The global post-lockdown travel boom has continued year after year with no slowdown in sight, but even by these standards Thailand’s capital is ultra-popular. Bangkok has never been hotter, and last year made travel industry headlines when a Mastercard report named it the most visited city in the world for 2023. This is a distinction a few places claim, and the numbers often conflict, but there’s no doubt that Bangkok is near the top of all cities on earth in popularity, is getting more U.S. travelers than ever, and is both a destination in its own right, the gateway to the rest of Thailand, and a major gateway to the entire Pacific Rim. When I visited the Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel before the pandemic, I loved it. But when I returned at the end of 2023, it was even better.
3 Splendid Hotels In Lugano, Where Switzerland Meets Italy
27.02.2024 - 22:19 / forbes.com / Belle Epoque / Lake Como / Vita La-Dolce / Art
The Swiss city of Lugano is an outlier, radically different in feeling from counterparts like Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, or Basel. It has a 19th-century feel, a measured pace, and traces of the Belle Epoque. Situated on Lake Lugano with tree-lined promenades and a backdrop of domed mountains, the views might have been lifted from an Art Nouveau poster.
Tranquil, stately, and subtle, is the largest metropolis in Ticino, Switzerland's only Italian-speaking canton. The city of 70,000 lies in the southernmost part of the country, bordering northern Italy, just across the water.
It also happens to be Switzerland's third financial center, after Zurich and Geneva, and the discreet brass plaques of numerous private banks can be found on the city’s twisting pedestrian-only passageways. This is quiet money, with no trace of the showy, occasionally bold style of Lake Como, which is only about 45 minutes away. The moneyed set in Lugano are tucked away in discreet modern villas in the surrounding hills overlooking the lake.
Yet, for all its subdued formality, Lugano’s lifeblood is its workers. Because the city lies so close to Italy, its hotels, restaurants, and shops are filled with Italian day workers who keep the place humming and give it a welcome touch of La Dolce Vita. Chances are that your waiter or desk clerk is commuting daily from Italy, seeking higher wages and job opportunities in Switzerland. The result is Swiss efficiency overlaid with Italian charm, which is pretty much perfection in my book.
Where you stay in Lugano will influence your experience of the city. If you're curious about the villa life high in the hills above the lake, check into the Villa Principe Leopoldo. Set on a hilltop above the city proper on the Collina d'Oro, the Little Hill of Gold, it offers a panorama of the lake and its undulating bays, mountains, vineyards, and Italian villages across the water. This Relais & Chateaux property has just 37 rooms. The older, cantaloupe-hued, statelier part was built in 1926 by Friedrich Leopoldo von Hohenzollern, a relation of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II. The newer wing has rooms with a late mid-century modern flair. The two-tiered terrace adjacent to the two pools offers a quiet sanctuary. The main dining room is helmed by the celebrated chef, Cristian Moreschi.
Lugano Dante is a boutique hotel in a small square in the heart of this vertical city, adjacent to the funicular that brings you up to the train station. A historic property reborn as a high-design boutique hotel, it has minimal yet elegant rooms with comfortable contemporary furnishings. The outside terrace is ideal for watching the Ticenese come and go as you sip the regional white merlot, a grape grown only in the Ticino.
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