By the third day of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2009 off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the weather gods are clearly unhappy. A high-pressure system has settled over the island on this August morning, bringing the winds to a standstill and leaving a flotilla of roughly 200 becalmed sailing …

Fresh from a top-to-bottom renovation, the Jefferson in Washington, D.C., reopened in August with a new design scheme that is true to the 87-year-old hotel’s Beaux Arts roots and offers subtle nods to the third American president.
Wander the halls to peruse original Thomas Jefferson sketches and signed notes before …

Big and bold like its surroundings, the 74-room Bilila Lodge Kempinski is one of just five non-tented lodges in Tanzania’s 5,700-square-mile Serengeti National Park. The million property, which opened in July, includes all the requisite amenities of a five-star resort—infinity pools, sun decks, a wine cellar, a spa—plus such …

The Eco Villa at Six Senses’ new Soneva Kiri resort is best identified by what it lacks: carbon emissions. This environmentally friendly accommodation—which Six Senses intends as a prototype for its future properties—is one of 42 villas at Soneva Kiri, a stylishly sensitive beach resort that opened on Thailand’s Koh …

Since Santorini became a regular cruise-ship stop a few years ago, the Greek volcanic island has become a hot spot for the tourist hordes. But last May, a hotel debuted on an isolated stretch of the island, a setting where the Santorini of old—a peaceful perch from which to sit …

From among the cypress trees in the hills of Fiesole, Il Salviatino peeks out onto the Florentine skyline. This former aristocratic estate opened as a hotel in October following a nearly million reinvention that touched every tile, fresco, and furnishing in the property’s 15th-century villa.
Located three miles from the …

After a three-year, 0 million renovation, Marrakech’s La Mamounia has finally swung open its ornate, heavily mosaicked doors to reveal a hotel that, despite dating to 1923, is almost entirely new. "Inside and out virtually everything has changed," says general manager Didier Picquot, himself new to the iconic Moroccan property. …

Though inhabited for thousands of years by nomadic Bedouin tribes, Abu Dhabi’s Empty Quarter is one of Earth’s hottest, driest, and least hospitable environments. The Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara—opened in October amid the Empty Quarter’s golden-red dunes—is one of the planet’s most welcoming.
Thailand’s Anantara group modeled …

Las Vegas businessman Larry Ruvo believes success should be shared. As senior managing director of Nevada’s Southern Wine & Spirits, he has grown the company into one of the state’s largest importers and distributors. Yet the direction of his life changed when, in 1992, his father developed Alzheimer’s disease. The …

The Hotel de Charme Les Airelles in Courchevel, France, unveils its latest escape from the cold this winter: a nine-bedroom, five-floor private chalet, located less than 20 feet from the Bellecôte slopes. The 3,000-square-foot Chalet Ormello, which officially opened in December, can accommodate up to 15 guests and features a …