Product Description

Spectacular settings and authentic style—forty new Hip Hotels will make your beach experience unique.

Glittering turquoise waters lapping onto pure white sand, sea birds riding the breeze ...give or take surf, the perfect beach is pretty much the same the world over. But that is certainly not true of the perfect beach hotel.

On the shores of six continents, each of these Hip Hotels expresses the uniqueness of its setting. Cable Beach Club in Broome, Western Australia, combines corrugated iron with oriental antiques and silks in an exquisite Asia-meets-Outback style—perfect in this quintessential Australian destination, the former pearl-diving capital of the world. On the volcanic island of Santorini, rising spectacularly from the Greek Aegean, the sparkling white domed cottages of Hotel Tsitouras cling to the cliffside, their interiors adorned with ancient amphorae, Byzantine icons, and antique porcelain from the owner's outstanding art collection. Off the shores of East Africa, the private atoll of Mnemba hosts a collection of luxuriously simple beach huts made from hand-woven palm matting traditional to neighboring Zanzibar. On Mexico's Pacific Coast, the luxury ecological reserve of Hotelito Desconocido invites you to witness the annual scramble of newly hatched sea turtles as they make their first intrepid journey to the ocean. And it's not all about Robinson Crusoe-style minimalism: the Shore Club in Miami's South Beach is a chic five-acre seafront complex, complete with gorgeous tropical gardens, Nobu restaurant, top-class boutiques, and A-list clientele.

So grab your sunscreen and your straw hat and join photographer Herbert Ypma in visiting the latest collection of Highly Individual Places. 500 illustrations, 350 in color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381840 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The latest volume in this coffee-table, ultra-chic hotel series (Hip Hotels: Ski, etc.) expands readers’ horizons beyond the mainstream to the sandy shores of the world’s quirkiest-and most beautiful-resort properties in such escapist paradises as Greece, Turkey, India, South Africa, Polynesia and the Seychelles. Along his sun-dappled journey, author and photographer Ypma exposes rare gems like The Chedi hotel located in the Sultanate of Oman. ("While neighboring Dubai offers a flashy gold-chain-and-Gucci version of the Middle East, the Chedi Muscat gives you Lawrence of Arabia...without the tent.") And in Italy’s Aeolian islands, the author suggests trying the Hotel Raya, "a day’s boat ride north of Sicily." Ypma also offers up a few non-tropical surprises, such as The Lugger in Cornwall, England, a converted smuggler’s fort now catering to the sybaritic pleasures of its guests. The azure-rich photographs in this elegantly designed paperback give readers a peek at the lush interiors of the ultra modern getaways that are Ypma’s focus, while dozens of detail-rich thumbnail shots help capture each hotel’s interior mood. Ypma’s prose also bares his trademark flair for conjuring vivid images, as in this description of the Hotelito Desconocido in Jalisco, Mexico: "As you pass through the nearby pueblo-a place straight out of El Mariachi-and descend towards the distant palm trees that tell you the Pacific is not far away, nothing can compete with your first glimpse of this palm-fringed lagoon and its long strip of unending beach." While this slick, immensely readable compendium is not intended as a traditional travel guide, it will serve as an inspiration to spur adventures in lesser-traversed lands. 511 illustrations, 396 in color
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Review
Destined to become the bible for traveling fashionistas—or those who just wish they were. -- Entertainment Weekly

His well-edited selection of the best-designed places to stay will have readers scrambling to make travel plans. -- Travel & Leisure

Hotels so stunning, so individual, so undeniably designer destinations in their own right. -- Wallpaper

Ypma's beautiful photographs are accompanied by discussions of each hotel's history and design. -- Condé Nast Traveler