Hokkaido, Japan
A contemporary ryokan hidden in birch forest at Hanazono in Niseko, Hokkaido, with Mount Yotei filling the view. Fifteen freestanding villas, each around 100 square metres, and every one with its own indoor and open-air hot-spring bath fed by natural volcanic water.
View hotel
Ninh Van Bay, Vietnam
A boat-only resort of around 60 pool villas on a remote crescent of coast on the Ninh Van peninsula, reached by a 20-minute speedboat from Nha Trang. Timber villas built into the rocks, the hillside and the beach, each with a private pool, plus a spa and organic gardens.
View hotel
Ise-Shima, Japan
An Aman onsen retreat in the wooded hills of Ise-Shima National Park, looking down over the still, pearl-farming waters of Ago Bay. Twenty-four suites and eight villas by Kerry Hill, in a pared-back modern take on the Japanese ryokan, each suite with its own hot-spring bath.
View hotel
Kinosaki Onsen, Japan
A ryokan of more than 150 years in Kinosaki Onsen, a willow-lined hot-spring town on the San'in coast of northern Hyogo. Tatami rooms look onto clipped Japanese gardens, meals are kaiseki built around Tajima beef and winter snow crab, and guests stroll the town in yukata between its seven public bathhouses.
View hotel
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Around 100 tented villas set against the sandstone cliffs of the Ashar Valley in AlUla, north-west Saudi Arabia, on the edge of an ancient palm oasis and a short drive from the Nabataean tombs of Hegra. A sustainability-minded resort with a pool, the Thuraya wellness centre and a full programme of desert and cultural activities.
View hotel
Yakushima, Japan
Twenty-nine cedar-clad villas on a quiet hillside on Yakushima, the World Heritage island of ancient cedar forest off southern Kyushu, with the mountains behind and the sea in front. A spring-fed outdoor pool, a seaweed-based spa, and prix-fixe dinners built on island produce.
View hotel
Tokyo, Japan
A modern ryokan stacked into a 17-storey tower in Tokyo's Otemachi financial district. Shoes come off at the entrance, every floor is tatami with just six rooms and an attended tea lounge, and the top floor holds an open-air onsen fed by dark mineral water drawn from 1,500 metres below the city.
View hotel
Kyoto, Japan
The first Six Senses in Japan, opened in 2024 in Kyoto's temple-dense Higashiyama district, next to the garden of the 16th-century Toyokuni Shrine. Eighty-one rooms in a playful, Heian-inspired design around courtyard gardens, with a spa built around onsen-style bathing.
View hotel
Nikko, Japan
A low, minimalist Ritz-Carlton on the shore of Lake Chuzenji, high in Nikko National Park beneath the cone of Mount Nantai. Ninety-four rooms with lake or mountain views and small Zen gardens, plus the brand's first natural hot spring, fed by milky sulphur water piped down from Yumoto Onsen.
View hotel