Top 10: the best hotel bathrooms
Posted by Anthony on September 19th, 2008Wow-inducing bathrooms have become as important as seductive boudoirs at the hotels Mr & Mrs Smith visit, and they’re a great opportunity to showcase imaginative design. Double sinks, or even double baths create a glamorous boutique-hotel feel, glass-enclosed wet-room-style showers and baths with a view add drama. Beautiful materials and different textures, from stone tiling to special towels, creates interest. Otherwise attention to detail gives bathrooms more personality, whether it’s an extravagant mirror or beautiful antique chair. Zero clutter, plumbing that really works, adjustable lighting, enough hooks to hang your towels, and even the odd technological flourish are all factors that can turn a good hotel into a great one.
Without further ado, allow us to present, in no particular order, our run-down of the best ’statement bathrooms’ on the great green earth. Hold on to your shower caps…
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01 Hotel on Rivington
New York
Style: Classy, glassy minimalism
Spectacular views both inside and out – this hotel’s bathrooms boast floor-to-ceiling glass walls, offering you the full Manhattan cityscape while you shower - and, of course, vice versa. Some rooms feature triple-headed steam showers and double Japanese soaking tubs big enough for two.
02 Barnsley House
Cotswolds
Style Mod-con manor
This spa-spangled boutique hotel understands the value of a decent bathroom and doesn’t let its 17th-century style get in the way of the modern marvellousness. Room 1 has two tubs side by side, facing a TV so you can watch while you wash. Room 2 has a Jacuzzi, and every suite comes with a roll-top tub at the foot of the bed.
03 Huvafen Fushi
Maldives
Style Sexy on sea
There’s a postcard-perfect panorama from every bath at this indescribably gorgeous tropical island resort, and if you’ve booked a Lagoon Bungalow, you’ll find a cantilevered tub, with the sea spreading out around you on three sides. There are bathroom-fitted Bose sound systems too, so you can sing along in the shower.
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Singapore
Style Super-swish surrealism
The entirely glass-walled bathroom at the centre of this artist-designed hotel’s Aquarium room may be a tad exhibitionistic for some, but it’s certainly unique. More subtle, but still striking, the Attic Suites have freestanding twin tubs set in front of widescreen TVs wildly imaginative hand-drawn murals. Some rooms feature tubs on outdoor terraces.
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05 Hazelton Hotel
Toronto
Style Green granite glory
In a word: huge. This sleek boutique hotel in Toronto boasts bathrooms fit for an A-lister (which is handy, given that the hotel’s full of them). Astonishingly spacious, and stocked to the gills with Bvlgari goodies, the slick green-granite lined rooms lay the luxury on thick.
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Seychelles
Style Back-to-nature beauty
Sometimes it’s the simplest set-ups that prove the sexiest – Maia takes advantage of the balmy climate and equips all its villas with open-air tubs; some free-standing, petal-strewn and shaded by thatched roofs, some square pink sunken tubs set at the centre of a private pool and reached by wooden walkway.
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Beaujolais
Style Five-star fairytale
Every room in this 13th-century castle is breath-stoppingly beautiful, and the bathrooms are naturally no exception. It’s not just the period features, beamed ceilings and antique marble bath tubs that make chåteau stays so appealing, however, it’s the amazing lavender bath foam that hotel staff make on site – now that’s dedication.
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08 Pool House
Wester Ross
Style Chic and unique
There’s almost too much to choose from at this loch-side lodge – each of its suites has a uniquely designed bathroom, including several with ornately painted tubs. Campania, for example, features a Victorian canopy bath, Opportune’s is a smooth curve of carved marble fed by a waterfall tap, and Whimbrel boasts both a terrace hot tub and a bath with a sea view.
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Kerala
Style Alfresco Art Deco
The one-of-a-kind shower experience is a major reason to stay at this bright and modern Fort Cochin boutique hotel – each of the three rooms has an open-air ensuite with one strikingly coloured wall, a delightful rain shower, and two pairs of Japanese wooden sandals to help you negotiate the sole-pummeling stone floor. The toiletries are all home-made too.
Krabi
Style Honeymooners’ heaven
Book a two-floor pavilion at this leafy Thai hideaway and you may never leave the ensuite. Each bathroom has a raised, deep, round bath easily big enough for two. With enough candles to fill a cathedral on hand, as well as a stash of pampering potions such as the resort’s own sea-salt scrub and jasmine after-sun, it’s impossible to imagine a more romantic spot to soak yourself .
Obviously, this list is subjective, and there’s always the chance that I’ve missed something, so please feel free to disagree violently, suggest alternatives, or simply rant about what makes the perfect bathroom in your eyes…
You guys are spot on in your assessment of The Hotel on Rivington. Their bathrooms are truly exceptional. The heated floors are the best touch but having that steam shower available any time of day really blows my mind. Thanks for the post.
Jennifer
http://www.betterlivingthroughtravel.com
By Jennifer
On September 20th, 2008
[...] am big fan of a good bathroom. Since other blogs have whole posts based on this subject ( see Mr& Mrs. Smith’s blog about great hotel bathrooms), I sense that this might be a room that is important to many other people besides myself. The [...]
By Glen Oaks Motel -Big Sur, California « Better Living Through Travel
On September 30th, 2008
Fantastic post, Anthony – I was going to mention a few more favourites here, but there turned out to be too many, so a did a post instead: More great hotel bathrooms…
By Lucy
On September 30th, 2008
Killer post. Some of these spots look amazing.
By J. Smith
On November 20th, 2008
Dear Reader,
i’m looking for a hotel in the south of the UK which is fairly modern with large bedroom but the main feature needs to be the bathroom. i like the idea of double shower or real hot tub, wet rooms just something a bit/a lot different. There is a hotel in Brighton which has a plunge pool in the room and I read there is a hotel in the middle of a golf course (not in the UK) where in one of the rooms a oversized martini glass is used as a hot tub. I wonder if you might be able to suggest something nice in the south which would amaze me when it came to the shower/bathroom
Many thanks
By Matt G
On January 30th, 2009
[...] We’re especially enamoured with the bathrooms (we’ve already raved about them on our top 10 best hotel bathrooms post last year), which are huge, walled in green granite and stocked with so much Bulgari you could [...]
By Hotel of the week: Hazelton, Toronto | Travel Blog - Mr & Mrs Smith Boutique & Luxury Hotels
On October 30th, 2009
[...] We’re especially enamoured with the bathrooms (we’ve already raved about them on our top 10 best hotel bathrooms post last year), which are huge, walled in green granite and stocked with so much Bulgari you could [...]
By Hotel of the week: The Hazelton Hotel | Travel-Blogs.org
On October 31st, 2009