Smith Travel BlogTravel tales and hotel news from the boutique hotel experts at Mr & Mrs Smith

We like to get around a bit at Smith, as Mary’s recent roving around America attests. The last month was no different, with team members in and out and all over the place (Crete, Puglia, Cornwall, Atlanta…). Here’s what we found…

Short-haul hops to Europe led us to the Sextantio properties in Italy. The first, Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, is a series of converted caves in Basilicata. The second, Sextantio Albergo Diffuso, is a whole new hotel concept: a near-forgotten village dating back to the Middle Ages in mountain-filled Abruzzo has been revived in hotel form.

In Berlin, the famed members’ club empire expanded with a new Soho House outpost in Mitte. In London, we fell for The Connaught, a stately and stylish Mayfair marvel, and Nearwater, a nautical B&B on the shores of St Mawes in Cornwall. Andalucia got a look in, too: allow us to introduce Casa la Siesta, a romantically renovated farmhouse in Cadiz Province, and Finca Naranja, a Bali-inspired simple sanctuary just outside Ronda.

The French Riviera revealed Tiara Yaktsa, a rosewater-perfumed, gorgeously gardened Med villa plucked for our Cannes collection. Marrakech’s regal Riad Siwan showed off its luxurious charms and central Medina setting. Over in the Americas, we hit the southern States and found a parkside B&B, Stonehurst Place in Atlanta‘s Midtown district. Further south, Fasano Rio is a happening hotel with its own patch of Ipanema Beach and a marble infinity pool on the roof in Rio de Janeiro.

South-east Asia was no slouch either: in Bali we selected four fabulous getaways, including The Amala, a holistic hang-out in sexy Seminyak, The Legian & The Club, a luxe combo of butler-boasting villas and plush hotel, Karma Kandara, a Greek-style clifftop spa sanctuary on the southern Bukit Peninsula, and The Purist Villas and Spa, intimate designer villas in inland Ubud.

For Singapore slingers, we sourced Capella Singapore, an architecturally adventurous island idyll, with a serious spa and top nosh too.

New to our destination collection, Vietnam also delivered the goods, with Maison d’Hanoi Hanova, chic Old Quarter digs in capital Hanoi, The Nam Hai, sophisticated beach villas near historic Hoi An, and Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, romantic ocean-view boudoirs near Nha Trang.

Next month, we’re off island-hopping across Santorini, Crete and Mallorca, with a swing by Scotland and a trip to Australia, Cambodia and Laos thrown in. Check back in July.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Atlanta, Berlin, France, Italy, Italy, Marrakech, Spain. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.