The Best New Beach Hotels in the World: 2022 Hot List
Each year, we index the best, brightest openings, but for the 26th edition of Condé Nast Traveler’s Hot List, we’ve upped the ante: This time, editors at all seven worldwide editions had a hand in scouting and selecting the entries. At its heart, this is still a hotel list—a whopping 96 made the cut this year, which is a true testament to the industry’s resilience. But because (almost) no hotel is an island, we’ve widened the lens to include the restaurants, culture, transportation, and cruises you need to know, and the destinations that are reinventing themselves. We mean it when we say this may be the hottest Hot List yet. Here, the eight best new beach hotels in the world.
Click here to see the entire Hot List for 2022.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Salva LopezhotelKalesma Mykonos — Greece
$$$ |
Hot List 2022Set on a bougainvillea-scented hilltop overlooking Ornos Bay, this serene, whitewashed sanctuary is a refreshingly discreet alternative to Mykonos’s flashy party scene. With just 25 suites and two villas spread across five acres, Kalesma could be mistaken for a private estate, meticulously landscaped with 60-year-old olive trees and fuchsia bougainvillea vines. Interiors of whitewashed walls, stone floors, and chestnut-and-bamboo ceilings were inspired by old-world Cycladic architecture, and the beds have been perfectly angled so you can wake to watch the sunrise above the Aegean through the floor-to-ceiling French doors. Both owners frequent the property, making you feel like a very special guest at the island’s best-hosted dinner party. Rooms from $1,450. —Jen Murphy
Ken Hayden/Rosewood Le Guanahani St. BarthhotelRosewood Le Guanahani St. Barth
$$$ | Hot List 2022The newly reopened Rosewood Le Guanahani is located along an 18-acre peninsula overlooking Marigot Bay, the so-called other side of the island. The resort feels considerably more secluded than some of its competitors because of this, with each of its discrete 66 cottages (all with private entrances; many suites have private pools) enveloped by lazily drooping palm trees and other local fauna. Another perk of its location along this quiet northeast-coast peninsula? The endless breeze wafting across the beachside infinity pool and into Beach House St. Barth, an airy eatery that feels more like a chic friend’s home in the Mediterranean or French Riviera than a resort restaurant in the Caribbean. Rooms from $1,253. —Lale Arikoglu
Moskito IslandhotelMoskito Island — British Virgin Islands
$$$ | Hot List 2022Although more expensive than your average luxury hotel, Moskito Island makes living the life of a billionaire a tiny bit more accessible. Five-star restaurants are swapped for private chefs, hotel suites for exclusive estates, and concierges for dedicated house managers capable of making nearly anything you want possible. The only guests in sight are those in your immediate party—that is, unless you decide to venture to the communal Manchioneel Beach, complete with a floating trampoline and bartenders at the ready, or the Beach House, a community recreational area where you can play a round of tennis and mingle with estate owners (you may even spot Richard Branson himself). Estates from $17,500. —Jordi Lippe-McGraw
Pernilla DanielssonhotelCan Ferrereta — Santanyí, Spain
$$ | Hot List 2022In the past, tourists visited the small town of Santanyí only on day trips, but Can Ferrereta has changed the game, becoming a destination in itself. The original structure was refurbished by architect Sergi Bastidas, who added two new buildings and completed what is an outstanding exercise of minimalism and exquisite taste in 32 rooms (more than half are suites), a more than 3,000-square-foot spa with interior pool, and two restaurants. Your jaw will certainly drop once you make it to the main pool area, a relaxing landscape interrupted only by the sound of the breeze kissing the surrounding bushes. Rooms from $345. —Paula Movil
LXR Hotels & ResortshotelMango House Seychelles, LXR Hotels and Resorts
$$$ | Hot List 2022Mango House Seychelles is the former family home of Milanese fashion photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri, now operating as a 41-key boutique resort under LXR Hotels & Resorts. Its ultra-scenic seclusion on Mahé is the epitome of a laid-back yet luxurious Seychelles getaway: One can honestly gaze at the stunning bay views—from the beach, the two pools, or one’s own balcony—for hours and feel revitalized. And the championing of local artisans and suppliers makes one feel particularly connected to the location. The interiors inside each room read contemporary sea-breeze luxury, but you will be venturing out often for the resort's lauded upscale food and drink venues. Rooms from $925. —Travis Levius
Matt KisidayhotelFaraway Nantucket — Massachusetts, U.S.
$ | Hot List 2022Nantucket is a funny kind of beach destination, one where you go as much for the wide sandy beaches as you do for the charms of the towns and the history. Faraway leans into the latter, conveniently smack in the middle of town with bikes to get you to the sand, but a contemporary design and pumping patio scene to make you want to come back again. In a town filled with outdoor drinking terraces, the terrace you want to be on is at Faraway. It is a total delight, with its rattan furniture, vintage umbrellas, potted plants, and outdoor sofas making it the place to be for cocktail hour. Rooms from $245. —Erin Florio
Richard HaughtonhotelThe Maybourne Riviera — Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
$$$ | Hot List 2022The French debut for the Maybourne Hotel Group has redefined the sleepy village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin—even from down on the beach, you catch glimpses of the property’s dazzling block of white crisscrossed lines and floor-to-ceiling glass. From the terrace of the Riviera Restaurant, the ever-changing panorama of distant sailboats, mega-yachts, and swooping hang gliders unfurls. From each of the 69 rooms and suites, you can watch the cotton-candy sunrise over Cap Martin. There’s also a cutting-edge holistic spa, a botanical garden, and an indoor and outdoor pool—the latter built into the rock so you see nothing but a mirage-like haze of pool, sea, and sky. Rooms from $865. —Lanie Goodman
Rupert PeacehotelOne&Only Portonovi — Montenegro
$$$ | Hot List 2022Set on Boka Bay’s rippling coastline, One&Only Portonovi draws on the local Italianate architecture of the neighboring medieval towns, with arched windows, stone colonnades, and terra-cotta roofs standing proud over palm-filled gardens that run down a sandy beach. The rooms are soothing and spacious (the statement Suite One even has its own 268-bottle wine cellar), decorated in a muted palette of taupe and beige and gray. At the seriously impressive spa, guests can embark on one- to seven-day programs filled with high-tech assessments from on-site doctors. The two headline restaurants are beachside Sabia and Tapasake Club, more quietly from ex-Nobu chef Yannick Bayjoo. Rooms from $912. —Fiona Kerr