10 New Luxury Hotel Alternatives To Love In 2025

10 New Luxury Hotel Alternatives To Love In 2025!

While the big boys are continuing to expand their portfolios with some spectacular announcements for 2025 the coming year is also shaping up to be a good one for people who prefer a bit of whimsy, a dollop of homegrown style and the one-of-a-kind feeling of an independent hotel (or at least one that’s part of a small regional group). From Aspen to Athens, Bhutan to Botswana, here are 15 new hotels that share a close attention to detail, a distinctive character and a genuine interest in sustainability.

 

The Americas

The Weston, Vermont

Following a renovation and rebrand, the Weston is re-emerging as a nine-room boutique hotel in the heart of the Green Mountains. The multi-generational family of owners took style inspiration from great New York institutions like the Carlyle and the Gramercy Park Hotel. There’s a feeling of time travel, as the hotel aims to transport guests back to an era of refined service, unapologetically exquisite French cuisine and highly designed rooms. (The spa, indoor yoga studio, and fitness center, however, are thoroughly of the 21st century.) The aesthetic takes in the West Indies and the Far East with a layering of fabrics, furnishings and original art.

Mollie Aspen

The designers of the new Mollie Aspen drew inspiration from the individuals who shaped Aspen throughout its history, especially the “inimitable” Mollie Gibson (a beloved local figure known for her enthusiasm for outdoor adventure and her ability to bring people together). For all its guidance by Western mountain town lore, the design of the 68 rooms blends Japanese and Scandinavian elements like natural woods and hand-dyed textiles into calm, quiet spaces. The food and beverage program was designed by Gin & Luck—the group behind the Death & Co. brand—and includes a lobby bar and restaurant with year-round outdoor seating. The rooftop pool and terrace bar have clear views of Aspen Mountain and turn into an intimate lounge after dark.

Silversands Beach House, Grenada

A stand-alone hotel designed with couples in mind, the new Silversands Beach House is scheduled to open next month as an addition to the portfolio of Silversands, the resort that upped the luxury game in Grenada when it opened several years ago. The new, 28-accommodation property includes freestanding one-bedroom villas and two-bedroom suites, some of which are oceanfront. The beach and the rooms are protected beneath a dramatic cliff, which ensures sublime privacy. The mini resort includes its own upscale trattoria and infinity pool, but guests can also enjoy the 100-meter swimming pool, exclusive spa and dining venues of the original resort, which is just ten minutes away.

River Lodge, California

River Lodge in Paso Robles is one of several upcoming openings from the Nomada Hotel Group, which is focused on the history and quirky character of California’s central coast—the portfolio will include early-20th-century saloons, revived roadside motels and a renovated catamaran at sea. This one is a wine country escape with 27 motel-style rooms, a large central pool, gardens, a lobby market, an indoor-outdoor bar and a full-service restaurant. Guests have access to e-bikes for quick rides to downtown and nearby wineries. Also of note is River Lodge’s upcoming sister property, Pozo, near Santa Margarita Lake, which will be centered on a 19th-century saloon that has hosted talent ranging from Willie Nelson to Kendrick Lamar.

Europe

Mateus Hotel, Lisbon

For a long time, the gently bohemian Independente was one of Lisbon’s undersung hotels. That’s no longer the case, thanks to the owners’ expansion into a new getaway in fashionable Comporta, a second urban hotel in the capital and—the pink cherry on top—the Mateus Hotel. The hotel, on the upper floors of the new Independente Lisboa-Bica, is a partnership with the producer of Mateus rosé, one of Portugal’s most popular wine exports. Its 13 rooms are decorated in pink hues with sustainable woods and artworks sourced from nonprofits, and its penthouse is a creative studio that showcases musical performances and serves as a chef’s table for rising star Bruno Antunes, who turns out Portuguese tapas with a Japanese twist in the main restaurant downstairs.

Brown Glow, Athens

The word “glow” in the name is no joke. Opening soon in the historic center of Athens on Lycourgous Street, the newest offering from Brown Hotels has a design inspired by the Lycourgous Cup, an important Roman artifact, and realized (by leading Greek firm Elastic Architects) via color-changing nanotechnology, which, when viewed through glass or perforated surfaces, creates mesmerizing, glowing illusions. Elsewhere, the design exemplifies the original 1960s features in the building and makes liberal use of vintage details. Along with 219 rooms, it has all the expected features like a restaurant, a lobby lounge and a rooftop bar and swimming pool.

Hotel Maria, Helsinki

Hotel Maria founder Samppa Lajunen, a former three-time Olympic gold medalist (for Nordic combined) turned luxury real estate developer states his goal for his new Hotel Maria simply: “to become the premier hotel experience in the Nordics and Helsinki's first true five-star destination." To that end, the hotel—which occupies four architecturally significant buildings constructed between 1885 and 1930—has 117 spacious (nearly 500 square feet on average), classically styled rooms, including 38 suites, along with two restaurants and bars, a state-of-the-art spa and destination boutique showcasing Finnish designers. The rooms have large “American-style” beds and spa-like bathrooms, in many cases with extra-large soaking tubs and traditional Finnish saunas.

Maison 1896, France

California hotelier and restaurateur David Fink (of the Relais & Château L’Auberge Carmel, among others) realized his lifelong dream of owning a hotel in his favorite wine region, Burgundy, with the late 2023 opening of Maison 1896 in Beaune, France. In partnership with the famed Burgundian wine family Maison Joseph Drouhin, he restored an 1896 Beaux-Arts building in the village’s historic center to house a luxury 16-room boutique hotel and restaurant. The early Art Deco palette, by French interior designer Estelle Fabre, is characterized by deep blues and burnt orange hues. While the setting and accommodations are quintessentially French, the cuisine is something else. San Francisco chef Charles Phan has brought the Vietnamese cuisine that he’s known for to the hotel’s restaurant, the Slanted Door, Beaune.