Designed by Shahe Kalaidjian and Christophe Pillet, Hotel Sezz in St Tropez, is all your sleek modernist dreams come true. Each of the 35 rooms has been individually designed. Oh, and there is a Dom Pérignon bar and spa developed in partnership with Payot. What more could you want?

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Last weekend I stayed at The Establishment Hotel, Sydney, courtesy of the boutique and luxury hotel specialists Mr & Mrs Smith. This elegant hotel is housed within the same building as The Establishment bar, the three hatted est. restaurant, Hemmesphere cocktail lounge and sushi restaurant Sushi e. With this array of evening activity, coupled with the oversized room and tempting marble and limestone bathroom, it’s no surprise we didn’t venture far after checking in.

The hotel interior is chic, with an incense-infused lobby offering a choice of two room colour schemes: black floorboards and strong colour, or a softer, more tranquil style. We opted for the latter; and it worked its magic. Emerging chilled and refreshed, we stopped in for a refreshing gin cocktail at Hemmesphere before savouring some of Sydney’s best sashimi at Sushi e restaurant. The walk through the humming Establishment bar back to our room reminded us that this is also a hotel for night-life lovers.

The Establishment Hotel, Sydney is for the discerning visitor to Sydney who’s looking for the best in accommodation, nightlife and food to complete the journey.

Hotels these days are like works of art. Unlike the hotel experiences I had when I was a teenager — where everything in the hotel seemed beige — the hotel industry of today is a totally different world. Beige is dead, and the visionary company changing the landscape of this traditionally boring world is the Design Hotels group.

Design Hotels represents and markets the 190 plus hotels from around the world that have managed to meld architecture, design, service and gastronomy to create the ultimate home-away-from-home experience. Having a designer chair in a hotel lobby will not give you entry to this select group. Design Hotels are more about setting your imagination on fire.

Next time you feel like you need to get away from it all, disappear into Sweden’s new Tree Hotel. That’s right, literally disappear, into an invisible mirror cube hung from a tree trunk that only birds can see. The quirky eco-hotel launched this month with six rooms designed by five different architects, transforming the idea of a Tree House into a unique traveling experience. Each room has taken incredible measures not to impact the surrounding environment, with the mirror room being coated in an infrared film visible only to birds — to stop them from crashing into it.

If we believe the seedy world of Kings Cross as presented on current Australian TV hit Underbelly, you’d run a mile before considering laying your head to rest (unless six feet under by mafia lords) in the area. But the infamous nightlife strip has really cleaned up its act. In fact, as an ex-Sydney-sider who hasn’t revisited the locale in almost a decade, it’s almost unrecognisable. Enter the Diamant Hotel, perched side by side with the landmark neon Coca-Cola sign.

Here is the perfect demonstration of what the area now has to offer — an urban-cool oasis in the heart of the reborn hotspot. A dark and sexy mood still pervades, as you wander almost pitch black corridors lit by strategically placed down lights to guide you to your room number. Arrive at your suite to be greeted by a sleek all black, white and chocolate interior scheme. Simple, luxe and unpretentious.

Our favourite features? All rooms come with an in-built ipod dock and giant plasma screens with a mini keyboard to access the Internet in full screen splendour. In the lobby, an artful installation of light bulbs hangs above a massive six disk Bose sound-dock streaming laidback ambient tunes 24-7. Boutique hotel hunters Mr & Mrs Smith represent the hotel — you know if the hotel has made their selective list it’s going to be a super special experience. And the Diamant most definitely is.

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Designed by Starck protégé Christophe Pillet, the stunning Hotel Sezz in the 16th arrondissement of Paris is modern luxury decked out in classic attire. The interior is bright and airy, with hints of 21st Century futurism scattered amongst the more ornate finishings. The rooms are spacious and wickedly tempting, the overszied spa bath distracting mercilessly from the beautiful surrounds of the neighborhood, which happens to include a certain ubiquitous structure that’s just a hop, skip, and short dash away. This boutique hotel is boudoir chic, elegant and welcoming. Much like the rest of Paris, in fact. [photos by Alison Zavos]

Condesa DF is an uber-hip, boutique hotel in the heart of Mexico City’s stylish, tree-lined neighborhood of the same name. Housed in an architectural landmark building dating from 1928, the hotel and its restaurant exude style, energy, and creativity. Occupying the ground floor of an airy, high-ceiling open atrium is the buzzing restaurant and bar, where splashes of bright turquoise cut through minimalistic white, black, and brown tones.

Dining at Condesa DF isn’t as consistently breathtaking as the hotel, but its fusion cuisine, heavenly influenced by Pan-Asian flavors, still holds its own against the fashionable backdrop. The rock shrimp tempura with spicy mayonnaise pops in your mouth and ends with a much-welcomed fiery kick.

Fish and chips – truffled, of course – and sweet sea bass with caramelized tequila, are also tasty options. To wash it down, go for one of Condesa DF’s infamous Jamaica margheritas made with hibiscus, or better yet, their own private label tequila and mezcal.

Located on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico Drive, in the stunning surrounds of Sarasota, Florida, the Longboat Key Club and Resort is just about the most relaxing place on earth. Seriously. With a bountiful Florida sun beating down, it’s too easy to zone out beside the pool, drinking cocktails, reading sporadically, and imagining that this is how life should always be lived. Only it isn’t. Well, for most of us anyway. Paris Hilton, really! What are you doing wasting time in LA?

Situated on the edge of the Gulf, with a vast expanse of pristine white sand beckoning ever onwards, the Longboat Key Club and Resort is a total escape from the bustle of inner-city living. The rooms are modern and comfortable, and they come with private balconies, many of which overlook the crisp blue ocean. Last year, whilst there, we saw dolphins swimming along the shore line. Cliched, yes, but pretty spectacular all the same. But it’s symbolic of this area, which is unhurried in a way that the urban chaos of my daily surrounds of Brooklyn, New York, most certainly is not.

Longboat Key Club & Resort
301 Gulf of Mexico Dr
Longboat Key, FL 34228-4034
(941) 387-1621

Whilst in Austin the other weekend, I spent a couple of nights at a beautifully designed hotel called the Kimber Modern, which is located in the happening SOCO area, just a short hop, skip and sideways roll to the bustling hive of restaurants and cafes along South Congress. The Kimber Modern is a hotel with a twist. First up, the architecture is stunning, this elegant and contemporary building with subtle splashes of color to break up the overall white-walled minimalism. And then there are the clever design touches, such as communal hammocks made from car belts, and a giant tank churning liters of water in a calming, almost Zen-like manner. [photos by Alison Zavos]

The other quirky but practical touch at the Kimber Modern is that there are no door keys. Woah! That’s right, no clunky door keys. Instead, guests choose a four digit password when making their booking and this gives them access to both the main building and the door to their room. As long as your memory is half-decent and hasn’t been clouded by the Sangria on tap at the local Tex Mex, this is a surprisingly efficient system. In the rooms themselves, cheerful colors mesh with the classic minimalism, while fun and vibrant artwork sits above the beds, acting as a gentle reminder that you really are deep amongst this cultural fermentation that is Austin, Texas.

Kimber Modern Bed and Breakfast
110 The Circle
Austin, TX 78704
Ph: (512) 912-1046

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The beautiful, minimalist and slightly irreverent design aesthetic that Barcelona’s Chic & Basic Born Hotel sets up with its stunning interior layout is carried through perfectly into its product packaging, which features cheeky, bold messaging in large, unadorned fonts.

There’s something to be said for staying in a hotel room that’s bigger than your Brooklyn apartment. Yup, it happens so rarely that when you come across it, you kinda want to hang inside, bask in the space, and imagine that this really is your life. 365 days a year. Ah ha, then you wake up. Anyway, I stayed recently at the beautifully designed Hotel Omm in the Eixample district of Barcelona, surrounded by the glitzy, sparkling shops that dot the landscape and by the disarmingly original Gaudi buildings that tower spectacularly above the skyline. It’s quite a sight. [photo by Alison Zavos]

The Omm is classified a luxury boutique hotel, and as such, comes loaded with all the extras you’d expect. But with a twist: it’s interior design is stunning. Much like Barcelona itself, the Hotel Omm, projects an image of refined chic, elegance and urban cool, the muted colours offsetting its vibrant location, where French designers share street space with edgy clothing and product stores and a small cafe across the road which serves the tastiest damn desserts in the city. Or so my taste-buds say, anyway.

Part of the Mr and Mrs Smith worldwide collection of boutique accommodations, the Hotel Omm features its own spa and rooftop terrace, which overlooks Barcelona’s trendy Passeig de Gracia, and has a rooftop swimming pool, a spa, a Michelin rated restaurant (Moo) and a nightclub which was packed with Barcelona’s ultra-fashionable types when we eventually staggered in there after a few hours wandering the city’s streets.

Hotel Omm
C/ Rosselló 265
08008 Barcelona, Spain
+34 934 454 000

My wife and I have just returned from a week lapping up the culture and exploring the long winding alleyways that run off the main streets in the center of Barcelona. What a magnificent city! The seamless blend of old and new in the architecture, food, and sounds, which float out of the bars and cafes, combine with a very distinct design aesthetic, which permeates the stores and hotels to create a thriving modern city with one eye firmly on the future and the other on the artifacts of its past. While in Barcelona, we spent a few nights staying at the sublime Chic and Basic Hotel [photographed above and below], located in the Born area. This hotel symbolized so much of what we considered Barcelona to be about.

Housed in a century-old building, with twenty-two foot high ceilings, a crystal shower at the center of each room, and a fun lighting system with which to change the appearance of your room depending on your mood, the Chic and Basic Hotel is beautifully designed: the interior is functional but adventurous, so that wandering down the corridors to get to our room became a sensory experience in itself. The rooms were ultra-modern and uniquely styled, with a shimmering wall of beads acting as a visual divider against its stark white walls. Those same beads dripped mischeviously from the roof in the hallways, adding a sparkle to the common space. Designed by architect and designer Xavier Claramunt, the Chic and Basic Born Hotel is also situated in an ideal spot from which to wander the many intriguing streets of the city. [photos by Alison Zavos]

Chic and Basic Born Hotel
C/ Princesa 50
08003 Barcelona, Spain
+34 932 954 652
You can make a booking via their website

While I’m definitely not into the whole Lord of the Rings thing, I’m convinced Tolkien stole his inspiration from Göreme, in Turkey’s central Cappadocia region. After a mammoth volcanic eruption around 2,000 years ago, the landscape eroded to form a series of valleys, filled with peculiar, phallic-shaped tufts that the locals call ‘fairy chimneys’. Early Christians hollowed out the tufts and turned them into houses, churches and monasteries. These days, most of them are still in use and a few have been converted into cute hotels and hostels. If you’re not too claustrophobic, I’d highly recommend doing the hobbit thing and spending a night in one.

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This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night.

State-controlled news outlet Xinhua reports that a new ‘adult hotel‘ is opening in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province in southern China. Apparently state censors think homosexuals and tattoo parlors sully their nation’s image, but not establishments aimed at facilitating heterosexual unions. The owner is apparently worried his business will be perceived as a brothel. Hmmm. In any case, the photos of a staff member demonstrating the, uh, equipment is caption-worthy for sure.

The Atlanta has the kind of charm and character most tourists wouldn’t expect to find amidst the rambling chaos of modern Bangkok. In contrast with the debauchery of the nearby sex district, this secluded 1950s hotel harks back to more civilised times. As you sip your icy tropical libation at the check-in desk, the quiet grandeur of the art-deco-style foyer takes precedence over your fleeting obsession with passports and heatstroke. Before you know it, the porter is beckoning you to follow him as he carries the luggage to your laidback room.

Cool off in Thailand’s first hotel swimming pool where guests drink beer and dangle exotic cigarettes by the verdant tropical garden. And be sure to say hello to the resident terrapins, Archibald and Doris.

When it’s time to sample the hotel’s culinary delights, you’re in for a real treat. The diner-style restaurant has preserved its originality and provides a superb selection of Thai food and beverages accompanied by dreamy music from a bygone era. Even the waitress’ uniforms remain unruffled by the changing times and fashions. [Photos by Josh Burns]

By definition, boutique hotels are the smaller, more fashionable, niche hotels which offer its guests enhanced levels of service. Previously we’ve covered some of the coolest hotels in the world, but given the rising popularity of independent boutique hotels, we thought we’d show off some of the best in Australia.

1. The Prince [Melbourne]
The Prince, St. Kilda, Melbourne is the 2008 Winner of Australia’s Leading Boutique Hotel and rightly deserves it. Behind its eye-pleasing art-deco exterior each of the 40 guestrooms and suites are richly decorated with colour and texture. If staying at the Prince wasn’t unique enough, dip into the in-house Aurora Spa Retreat. Prices start at $450.

2. Orpheus Island Resort [Queensland]
Join the likes of Nicole Kidman, Elton John and Phil Collins on the list of past guests who have stayed on Orpheus Island. Everything about this resort is sophisticated and exclusive. A maximum of 42 guests can stay at any one time in the chicly appointed rooms. Far enough away from civilisation yet only 15 miles offshore is this true Great Barrier Reef island. The only way to arrive at the the island, of course, is by sea plane. Prices start at $725.

3. Sea Temple Resort and Spa [Port Douglas]
Nestled away in Queensland’s Far North, the Sea Temple Resort and Spa is a gorgeous place to stay. Although the Sea Temple Resort is larger than most boutique stays, its studio rooms, apartments, villas and penthouses retain that fashionable feel being so beautifully detailed and well finished. Guests staying can enjoy the tropical rainforest walk to the secluded beach, meander around the massive lagoon and even play some golf on the 18 hole championship course. Prices start at $384.

4. Adelphi Hotel [Melbourne]
A fantastic hotel situated in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, close to all the restaurants and theatres. The Adelphi is distinctively boutique in every way. Rooms are large, decorated in a funky style and the long-but-skinny rooftop pool which overhangs the edge of the building adds a real touch of excitement to the premises. Prices start at $305.

5. Longitude 131 [Uluru / Ayers Rock]
The renovated Longitude 131 is a luxury, green and romantic hotel situated in Australia’s Red Centre. Completely burned down in 2003 in a bush fire the hotel reopened in 2004 welcoming guests back again to stay in the 15 private luxury tents. From the rooms guests can enjoy uninterrupted views of Uluru from the comfort of the deluxe camping accommodation. If you fancy a break here then it’s time to break out your card and prepare for some serious financial damage! Prices start at (an eye-watering) $1618.

6. Cape Lodge [Margaret River]
The Cape Lodge is an ideal retreat for wine connoisseurs. Set in its own vineyard within 40 acres of native forest, the resort is renowned for its cuisine, seclusion and natural beauty. Prices start at $425.

7. The Hatton Hotel [Melbourne]
The Hatton is a 4 star boutique hotel with 20 suites decorated in a vibrant contemporary style. Just South of the Yarra River, very close to the Royal Botanic Gardens and only a few tram stops to the CBD, this gorgeous little hotel is a stunner. Prices start at $215.

8. Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa [Katoomba]
For a costly but award winning stay consider the Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa. Renowned as a haven of relaxation and just a few hours inland from bustling Sydney this 5 star hotel’s historic building is set in 2 acres of manicured gardens. Prices start at $705.

9. The Richmond [Adelaide]
Inside of this grand 1920′s-era building, The Richmond offers 30 beautifully renovated guestrooms and suites, generously sized with ample room Rated as one of ‘Australia’s Top 15 Small Hotels’ by Vogue Australia, the Richmond also has an exciting bar fusing stylish comfort with culture and fashion. The hotel follows an open plan theme throughout its lounge, restaurant and balcony which overlooks the Rundle Mall. Prices start at $180.

10. Kims Beach Hideaway [Toowoon Bay]
Only an hour’s drive from Sydney lays Kims Beach Hideaway occupying the prime beachfront position at the horseshoe shaped Toowoon Bay. Inside the resort bungalows and spa villas are luxuriously decorated and well facilitated with private pools, indoor spa bath, or outdoor jacuzzis. Prices start at $454. [pictured above]

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One of the things that hotels, and international hotel brands in particular, are often criticised for is a lack of identity, the feeling of being somewhere but nowhere simultaneously. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. One of the emerging trends in the industry is the personalization of hotels around a style or a theme, so feast your eye on 7 of the coolest and most individual themed hotels from around the world!

Hotel Tomo [San Francisco, United States, above] Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Japantown, this hotel is uniquely themed around Japanese pop culture. Anime murals and other related art work are just the tip of this theme’s iceberg. The real reason that people love this theme hotel is because there are gaming suites that let adults plop into bean bag chairs and play video games as though they’re just kids hanging out in Tokyo. The on-site Kabuki Springs Spa gives a little bit of a luxury adult edge to the hotel and reminds visitors that it’s a great place for grown-ups.

Aria Hotel [Prague] Prague is a city known for its musical history and that’s the theme of this hotel located in the heart of the region. It’s a five star luxury resort where musical virtuosos and their fans can immerse themselves in music from the very first step they take on the property. From the Italian mosaic formed from a Gregorian chant to the surround-sound features in each room, every detail of the place is inspired by music.

The Block at Tahoe [Nevada, United States] The mountains of Lake Tahoe are a popular place for skiers and snowboarders to spend their winters so it was only a matter of time before a snowboarding theme hotel cropped up. Each room is themed around some aspect of snowboarding culture from the trendy DVS shoe brand they love to the Jones soda they drink. The Delta 9 poker-lovers’ room and the Vivid porn star room are other favourites in this hotel which is designed around the central idea that snowboarders are the world’s newest pimps.

Hotel Cocoon [Salvador, Brazil] This hotel prides itself on being the world’s first spaceship hotel. Minimalist design, contemporary colouring and a pool designed to feel as though it’s a lake in outer space are a few of the things that help to set the space ambience of this hotel.

Moscow Hotel Dubai [United Arab Emirates] There is a luxury hotel in the Middle East where you can pretend that you’re visiting Russia. Aspects of the hotel that enhance this theme include a recreation of the Bolshoi Dome, influences from Russian theatre design, A Tolstoy Library, a Russian restaurant and a coffee shop selling strong coffees from Russia.

The Iron Horse Hotel [Wisconsin, United States] This motorcycle-themed hotel hasn’t even opened yet and it’s already taking reservations from Harley riders interested in being among the first to enjoy the place. Located within walking distance of the brand-new Harley-Davidson Museum, this hotel is a luxury spot with special amenities for bikers. Those amenities include indoor bike parking, on-site bike washing facilities, and on-site stores selling everything a motorcycle rider might need.

Disney All Star Movies Resort [Florida, United States] The Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida has numerous hotels with themes ranging from African Wildlife to modern sports. One of the most fun theme hotels there, though, is this one which is all about the different movies that Disney and Pixar have put out over the years. Orlando is truly a family destination and this theme hotel is designed to appeal to families with kids of all ages. Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians and Fantasia are a few of the room themes to choose from.