Best new hotels and places to stay in 2025

(Image credit: One&Only Kéa Island)

last updated 6 February 2025

andBeyond Mnemba Island, Tanzania

Opened in 1996 but rebuilt last year, it's "the antithesis of bling", with just 12 "Crusoe-esque" villas – "curvaceous" structures made from wood and palm, into which "sea air (and an occasional bird, crab, or bat) can waft". The bar and restaurant are shaded by casuarina trees and sit beside a blindingly white beach. Trips to Zanzibar's main island are easy, and there's a spa with a "breezy" yoga deck, and a watersports centre manned by friendly local instructors.

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When hotelier Valéry Grégo gave this mid-century motel on the French Riviera a top-to-toe makeover in 2017, he created an "instant classic", said Chloe Sachdev in Condé Nast Traveller. Located just outside Saint-Raphaël — midway between Cannes and St Tropez — it's a great place to "disconnect from the high jinks" of the Côte d'Azur scene, with whitewalled interiors and peaceful, stone-paved seafront terrace. The furniture is "simple but striking", and there are two restaurants (one Michelin-starred), a "spectacular" saltwater pool carved out of the rocks, and a ladder that descends into the sea.

With its "stone-and-thatch" villas and "bright-red" ladders dropping into the sea, the Rockhouse represents a certain brand of old-school "Jamaican cool", said Lale Arikoglu in Condé Nast Traveller. Staff regale guests with stories of Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones jumping off its cliffs in the 1970s, and little has changed in the hotel's design since then – its stone-floored studios and villas retain their "bohemian" air. There's a spa and two restaurants – one serving Jamaican classics, the other more "American-leaning". All in all, a "soulful" alternative to Negril's "slicker" resorts and all-inclusives.

Marlon Brando bought the Polynesian atoll of Tetiaroa while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in 1960, and it became his "beloved hideaway". The resort he built later fell into disuse, but it was relaunched ten years ago, and is still as heavenly as ever, said Megan Spurrell in Condé Nast Traveller. There are two restaurants, a spa and 35 beachfront villas, each with its own plunge pool. Guests can cycle to open-air temples, snorkel on the reef, and kayak past bird-nesting sites, before returning for mai tais at Bob's Bar, which also serves some of Brando's favourite treats, including coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce.

It was at Chewton Glen that Captain Frederick Marryat wrote his 1847 classic The Children of the New Forest – and this manor house set in acres of Hampshire woodland is still a place of "storybook" delights, ideally suited to a family holiday, said Tatler. Stay if you can in one of its 14 treehouses, which sit on stilts in a peaceful valley, with floor-to-ceiling windows and wraparound terraces with hot tubs. There's a beautiful beach within walking distance, and a huge range of activities on offer at the hotel: cookery classes, tennis lessons, axe-throwing sessions, falconry, duck herding, sheep grooming – the list goes on. The two pools (indoor and outdoor) are "dreamy", and there's a spa and two restaurants, one excelling in "elevated classics", and the other (overseen by the TV chef James Martin) "less formal".

The island of Kéa is typical of the Cyclades archipelago, with its bare hills and fertile valleys, but it sees far fewer tourists than neighbours such as Mykonos, despite lying only 45 minutes by speedboat from Athens. Occupying a sheltered bay on its west coast is this new resort, said Mary Lussiana in The Telegraph, the 14th from the One&Only brand. Set on terraces that "cascade" down to the sea, its 63 villas are built of the local stone, and have "spacious" sitting rooms and private, eight-metre infinity pools. The resort has five restaurants (including a beach club that serves light Asian and Mediterranean dishes), a large spa, a sports centre, an excellent kids' club, and two swimming pools. There's much to do nearby, including scuba diving, with four historic wrecks to explore off the island's coast.

In the heart of Mongolia lies the ruined city of Karakorum, and beyond it stretches the wild Orkhon Valley, site of this remote summer camp. A cluster of cosy white gers set on a "vast, fenceless" steppe, it offers a taste of "nomadic life" and no end of adventure, said Tatler. Your host is D'Artagnan Giercke, a softly spoken Old Harrovian whose father revived interest in polo (the favourite sport of Genghis Khan) in Mongolia. Guests can take part in matches with members of the national team, or "slow the pace" with massages, yoga and "realignment with the resident shaman". The riding is superb. Gallop alongside wild ponies and "crash" through rivers before returning to camp for candlelit suppers, piano recitals and "spontaneous" parties under the stars.

Set in the foothills of Costa Rica's Talamanca mountains, this 180-acre jungle resort offers a cosseting introduction to the Central American wilderness, said Devorah LevTov in Condé Nast Traveller. The 30-minute flight in a private prop plane from San Juan airport affords breathtaking views of the resort's rugged surroundings and 50 "roomy" casitas. These are decked out in leather, linen, patterned textiles and local pottery, but yet more pleasing are their terraces with daybeds and private pools. Nature presses in all around – birds and butterflies, the "fortissimo" croak of frogs, the armadillos encountered on night strolls. There's a wonderful spa with hot tubs that "glow with the setting sun", and lots of "adrenaline-pumping" outdoor activities to try.

Now nicknamed Cyberabad for its booming tech industry, the Indian city of Hyderabad was long ruled by princes, or nizams, who grew wealthy on diamonds from the Golconda mines. In 1937, Time magazine named the seventh nizam the richest man in the world – and it was his father who built this palace in 1894, said Sarah Khan in Condé Nast Traveller. Converted into a hotel in 2010, it is an "opulent" fantasy in the late-Victorian style, set in "fragrant" hilltop gardens, and full of "dreamy frescoes, Corinthian columns and Venetian chandeliers". The state rooms are as if frozen in time, with marvels including a dining table for 101 guests, but the 60 guest rooms have all mod cons. There's a lovely pool, a terrace with sweeping views over the city, and two restaurants.

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