5 Must-See International Resorts With Stunning Vistas

Five fabulous international hospitality escapes, including a seaside resort in the Greek islands, make the most of stunning natural vistas.

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Hôtel des Horlogers, Le Brassus, Switzerland.

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Following its Interior Design Best of Year–winning museum for Audemars Piguet, BIG now gives the Swiss watchmaker an equally striking hotel right next door. The 56-room boutique property, a collaboration with local firm CCHE, comprises five slablike levels arranged as a continuous ramp that zigzags down the hillside, a program that embraces the Vallée de Joux’s breathtaking topography while also evoking the winding route of the region’s famous watchmakers’ trail.

Fusion Design

Sanyea Sjór Seaside Resort, Shenzhen, China.

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Right from the rich hue of its exterior—a deep red based on the color of the local soil—this 14-room, two-story resort draws on the tones, textures, and shapes of nature to conjure an atmosphere of quiet remove. Beach sand inspired the palette of the interior, where brick gridwork casts dappled light on the floor of reception, the check-in desk looks like a block of rough-hewn granite, and a sculptural spiral stair painted Yves Klein blue suggests the coiled power of the ocean.

Hirsch Bedner Associates

Conrad Tulum Riviera Maya, Mexico.

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From the lobby’s pivoting-shutter walls and undulating rope ceiling installation to the spa’s cenotelike spaces, each centered on a circular pool beneath an oculus open to the sky, this 349-room resort—the brand’s debut property in the Mexican Caribbean—is infused with modern takes on Yucatan handcrafts, traditions, and materials. Even the guest rooms’ dark granite floors evoke volcanic rock while live-edge tzalam, often referred to as Mayan walnut, forms the handsome headboards.

GS Design

Sumei Skyline Coast Boutique Hotel, Sanya, China.

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Rolling ocean waves were the inspiration for the multi-arch facade of this minimalist haven on Hainan Island in the country’s southernmost province. Inside, the arched windows not only frame an infinite panorama of blue sea and sky but also establish a program of curvi­linear forms that includes a serpentine pool surrounded by sinuously shaped furniture in the lobby, ocular skylights above beds with rounded headboards in guest rooms, and colonnaded spaces melding circular and square geometries.

Block722

Casa Cook Samos, Potokaki, Greece.

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Overlooking the Aegean Sea and surrounded by the forested landscape of Samos, this 128-room, adults-only retreat nods to traditional Greek village houses, melding the earthy tones and textures of local wood, stone, and leather with the sleeker effect of smooth materials like marble and terrazzo. Village life is also emulated, with the property laid out as a series of small neighborhoods each centered around a swimming pool that acts as the town square.