Architectural Hotels, October 2026 Hotels Every Architecture Lover Should Know

Architecture has always been part of the reason people travel, especially when a building becomes inseparable from the destination itself. Hotels designed by renowned architects offer a particular opportunity: to experience significant architecture not simply as a visitor, but as a guest. Spending time inside these buildings allows for a closer understanding of the architects’ design decisions: how materials age, how natural light moves through a room, how spaces connect, and how the architecture responds to its surrounding landscape.

Our selection spans Frank Gehry’s work in Spain’s wine country, Peter Zumthor’s architecture in Switzerland, and projects by Tadao Ando, bringing together hotels where the building itself is part of the reason to travel.

Achioté

Puntarenas, Costa Rica From $480

Set high above Playa Hermosa on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast, ACHIOTÉ consists of two minimalist villas designed by Formafatal, each projecting over a steep jungle slope with uninterrupted views toward the ocean. Built using clay excavated directly from the site, the project introduced rammed-earth construction to Costa Rica and pairs those textured walls with concrete, glass and custom-designed interiors. Each villa has its own infinity plunge pool and open terrace, creating a stay that feels closer to inhabiting a contemporary treehouse than a conventional villa.

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Villa

Arizona Biltmore

Phoenix, Arizona From $550

Arizona Biltmore has been part of Phoenix since 1929, carrying almost a century of desert glamour with it. Architect Albert Chase McArthur designed the hotel with a strong Frank Lloyd Wright influence, including the distinctive geometric Biltmore Blocks, while generations of Hollywood figures, musicians and US presidents added to its social history. A major renovation brought the resort forward without removing the architectural details and old-Arizona character that made it an icon.

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Hotel

Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto

Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan From $550

Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto brings contemporary luxury into one of Kyoto’s most historic districts, with architecture by Kengo Kuma conceived around the surrounding forest and hillside. Its most distinctive feature is a dedicated Noh stage designed by Kuma, the only authentic stage of its kind within a Kyoto hotel, alongside natural hot springs and 52 rooms with contemporary Japanese interiors. Craftsmanship, onsen bathing and cultural programming give the property a strong identity beyond that of a conventional international hotel.

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Hotel

Benesse House

Naoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan From $220

Benesse House is both a museum and a hotel, and that distinction is what made it so influential. Opened on Naoshima in 1992 and designed by Tadao Ando, the property allows guests to sleep among contemporary art in architecture conceived specifically around the island, the Seto Inland Sea and the collection itself. It helped establish Naoshima as one of the world’s most important art destinations and remains one of the clearest examples of a hotel becoming part of a wider cultural project.

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Hotel

Fogo Island Inn

Fogo Island, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada From $1,880

Fogo Island Inn is one of those rare hotels where the building, the landscape and the reason it exists are equally interesting. Designed by Newfoundland-born architect Todd Saunders, its dramatic white structure rises above the rocky North Atlantic coast while drawing on the forms and construction traditions of Newfoundland’s fishing communities. The inn was created by the Shorefast Foundation as a social enterprise, with hospitality, local craftsmanship and economic development working together to support life on this remarkably remote island.

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Hotel

Post Ranch Inn

Big Sur, California, United States From $1,825

Post Ranch Inn stretches across 100 acres above the cliffs of Big Sur, with 40 rooms and houses designed to disappear into the landscape. Icon Architect Mickey Muennig used redwood, glass, curved forms, living roofs and stilted structures to respond differently to the forest and the Pacific edge, creating everything from cliff houses suspended 1,200 feet above the ocean to triangular tree houses among the redwoods. The experience is intentionally quiet — rooms have no televisions or alarm clocks — and much of the stay revolves around the landscape itself, from infinity pools and guided nature walks to yoga, meditation and stargazing.

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Hotel

Rosewood São Paulo

São Paulo, Brazil From $638

Rosewood São Paulo occupies part of Cidade Matarazzo, the extraordinary transformation of a former maternity hospital complex into one of the city’s major cultural destinations. The project combines the restored historic buildings with a new tower by Jean Nouvel, while Philippe Starck’s interiors are layered with Brazilian art, craft, vegetation and references to the country’s cultural identity. Restaurants, bars, music, art and nightlife make it particularly compelling: this is a hotel that functions almost as a destination within São Paulo itself.

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Hotel

The Silo

V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa From $1,545

The Silo rises above Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront inside a former grain silo transformed into one of the city’s most striking contemporary landmarks. Thomas Heatherwick’s pillowed glass windows turn the industrial structure into something almost sculptural, opening dramatic views towards Table Mountain, the harbour and the Atlantic. With Zeitz MOCAA directly below and contemporary African art throughout the hotel, The Silo is not simply a place to stay, but one of Cape Town’s most powerful intersections of architecture, art and city life.

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Hotel

Hotel Marqués de Riscal

Elciego, Rioja Alavesa, Basque Country, Spain From $750

Hotel Marqués de Riscal is one of Spain’s most recognisable wine hotels, set within the historic Marqués de Riscal estate in Rioja Alavesa. Frank Gehry’s sculptural titanium ribbons rise above the vineyards in deliberate contrast to the surrounding village and winery buildings, turning the hotel into an architectural landmark in its own right. Wine remains central to the experience, from cellar visits and vineyard views to a Caudalie vinotherapy spa.

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Hotel

Hotel Unique

Jardim Paulista / Jardins, São Paulo, Brazil From $530

Hotel Unique has been part of São Paulo’s visual identity since opening in 2002. Designed by Ruy Ohtake, its bold curved façade and circular windows make the building instantly recognisable, while the rooftop Skye restaurant and pool overlook Ibirapuera and the city skyline. More than two decades later, it remains one of Brazil’s clearest examples of a hotel becoming an architectural landmark.

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Hotel

7132 Hotel & Therme

Vals, Switzerland From $850

7132 in Vals is inseparable from Peter Zumthor’s thermal baths, completed in 1996 using 60,000 slabs of local quartzite. Fed by the mineral-rich St. Peter spring, the baths are among the most influential spa buildings of the last few decades, turning bathing into an architectural experience of stone, water, shadow and silence. The hotel exists almost in orbit around them, making this one of those stays where the spa itself is the destination.

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Hotel

Shebara

Sheybarah Island, The Red Sea, Saudi Arabia From $2,400

Shebara looks almost unreal from the water. Mirror-polished villas appear to float above the Red Sea, reflecting the changing colours of the sky and ocean until architecture and landscape become difficult to separate. Designed by Killa Design, the resort takes a radically contemporary approach to island hospitality, pairing futuristic forms with coral reefs, clear water and long stretches of untouched coastline. It is one of Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious new hotels and a striking example of how the country is rethinking luxury tourism.

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Hotel

Hotel Terrestre

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico From $400

Terrestre is a 14-villa retreat on the Oaxacan coast near Puerto Escondido, conceived by Grupo Habita with a raw, highly architectural approach to tropical living. Brutalist forms, open-air spaces and natural ventilation keep the villas exposed to light, wind and the surrounding landscape rather than sealed away from it. The property is intentionally elemental, with ocean, heat and architecture carrying much of the experience.

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