Beautiful Places to Stay, October 2026 Stays Built Around Beauty

Over time, many architectural projects, including hotels, have become increasingly standardized. Beauty can begin to feel secondary: something that adds cost, takes time, complicates decisions, or is sacrificed in the name of efficiency. Yet some of the world’s most remarkable hotels take a different approach, treating beauty as something worth pursuing even when it serves no obvious functional purpose.

In these spaces, colours can be rich, materials expressive, and patterns layered without everything having to follow a familiar formula. Bringing these elements together requires a particular sensitivity to proportion, composition, and detail. The result is a collection of hotels where aesthetic choices are central to the experience, and where beauty is not an afterthought, but part of the original intention.

Palazzo Daniele

Salento, Puglia, Italy From $450

Palazzo Daniele occupies a 19th-century aristocratic residence in Gagliano del Capo, at the southern tip of Puglia. Rather than filling the palazzo with decoration, the renovation stripped much of it back, allowing original frescoes, mosaic floors, high ceilings and weathered walls to carry the space. Contemporary art and sculptural design pieces sit against that historic backdrop, giving the hotel a character that is both grand and almost monastic

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Hotel

El Fenn Hotel

Medina, Marrakech, Morocco From $650

El Fenn is one of Marrakech’s most distinctive boutique hotels, known for its bold use of colour, thoughtful interiors and strong design identity. Often ranked among the best hotels in Morocco, it combines 41 individually styled rooms and suites with three swimming pools, a vast 1,300-square-metre rooftop terrace, two restaurants, cocktail bars, a spa and a carefully curated shop. Despite its scale, the atmosphere remains intimate and highly considered, with art, texture and colour playing a central role throughout the property. Even the resident tortoises have become part of its character.

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Hotel

Peter & Paul

New Orleans, United States From $194

Hotel Peter & Paul transformed a former Catholic church, convent, school and rectory in the Marigny into one of New Orleans’ most distinctive stays. Its 71 rooms are spread across the four historic buildings, each with a different visual language: palettes borrowed from religious paintings, locally made furniture, European antiques, striped fabrics and occasional claw-foot tubs. The old church remains the dramatic centrepiece, while courtyards, verandas and The Elysian Bar give the hotel the sociable, slightly theatrical atmosphere that feels completely at home a few blocks from Frenchmen Street.

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Hotel

Taj Lake Palace

Lake Pichola, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India From $400

Taj Lake Palace stands on an island in the middle of Lake Pichola, in Udaipur, and appears to float on the water. It was built in the 18th century as a summer palace for the Maharanas of Mewar and was first known as Jag Niwas. Today it is run by Taj, which has kept its marble courtyards, fountains, carved arches and royal suites, many with painted walls and stained glass. Guests arrive by boat, and the views stretch across the lake to the City Palace and the Aravalli hills. Meals can be taken by the lily pond, beside the pool or on the rooftop, and the Jiva Spa offers treatments rooted in Indian wellness traditions, including one on a boat moored on the lake. The palace also appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy.

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Hotel

Relais La Foleia

Piedmont, Italy From $702

La Foleia is an unusually private retreat near Lake Maggiore, composed of an octagonal villa and a neoclassical pavilion reflected in a lake filled with lotus flowers and water lilies. Frescoed rooms, English-style verandas, botanical gardens and a secluded wellness area create an almost cinematic setting, while the scale keeps the experience closer to a private estate than a conventional hotel.

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Villa

Al Moudira

Luxor, Luxor Governorate, Egypt From $330

Al Moudira is a 54-room hotel on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, set between desert and farmland, about four kilometres from the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatshepsut. Although it was built in 2001, it looks centuries old, with Moorish arches, domes and courtyards decorated with arabesque details. Each room is individually designed, with stone, tile, gold leaf and antique furniture. Life revolves around the central courtyard and the palm-filled gardens, with a pool, Turkish baths and four restaurants. The hotel holds two Michelin Keys. Its seclusion is part of the appeal, and the east bank of Luxor is reached by car or by the ferries that cross the Nile throughout the day.

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Hotel

Vermelho Melides

Melides, Portugal From $378

Vermelho is Christian Louboutin’s personal take on Melides: just 13 rooms gathered behind a sculptural façade, with hand-painted frescoes, antique furniture, Alentejo tiles and artworks collected from Portugal and far beyond. The mood is unapologetically theatrical but still intimate, moving from richly layered rooms and a jewel-box bar to Louis Benech-designed gardens and a pool hidden among the greenery. Xtian restaurant keeps the focus closer to home with seasonal Alentejo ingredients and local ceramics, while the beaches and lagoons of the Costa Alentejana are only a short drive away.

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