Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco vs Rosewood Amsterdam

Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco is a restored medieval village on a hillside above Montalcino, and the borgo itself, the little church, the fortress ruins on the walking path, does most of the convincing before you've eaten a meal. This is a place people come back to for a wedding anniversary, propose in, or book a villa at because a first stay in 2016 never left them. The estate is enormous and genuinely varied, with vineyards, a golf course, cottages, and villas that range from two to six bedrooms, so a family of six can spread out with real separation between generations while still sharing a pool.

The price gets debated for a reason: villa rates run into the thousands per night, and the wine and golf and spa add up fast on top of that. Book the tasting-menu restaurant before you arrive, not after: at least one guest showed up to find the Michelin-level dining room closed for the night with no reservation held at the only alternative. The spa is small, slots vanish quickly, and more than one traveler got shut out of it entirely over a multi-night stay. Some report a stiffness to the polish, a sense that a very expensive village can feel almost too tidy, and a couple who split time here and at a Belmond property in Chianti found themselves more relaxed at the latter.

None of that changes who should book it. Families get an actual kids' club worth mentioning, couples get villas with real privacy, and anyone who wants Tuscany without leaving the property gets vineyards, a golf course and a spa on a single hillside. Skip it if you want to home-base and day-trip constantly since the location is a good 15 minutes from the nearest town and the property rewards settling in rather than touring around it. Book it for the borgo, the wine made on-site, and a level of family logistics most countryside hotels don't bother with.

A ten-year restoration of Amsterdam's old Palace of Justice, and it shows in the right places: soaring ceilings, a Piet Oudolf-designed courtyard garden, more than a thousand art pieces scattered through the halls. Rooms run from around €1,000 a night to the €18,000 Herengracht House suite, and what you get for the base rate is a genuinely quiet, well-located canal-side property, a skylit pool and spa people single out as the best part of the stay, and a breakfast several guests call among the best they've had at a hotel. One guest's room service waiter brought perfectly warmed milk for a toddler every morning and talked them through a crying fit; another's front desk manager tracked down a quieter room mid-stay and followed up with a tin of fresh cookies.

The service is uneven in a way that tracks with a hotel still finding its footing post-opening. Several people had check-in moments that felt cold or dismissive, and The Court restaurant has produced real complaints: 20 to 30 minute waits just to order, lukewarm food, a host who couldn't manage a busy brunch service gracefully. The design splits opinion too — the restored architecture is not in question, but the rooms themselves get called beige, minimalist, and short on the color and personality Amsterdam itself has, especially compared to what people expected from the hype. Noise is a real, recurring complaint on lower canal-facing floors; ask for a higher one.

Worth it for the building, the garden, the spa, and a location that beats the Conservatorium for walkability. Skip it if you want flawless, seasoned service from day one; the restaurant clearly needs another year. Book it for the space, the pool — and the walk to everything.