Some hotels are just a place to sleep between flights and sightseeing. Others are the destination itself — buildings and landscapes designed with such care that guests plan entire trips around a single night in a particular suite or a single sunset from a particular pool deck. After years of reviewing luxury properties and tracking which ones still hold up against newer competition, I've put together an updated list of the most beautiful hotels in the world for 2025. Some names will be familiar. A few have changed ownership or been renovated since you last heard about them, and I've noted those updates where they matter.

This isn't a ranking based purely on price. A few of these hotels are surprisingly accessible for a special-occasion splurge, while others require a genuinely serious budget. What ties them together is architecture, setting, and craftsmanship that goes beyond typical five-star polish.

What Actually Makes a Hotel Beautiful

It's tempting to assume beauty in hospitality is just about marble lobbies and infinity pools, but the properties that stay memorable usually do three things well: they respect their surroundings instead of fighting them, they use materials and craftsmanship native to the region, and they create at least one moment — a view, a courtyard, a piece of light — that you can't get anywhere else. Every hotel on this list does at least one of those exceptionally well.

1. Aman Tokyo, Japan

Aman Tokyo occupies the top six floors of the Otemachi Tower, and the design team leaned into Japanese minimalism rather than trying to out-glitz the city below. Washi paper screens, stone-lined bathing pools, and a six-story atrium lobby give the property a sense of calm that's rare in central Tokyo. Rooms start around $1,100 a night, and the 35-meter indoor pool with mountain views on clear days is worth booking a stay around alone. Spring (late March through April) is the obvious pick if cherry blossoms matter to you, but autumn foliage from late November is arguably even better and far less crowded.

2. Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, Indonesia

Built into a river valley outside Ubud, this resort is arranged so that the lobby actually sits above most guest villas, meaning you descend into the jungle canopy rather than looking down on it. The result is a genuine sense of being swallowed by rainforest, with the Ayung River running below and rice terraces visible from several suites. Nightly rates run from roughly $850, and the property remains one of the few luxury resorts in Bali that still feels genuinely remote despite being a 20-minute drive from Ubud's center.

3. Mandarin Oriental, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

This one needs an update: since 2020, the property once known simply as Emirates Palace has operated as Mandarin Oriental, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, following a management change while keeping the original building and much of its identity intact. The scale is still absurd in the best way — 114 domes, over a kilometer of private beach, and public areas finished in gold leaf and rare marble sourced from more than a dozen countries. Rooms start around $650 a night, which is genuinely reasonable given the grounds, though suites with private butlers climb well past $2,000.

4. Belmond Hotel Caruso, Ravello, Italy

Perched 350 meters above the Tyrrhenian Sea on the Amalfi Coast, Hotel Caruso occupies an 11th-century palazzo with a cliffside infinity pool that regularly appears on "best pool in the world" lists, and for good reason — the water seems to merge directly into the Mediterranean. With only 50 rooms, it's intimate rather than sprawling, and rates typically start near $1,400 a night in peak season (May through September). Book well ahead; this is one of the hardest reservations to get on the entire coast during summer.

5. The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong

Occupying floors 102 through 118 of the International Commerce Centre, this remains one of the most vertiginous luxury stays anywhere, with the 118th-floor Ozone bar still holding records as one of the highest bars in the world. It's worth correcting an old claim here: it's no longer the world's highest hotel overall — that title now belongs to properties in taller Chinese supertalls, including hotels inside Shanghai Tower — but the views over Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong skyline remain unmatched for drama. Expect rates from around $500 a night, with harbor-view rooms commanding a solid premium.

6. La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocco

First opened in 1923 and renovated several times since, La Mamounia's real showpiece is its eight-hectare garden, home to century-old olive trees, orange groves, and rose beds that were partly inspired by the sultans who once used the grounds. Jacques Garcia's interior redesign layered Moroccan craftsmanship — hand-carved cedar, zellige tilework, wrought iron — with French Art Deco touches. Nightly rates start around $700, rising sharply for garden-view suites during the cooler, more comfortable months of October through April.

7. Soneva Fushi, Maldives

Soneva Fushi was one of the original architects of the barefoot-luxury concept, and it still does eco-conscious design better than most competitors that have copied the formula since. Villas are built from reclaimed wood and thatch, bathrooms open to the sky, and the resort runs its own glass-recycling studio, organic garden, and observatory. Rates start around $1,800 a night and climb quickly for overwater villas, but the all-inclusive model and genuinely private beaches make the price easier to justify than at many Maldivian rivals.

8. The Plaza, New York City

The Plaza has been a fixture on Fifth Avenue since 1907, and its Beaux-Arts limestone facade and gilded interiors remain protected as a National Historic Landmark. A multi-year renovation completed in the past decade refreshed the guest rooms while keeping the Palm Court and Grand Ballroom largely untouched. Rooms start around $900 a night, with Central Park-facing suites easily doubling that. If you only do one thing here, have tea in the Palm Court — it's touristy, but it's touristy for a reason.

9. Alila Jabal Akhdar, Oman

Built into the edge of a canyon in Oman's Al Hajar Mountains at roughly 2,000 meters elevation, Alila Jabal Akhdar uses local stone and traditional Omani building techniques so effectively that the hotel looks almost carved from the mountainside rather than built on it. The infinity pool cantilevers directly over the canyon edge, and temperatures here run noticeably cooler than in Muscat, making it a comfortable escape even in summer. Rates start around $450 a night, which is relatively affordable given the setting and the multi-hour drive required to reach it.

10. The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India

Modeled on the palatial architecture of the Mewar dynasty, Oberoi Udaivilas sits on the banks of Lake Pichola and has repeatedly ranked among the top hotels in the world in traveler surveys, not just beauty lists. Domed chhatris, hand-painted frescoes, and courtyards with fountains recreate the feel of a Rajasthani royal residence, while every room has either a lake, pool, or courtyard view. Nightly rates start around $900, and the property's own boat can ferry guests to the City Palace for sightseeing without ever touching a public dock.

Honorable Mentions Worth Knowing About

A few properties didn't make the core ten but deserve a mention for travelers looking beyond the obvious names. Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico threads guest villas through mangrove canals along the Riviera Maya, giving every room private dock access. Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada, is a stark, modern structure on stilts facing the North Atlantic — beautiful in a completely different, almost brutalist way compared to everything else on this list, and a favorite among architecture writers. And ICEHOTEL in Swedish Lapland remains the only entry here that literally melts every spring and gets rebuilt from scratch each winter using ice blocks cut from the nearby Torne River.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which hotel on this list is the best value for the price?
Alila Jabal Akhdar in Oman offers the most dramatic setting relative to cost, with rates starting well under $500 despite the canyon-edge infinity pool and mountain scenery.

Is it worth booking these hotels outside peak season?
Yes, in most cases. Properties like Hotel Caruso and La Mamounia drop meaningfully in price during shoulder seasons, and crowds thin out considerably without much loss in weather quality.

Do these hotels require advance booking?
Some do, aggressively. Hotel Caruso's 50 rooms sell out months ahead for summer dates, and Soneva Fushi's overwater villas book up well in advance during the Maldivian high season from December through March.

Each of these hotels earns its spot through design that respects where it sits — mountain, coastline, jungle, or historic city center — rather than through sheer spending. If a splurge trip is on your calendar this year, any one of these ten is a legitimate reason to build an itinerary around a single address instead of treating the hotel as an afterthought.