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With holiday season in full swing, we bring you a collection of some of the world’s MONA Pavilions, Hobart, Australia It’s not often that a hotel comes with its own art gallery attached, which is why Hobart retreat MONA Pavilions in Tasmania is a must for culture-vultures. The 2011 opening of cavernous cliffside MONA (ambitious private venture the Museum of Old and New Art) has brought local and international art to this one-stop style shop. A short stroll away, eight ultra-contemporary bedroom pavilions hug the Derwent river, named after Australian architects and artists, including Sydney Nolan and Brett Whiteley, with original paintings inside. A sleek restaurant called the Source, a microbrewery and vineyard ensure guests here won’t just be feasting on ideas.
Wanderlust, Singapore Its wittily wacky-themed rooms might not appeal to everyone, but the young at heart — and fans of fantastical fun — will feel right at home at Wanderlust, a style-sussed 29-bed boutique hotel in Singapore’s vibrant Little India quarter. Dreamed up by hot hotelier Loh Lik Peng, with help from a fistful of local designers, the most extreme rooms are decked out like spaceships, tree-houses and even monster typewriters, but if you want something subtle, ask for a Pantone-coloured pad or one of the white Mono Origami chambers. Wanderlust’s wonders include French comfort food at casual bistro Cocotte, a custom-created ‘passport’ guide to the area’s charms and a sun-deck jacuzzi. Shoreditch Rooms, London East London is the favourite spot for style-seekers in the English capital these days, and there’s no better launch pad for making the most of the area’s hot shops, galleries and markets than Shoreditch Rooms. The 26 bedrooms may be bijou, but bag a Small+ for a spacious city-facing terrace. A stay here allows you to access all areas of adjoining private members’ club Shoreditch House, including its buzzy bars, restaurant, games room, bowling alley, cowshed spa and a hip rooftop pool. DJs spin discs on Friday and Saturday nights, when you can mingle with skinny-jeans-sporting graphic design types to your heart’s content. Tenface, Bangkok While checking into Tenface, you’ll be handed a box of tricks. Inside you’ll find a sky-train pass, Thai sim card, herbal toiletries and an iPod nano loaded with video podcasts by locals sharing their favourite spots to eat, drink and shop. This street-chic 79-room retreat may be hard to find, tucked away down a leafy soi in Bangkok’s business/residential district, but once here you’ll feel like you’ve arrived. There is clubby Sita Bar, which sports a DJ booth, an airy Wanara Eatery for casual bites, fusing Thai and global flavours. It has apartment-style suite, where vibrant hits of colour and graphic wall design makes for urban elegance. Ace Hotel and Swim Club, Palm Springs, USA This hipster’s canyon commune south of downtown Palm Springs proves you can have style on a budget. Combining a modernised Sixties motel with retro furniture, a classic diner and aquatic activities, there’s a boho mood at the 180-room Ace Hotel that’s totally West Coast. Vintage furniture and vinyl record players (in Patio rooms or above) ensure attitude. Outdoors a kooky caravan and fabric-draped alfresco lounging areas add to the ‘glamping’ (glam camping) feel. The sexy swim club sports two pools, a hot tub, sauna, steam room and that Californian essential, the massage yurt. Bring a guitar for fireside singalongs and a kaftan.
Saffire, Freycinet Peninsula, Australia Generating global buzz with its wow-worthy mix of directional design and natural charm, shoreside sensation Saffire is putting Australia’s southernmost island Tasmania firmly on the style map. Shaped like a sinuous stingray, Sanctuary, the main body of the hotel, is home to view-packing restaurant Palate, where seasonal local seafood and fish are a must. Spread out like a shoal around it, the 20 suites blend subtle modern design with striking sea vistas. With spa treatments inspired by gemstones, and massages included in rates, you’ll be hard pressed to leave. Nearby Wineglass Bay on the famous Freycinet Peninsula, Saffire’s adventurous activities, including visits to a marine oyster farm or island hopping are a must. Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali It’s no wonder the beautiful people flock to Alila Villas Uluwatu, a jaw-dropping cliffhanger of a retreat on Bali’s dramatic southern Bukit Peninsula, boasting panoramic views over the Indian Ocean. Sleek modern design of sanctuary comes care of Singaporean architects WOHA, with 61 spacious pool villas embracing the outdoors. Natural stone, wood, water features and rattan rule, with personal butlers on tap. There is fine dining restaurant Cire, Indonesian eatery the Warung and the heavenly Spa Alila. There is a lounge bar cabana with waves crashing below and of course Uluwatu’s legendary surf breaks. Maison Moschino, Milan Sharing your hotel with ornamental sheep might not seem an obvious style statement, but this Milan marvel puts the surreal into the sartorial. Created by Italian mega-brand Moschino, and housed in the city’s first railway station, 65-room Maison Moschino teams haute couture allure with avant-garde decor. Illuminated mannequins light the lobby and beds are backdropped by outsize frocks (wannabe Cinderellas should book the Sleeping in a Ballgown boudoir). Quirky touches continue in the restaurant, which serves Italian sushi, and the elegant culti spa, where treatments are inspired by beauty-boosting Brittany sea water. Do visit cutting-edge concept store 10 Corso Como nearby. 9. The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China: Offering views of Huangpu River from designer digs, the Waterhouse at South Bund is set in a restored 1930s factory in the historic Shiliupu dockyards. Its jagged industrial framework is offset by sleek adaptations by Shanghai architects Neri and Hu, with 19 rooms offering minimal styling, Scandi and Italian contemporary furniture and baths in see-through boxes. Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton heads up tasty restaurant Table No. 1, a simple dining space with serious culinary credibility. It also offers another dining space at the Roof, a lofty cocktail-pouring vantage-point atop this urban sanctuary. Bungalow Hotel, Jersey Shore, USA Pier-perched,
art-fuelled 24-room Bungalow Hotel on Jersey Shore, south of New York,
isn’t an average coastal getaway. Its owners are interior designers,
and it shows. On arrival you could mistake it for luxe London
apartment (for its the giant postage stamp pictures of Queen
Elizabeth) or a cool Aussie getaway (cue surf boards in rooms). The
savvy styling, embracing black-and-white cowhide couches,
popping-patterned cushions, graphic letters and oversized candelabra,
seduces and intrigues. Driftwood photo frames, pebbles and birds’
feathers bring the beach indoors, and you’re just steps from the
seafront if you’d rather sample the real thing. — Reuters Life!
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