City guides

Where to stay, city by city

Not a directory. A real plan for a fat city trip. For the cities we cover deeply, a proper guide: where to stay by trip type, by neighbourhood, and what the most active luxury travel communities actually say. Everywhere else, an honest ranked shortlist. Always independently scored, never paid placements.

65 cities covered · 4 in-depth guides

In-depth guides

The cities we know best

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Bangkok

Bangkok

7 curated hotels17.3/20 avg. Fat Score7 trip-type picks

Bangkok's top hotels split by river bank as much as by brand: the Chao Phraya side gives you calm, boats and space but real distance from Sukhumvit's malls and BTS lines, while Rosewood sits inland on the Skytrain and trades some resort feel for convenience. Capella Bangkok, the Four Seasons and the Mandarin Oriental are the three genuine no-compromise picks, each doing something the others don't. Everyone else here earns its place for a specific kind of trip, not every kind.

Read the Bangkok guide

Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel, Paris

Paris

11 curated hotels17.3/20 avg. Fat Score7 trip-type picks

Paris doesn't have a best hotel, it has about six genuinely different ones, and the right pick depends on whether you want to be fussed over, fed, or left alone. Le Bristol and the Crillon will remember your name by the second morning. Cheval Blanc gives you the best rooms and the most modern take on the city. La Réserve is forty rooms run like somebody's very grand house. The useful question isn't which one scores highest, it's which of those you'd actually want for six nights.

Read the Paris guide

Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi, Tokyo

Tokyo

6 curated hotels17.2/20 avg. Fat Score7 trip-type picks

Tokyo's best hotels are all good at different things, and the gap between them isn't small. Bulgari and the Four Seasons at Otemachi run the tightest service in the city; the older Four Seasons at Marunouchi and the Peninsula trade some polish for staff who solve real problems and rooms with real space; the Mandarin Oriental has the best food and a pizza reservation people plan trips around. Pick on what you actually want from six nights, not on which name sounds grandest.

Read the Tokyo guide

London

15 curated hotels17.1/20 avg. Fat Score7 trip-type picks

London's top hotels aren't ranked on a ladder, they split by what they're actually good at. Claridge's, The Connaught and The Lanesborough will make you feel like a regular by the second morning. The Chancery and The Emory have the newer, bigger rooms and the better spas, with service that's still finding its feet. Decide which one you're actually booking for and the shortlist gets a lot shorter.

Read the London guide

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