copenhagen — Denmark
Opened September 2025 · Norm Architects · a Skt. Petri restoration · MICHELIN One Key
Address: Krystalgade 22, 1172 Copenhagen, Denmark Book: 1hotels.com/copenhagen
Copenhagen has spent years quietly proving that design doesn’t need to shout. 1 Hotel Copenhagen — which opened on Krystalgade in the Latin Quarter in September 2025 — extends the argument. Named among Travel + Leisure‘s 100 Best New Hotels of the Year and awarded a MICHELIN One Key, it’s a comprehensive restoration of the well-known Skt. Petri Hotel rather than new construction, with the original building preserved and rebuilt around the 1 Hotels group’s sustainable design brief.
If you care about eco credentials, this is the property to consider on the list. Interiors are by Norm Architects: reclaimed wood, natural stone, linen, local craftsmanship. Filtered-water stations in every room to discourage plastic bottles. LED lighting throughout, intelligent temperature controls, salvaged furniture and locally sourced materials wherever possible.
The 1 Less Thing program lets guests leave clothing behind for a local charity partner. Plants aren’t decorative — they’re structural, threaded through the atrium and shared spaces so completely that the lobby reads more like a garden than a hotel lobby.
The restaurant is PÆRE Dining Room, with the PÆRE Bar next door — both working with seasonal Danish suppliers on modern Nordic cuisine. The new spa, Bamford Wellness Spa, is scheduled to open in 2027; it will run holistic treatments based on natural restorative ingredients. The hotel is pet friendly and the rooms range from Alcove Queen up to the multi-level Terrace Houses in the Retreat Collection.
Best fit for: eco-conscious travelers, design-first stays, solo travelers who want a serene city base.
3. A Mandria di Murtoli — Corsica, France
Opened summer 2025 · Small Luxury Hotels of the World · 10 rooms in restored shepherds’ houses
Address: Vallée de l’Ortolo, 20100 Sartène, Corsica, France Book: amandriadimurtoli.com
Corsica has always drawn people who like their landscapes with fewer people in them. A Mandria di Murtoli — the newest project from the Domaine de Murtoli estate — is the extreme version of that instinct. Rather than a hotel proper, what has been built in the Ortolo Valley is closer to a small Mediterranean village: meticulously restored former sheepfolds, stone shepherds’ houses, and a main building, surrounded by olive groves, citrus trees, and the aromatic Corsican maquis. It opened in the summer of 2025 and is part of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World collection.
The scale is deliberately intimate: just five stone houses (three with private pools) plus five rooms in the main building, ten accommodations total. Bookings can be taken partially or as the whole estate, which makes it a natural fit for adult-only reunions and small weddings. Thick stone walls and wooden beams are original; modern amenities are inserted quietly, without arguing with the material.
There’s a large main pool, a bar, a concierge, and access to all the wider Domaine de Murtoli assets — pristine beaches, marked hikes through the hills, archaeological sites, horseback riding, and direct access to the Erbaju beach.
The restaurant seats just thirty. The kitchen is Italian, cooked over a wood-fire pit, with produce from the wider Murtoli estate — homemade pasta, fresh vegetables, olive oil from the estate’s own groves, herbs from the maquis. Mornings arrive as cicadas, wind through olive branches, the distant bells of grazing sheep.
Best fit for: adult-only stays, groups of friends renting the whole property, silent-hotel seekers, couples on a slow-travel week.
4. Aman Nai Lert Bangkok — Thailand
Opened April 2, 2025 · Jean-Michel Gathy / Denniston · 52 suites in a century-old private park · 1,500 sqm new spa
Address: 2 Wireless Road, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand Book: aman.com/hotels/aman-nai-lert-bangkok
Bangkok is not a city associated with quiet, which makes Aman Nai Lert Bangkok an unusual proposition. The hotel opened on April 2, 2025, inside Nai Lert Park — a private park more than a hundred years old, still owned by one of Thailand’s most established families. The site alone is the story: you’re in the middle of central Bangkok, off Wireless Road, and the loudest sound most mornings is birdsong.
The building is by Jean-Michel Gathy and his firm Denniston — the architects behind many of Aman’s most recognized properties worldwide. The reference here is the Nai Lert family’s own heritage and traditional Thai architecture, delivered with the Aman brand’s discipline: subtle, timeless, restrained. Natural stone, wood, works by contemporary Thai artists.
The building has 36 floors but doesn’t read as monumental. Inside the atrium, a bronze sculpture of a chamchuri tree stands in for the century-old canopies growing in the park outside.
Just 52 suites, among the largest in Bangkok — closer to serviced residences than hotel rooms. But the new spa is what deserves the most attention: a 1,500 square meter Aman wellness center with a pool overlooking the park, treatment rooms, fitness studios, meditation areas, and longer-stay wellness programs.
If you’re specifically hunting new spa openings in Asia for 2025-2026, this is the one to book. The restaurants cover modern Italian and a refined Japanese omakase, both delivered with the Aman service standard.
Best fit for: new-spa hunters, solo travelers who want a quiet Bangkok base, silent hotel in the heart of a metropolis.
View photos from inside the Aman Nai Lert when LocalsInsider.com was there.
5. &Beyond Suyian Lodge — Laikipia, Kenya
Opened July 2025 · Nicholas Plewman Architects · Michaelis Boyd interiors · 14 suites on a 44,000-acre private conservancy
Address: Suyian Conservancy, Laikipia County, Kenya Book: andbeyond.com/lodge-editorial/suyian-lodge
If you want a genuine eco safari with real conservation credentials, Suyian Lodge is our current top pick from the 2025 African openings. It sits on the Laikipia Plateau in northern Kenya — granite hills, savanna, open horizons — inside the private Suyian Conservancy, which spans more than 44,000 acres of wilderness. It’s the only lodge across that entire area. No convoys of vehicles queueing for a lion sighting; just the reserve, and 14 suites cut carefully into the escarpment.
The lodge opened in July 2025. Nicholas Plewman Architects handled the buildings; London studio Michaelis Boyd designed the interiors. Buildings grow out of the granite outcrops rather than land on them — soft, organic lines, stone facades, green roofs. The aesthetic — Afro Wabi-Sabi is the studio’s own term — draws on Samburu craftsmanship: stone, wood, clay, earth-toned fabrics.
Each suite comes with panoramic windows, a private terrace, and a small infinity pool facing the savanna, the Ewaso Narok River, and Mount Kenya on the horizon. The real subject of the lodge is the wildlife: the reserve is a sanctuary for endangered species including the Grevy’s zebra, the reticulated giraffe, and the African wild dog (the animal the lodge takes its name from).
It’s also one of the few places in Kenya with a genuine chance of spotting the rare black leopard. Beyond classic game drives, you can hike with local guides, ride the reserve on horseback, join night drives, visit Samburu communities, or view the landscape from a helicopter.
Best fit for: eco travelers, safari-first stays, solo travelers who want a small-camp experience.
6. Castel Badia — Dolomites, Italy
Reopened late 2025 · Null17 architecture · Droulers Architecture interiors · 29 rooms in an 11th-century Benedictine convent · new spa in the former monastic quarters
Address: Frazione Castelbadia 38, 39030 San Lorenzo di Sebato (BZ), Italy Book: castelbadia.com
There are hotels that impress with their decor and hotels whose real asset is their history. Castel Badia is firmly the second kind, and one of the best new hotels of 2025-2026 for anyone who values buildings with a proper past. Perched on a hill above the Val Pusteria valley, with the UNESCO-listed Dolomites visible from every angle, it’s been part of South Tyrol for nearly a thousand years.
Around the year 1000, Count Otwin von Lurngau built a stronghold on the site; his son turned it into one of the first Benedictine convents in historic Tyrol. Guests today can still walk the Romanesque crypt, fragments of medieval frescoes, and stone cloisters.
The castle spent much of the 20th century in slow decline before its most recent restoration — completed at the end of 2025 — brought it back. It’s a member of Leading Hotels of the World, appears on Virtuoso, and landed on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2026 Hot List. Null17 handled the architecture, keeping the historic character intact; Droulers Architecture designed the interiors, working larch wood, natural stone, linen, and velvet against medieval walls that were left visibly, unapologetically old.
Each of the 29 rooms and suites is different because the castle’s original layout demanded it. Vaulted ceilings survive in some; exposed stone or fragments of historic fresco in others. The new spa occupies what were once the monastic quarters — treatment rooms, saunas, pools with mountain views, wellness rituals inspired by the medieval herbal knowledge of the Benedictine nuns who lived on the site (a reconstructed medicinal garden supplies the plants).
The restaurant is led by chef Alberto Toè, whose menu is a considered modern reading of South Tyrolean cooking.
Best fit for: new-spa seekers, adult-only historic stays, couples on a slow Alpine week.
7. Cristine Bedfor Sevilla — Andalusia, Spain
Opened autumn 2025 · Lorenzo Castillo interiors · 19th-century Aníbal González building · 4-star boutique
Address: Calle Amor de Dios 29, Casco Antiguo, 41002 Sevilla, Spain Book: cristinebedforhotel.com/en/seville
Seville rewards walking without a plan. Cristine Bedfor Sevilla — hidden behind one of the Old Town’s monumental doors on Calle Amor de Dios — opened in autumn 2025 after a three-year restoration of an extraordinary 19th-century Neo-Mudéjar building designed by Aníbal González, the architect responsible for Seville’s regionalist style and the Plaza de España.
Before it was declared officially in ruin, the building lived as a theater (the Lope de Rueda), a cinema, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and briefly a flamenco academy. It sat closed for more than two decades.
The heart of the hotel is a spectacular Neo-Mudéjar courtyard with arcades, ceramic detail, and galleries running around a patio. Interior design is by Lorenzo Castillo, working with hotel owner Cristina Lozano. Instead of the predictable Andalusian folklore, they reached for 16th- and 17th-century Seville — Europe’s wealthiest port at the time, where Spanish, American, and Oriental influences converged. Handcrafted ceramic tiles, marble, terracotta, natural wood, rich textiles, furniture recalling Seville’s palace interiors. The whole space reads like a private residence.
No two of the suites are alike. Some lean into deep reds and ochres; others sit in lighter, quieter tones. Two of them come with their own private plunge pools. Above, a rooftop pool with sun-dappled terrace, tasseled parasols, and views over the city rooftops; below, a leafy courtyard patio bar.
The restaurant, La Cocina de Cristine, is led by chef Pau Sintes (winner of the European Young Chef Award 2022) working seasonal Andalusian and Menorcan produce on the mezzanine level of the former theater. Solo travelers get particular attention here — the whole property is designed around a fictional English hostess (the invention of owner Cristina Lozano), so the tone is warm and residential, not corporate.
Best fit for: solo travelers, adult-only city breaks, boutique-hotel enthusiasts with a taste for restoration projects.
8. The Chancery Rosewood — London, United Kingdom
Opened September 1, 2025 · David Chipperfield Architects · Joseph Dirand interiors · 144 all-suite property inside the former US Embassy · new Asaya Spa
Address: Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London W1K, United Kingdom Book: rosewoodhotels.com/en/the-chancery-rosewood
The Chancery Rosewood opened on September 1, 2025, after an eight-year, reportedly £1 billion transformation of the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square — the mid-century modernist building completed in 1960 by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, crowned with an 11-meter gilded eagle sculpture by Theodore Roszak made from the aluminum of B-52 bombers.
Sir David Chipperfield led the restoration of the Grade II-listed building; developer Qatari Diar Europe LLP kicked in the capital. French architect Joseph Dirand designed the interiors — walnut, brass, rare green Indian marble, warm palette with gold tones that echo the building’s stone façade.
The property is entirely suite-based: 144 total, breaking down into 100 Junior Suites (from 570 square feet) and 44 larger Suites and Houses (up to 4,337 square feet in the Charles House and Elizabeth House penthouses on the seventh floor). Panoramic windows in every one; natural light throughout.
Eight restaurants and bars in total. The dining program is the reason many people are booking. Carbone London opened on September 17, 2025, as the New York institution’s first European outpost. Tobi Masa — the first European restaurant from two Michelin-starred chef Masa Takayama — opens later in 2025. Serra runs a Mediterranean menu across breakfast, lunch, and dinner overlooking Grosvenor Square. Jacqueline reimagines afternoon tea with a curated collection of over 100 teas from around the world. The Eagle Bar sits on the rooftop with terrace views over Mayfair and Hyde Park.
The new Asaya Spa is worth the flight on its own for London locals hunting new spa openings — a subterranean facility with a 25-meter indoor pool (a rarity for central London), five treatment rooms, fitness center, and a ballroom with capacity for 750 guests for events. For more London coverage see our best UK online casinos guide — different vertical, but the same city guide network.
Best fit for: new-spa seekers, adult-only London stays, design-first travelers, solo travelers who want an all-suite property with proper privacy.
9. Ayan Zalaat — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Opened January 2026 · Mabetex Group architecture · Fabio Frisco interiors · 32 rooms on a 14-hectare private estate · Leading Hotels of the World
Address: Dunjingarav Street 1, Bayanzurkh District, 01326 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Book: ayanhotelsmongolia.com
Ayan Zalaat opened on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar in January 2026 as the flagship of Mongolyn Alt (MAK) LLC’s new Ayan Hotels & Resorts group, and it makes a serious case for being Mongolia’s first internationally credible ultra-luxury property. The 14-hectare site is located in the Zalaat Valley, just six kilometers from the capital and on the edge of the Bogd Khan Mountain National Park. The park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that has been protected since 1783, making it one of the earliest known examples of environmental protection.
The architecture is by the Swiss firm Mabetex Group; interiors by Italian architect Fabio Frisco. The intent throughout is tribute to Mongolian culture through modern interpretation rather than literal replication. Hand-woven Erdenet wool carpets, decorations inspired by nomadic tradition, works by contemporary Mongolian artists. Italian marble bathrooms with deep soaking tubs. Rooms start at $850 per night and go up to the two-bedroom Amala Presidential Suite.
The property runs to ten restaurants and lounges — Roma Ristorante for Italian and Mediterranean, 8 Ounce Steakhouse & Grill for premium cuts, Lost in China for regional Chinese, The Nipponian Room for sushi and teppanyaki, plus a cigar lounge, a sommelier-led wine cellar, a rooftop terrace, an artisanal pâtisserie, the Ayan Lounge and the Lobby Lounge.
Two of the more distinctive additions are the Ayan Theater (programming traditional khöömei throat singing and UNESCO-recognized Biyelgee folk dance as cultural transmission, not tourist performance) and the Soma Temple, a contemplation space with a resident Buddhist monk you can meet with. The new spa — Ayan Spa — was designed in collaboration with Switzerland’s Clinique Nescens and leans into the longevity trend, with preventative wellness programs alongside the usual sauna, chronotherapy shower, and salt room.
Amenities you don’t expect in Mongolia: two-lane bowling alley, snooker room, private cinema. The Leading Hotels of the World membership was in place at opening. Coming next: 21 residential villas, additional hotel accommodations, a helicopter service, and glamping options within the estate.
Best fit for: adventurous eco-luxury travelers, new-spa seekers, solo travelers looking for a genuinely off-the-beaten-path Asia trip.
10. Pico Vineyards — Pico Island, Azores, Portugal
Opened 2025 · SAMI-Arquitectos + DRDH Architects · RIBA International Award · 11 rooms in a UNESCO vineyard landscape
Address: Pico Vineyards, Pico Island, Azores 9950, Portugal Book: picovineyards.pt/en/home
Some places win you over slowly. Pico Vineyards, on the Azores island of Pico, is one of them — a boutique hotel with just eleven rooms sitting inside a UNESCO-listed volcanic vineyard landscape, with Mount Pico (Portugal’s highest peak) rising above the vines. It opened in 2025.
The architecture was designed jointly by SAMI-Arquitectos and DRDH Architects, and the sensitivity to setting is unusual. The buildings are constructed of black basalt and seem to grow out of hardened lava. Their simple forms don’t compete with the view of the Atlantic or of Mount Pico. The project won the RIBA International Award for Excellence — recognition for exactly that skill of combining modern design with an extraordinary landscape. It’s a genuine eco property, working within one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive vineyard regions.
Interiors follow the same discipline. Stone, wood, natural fabrics; large glass panels that let the light do the decorating. The vines, the ocean, and the volcanic ridges do the rest. Each of the eleven rooms is designed as an extension of the setting — tranquility, privacy, panoramic views. Some suites have private pools facing Mount Pico; nights close under Atlantic skies with unusually clear stars.
Wine is the through-line. Guests can join tastings from the Azores Wine Company, visit the modern winery, and learn about a viticulture tradition practiced for more than five centuries on basalt terraces — vines that age in the harsh oceanic climate produce wines that don’t taste quite like anything else. The property also runs a small new spa, an indoor pool cut into the basalt rock, and an atmospheric wine bar. It’s a good base for the wider island — hikes up Mount Pico, whale watching, lava caves, and the small port towns along the coast.
Best fit for: eco travelers, silent hotel seekers, adult-only wine weekends, solo travelers with a taste for volcanic geology.
What connects these ten new hotels
Looking at the list together, a few threads come through. Adaptive reuse is doing quiet, important work — the Skt. Petri restoration in Copenhagen, an 11th-century Benedictine convent in the Dolomites, a Saarinen embassy in London, an Aníbal González building in Seville, sheepfolds in Corsica. Architects are the marquee name on almost every project: Chipperfield, Norm Architects, Jean-Michel Gathy, Vardehaugen, Nicholas Plewman, SAMI-Arquitectos.
New spa openings are another through-line: the new Asaya Spa at Chancery Rosewood in London, the 1,500 sqm Aman wellness at Nai Lert Bangkok, the Ayan Spa with Clinique Nescens in Ulaanbaatar, the herbal-garden-driven wellness in the former monastic quarters at Castel Badia, and the Bamford Wellness Spa arriving at 1 Hotel Copenhagen in 2027. And several of these hotels are the eco properties worth taking seriously — the sustainable design at 1 Hotel Copenhagen, the conservation model at Suyian, the basalt-first architecture at Pico Vineyards, the Bogd Khan Biosphere positioning at Ayan Zalaat.
Location is the other consistent thread. Most of these hotels are somewhere specific, and several are somewhere hard to reach. Ytri and Suyian are working the case that remoteness is itself the amenity — the silent hotel model taken seriously. A Mandria di Murtoli and Cristine Bedfor Sevilla make it easy for solo travelers and adult-only groups to book the whole place or take a floor and disappear. None of them is trying to be everything to everyone. That, more than any single design detail, is what makes them worth watching.
More to explore on Locals Insider if you love wellness retreats, beautiful hotels.
