Hotel reviews
Hotels we have visited, ranked by Heart Score
Every hotel here was visited in person by one of our advisors. How we score.
Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
If I could send you to one city hotel in Asia, it would be this one. The staff are the best I know anywhere, the river setting beats every newer rival, and it costs half what a hotel like this would in London or Paris. Just don't book the smallest room.
Park Hyatt Kyoto
This is where I'd stay in Kyoto, and I wouldn't think long about it. The address on the old lanes of Higashiyama, with the Yasaka Pagoda in the window, beats every pool and spa the rivals can offer. Book a room without the view, though, and you've wasted your money.
Argos in Cappadocia
The most atmospheric hotel in Cappadocia by a distance: a whole restored village under Uchisar Castle, with the best views in the region and a wine cellar worth the trip. It is also a lottery. Get a bright valley room and you'll love it. Get a windowless cave and you'll wonder what you paid for.
Rosewood Hong Kong
The best hotel rooms in Hong Kong, with the best view, and a club lounge I'd happily move into. But I don't think it's the best hotel in the world, whatever the lists say. In a standard room the service is patchy and breakfast is a scrum. Book the club or book somewhere else.
Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris
The best service and the best eating of any hotel in Paris, and I don't think either is close. But at $3,000 a night it has become very hard to defend, and the lobby is full of people who came to be seen. I'd go once, for an occasion, and stay at Le Bristol the rest of the time.
The Peninsula Chicago
Still the hotel I'd pick in Chicago, and in winter one of the best deals in American luxury. The service is the most dependable in the city and the pool at the top of the building is a joy. The bathrooms are dated and the lifts are slow, and I don't much care.
Halekulani
The best service in Waikiki, and a sunset Mai Tai I'd fly for. It is not a beach hotel, whatever the address suggests, because the sand out front has all but gone. Come for the calm, the staff and the food, and you'll forgive it.
Claridge's
The friendliest grand hotel in London, and still the one I'd choose for a first visit or a big birthday. It has let its food slide. A hotel of this standing with no serious restaurant is a real gap, the cheapest rooms face a courtyard, and there's a building site across the road until the end of 2027.
Le Sirenuse
The staff here are the best I know in Italy, and the view is the one on every Positano postcard. You pay an absurd amount for it. The rooms are small, the pool is a squeeze, and in August I think it's poor value. In May or October I'd go back tomorrow.
Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita
The easiest family beach holiday in Mexico, with staff I'd rank above almost any resort I know. The rooms are overdue a rebuild and the prices are pure American resort, so I'd send families without hesitating and couples somewhere newer.
Four Seasons Resort Langkawi
Some of the kindest staff in Asia and a mile of private sand, at prices that are fair for a Four Seasons. But you often can't swim in the sea, the rooms are dated, and it is not the best resort on Langkawi. That's The Datai. Come here for the beach villas and the people.
Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea
The best beach and the best-run big resort in Wailea. It is also crowded, in the middle of a renovation until mid-December 2026, and no longer worth the premium over its neighbours unless you get a finished ocean-view room. Until the work is done I'd think hard about the Fairmont Kea Lani.
The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort
A spectacular villa with sharks and rays under the deck, and butlers who make a honeymoon feel like one. Paying cash, though, I think it's overpriced. The beach is ordinary, the food bills are brutal, and half the island is here on points. Book it in low season with half board or not at all.
Bulgari Hotel Roma
The best-finished rooms in Rome and a mosaic pool nothing in the city can match. I admire it more than I like it. The service is stiff, the restaurant is underpowered, the view is a building site for now, and it costs close to double its best rivals. Hotel de Russie is the one I'd book.
Four Seasons Resort and Residences Anguilla
Huge, sleek rooms on a bluff between two beautiful beaches, and that's the reason to book. The service is slow, the kitchens are slower, and the sea can be too rough to swim in for days in winter. Good for families and groups. Couples wanting calm should go to Cap Juluca.
Aman Tokyo
The most beautiful hotel room in Tokyo, and a bath with a view I still think about. That's what you're buying. The food is ordinary, the service is no better than at hotels half the price, and the rates have doubled in a few years. Two nights for the room, then move to the Four Seasons down the road.
One&Only Palmilla
The loveliest gardens and the warmest staff in Los Cabos, on one of the few beaches there you can swim from. The rooms are a decade out of date and a margarita is $30. For a family that comes back every year it makes sense. For anyone choosing fresh, the Four Seasons at Cabo Del Sol has overtaken it.
Four Seasons Resort Nevis
The setting is one of the best in the Caribbean: a long calm beach, a volcano behind it and monkeys on the golf course. The hotel hasn't kept up with it. The rooms are tired, meals are slow and drinks are $30, so go for the island and the staff, in summer, when the rates are kind.
Four Seasons Hotel Seattle
It has the best address in Seattle, a block from Pike Place Market with the bay in front of you, and a kind team. It's also the most expensive hotel in town, and beyond the location I don't think it earns that. Book a bay-view room or don't book it.
Amangiri
The most beautiful hotel in America, and I'd still think twice. At $5,000 a night the service is unpolished, dinner is forgettable and almost every outing is charged on top, and the price has doubled while the hotel has stayed the same. Go for two nights, once, for the building and the desert, and expect nothing more.
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