The stay edit.
Every hotel on this page has been stayed in by an editor — priced live, updated continually, bookable in one click through our partner.
Il San Pietro di Positano
A cliff-face hotel that has, somehow, been a cliff-face hotel for fifty-four years without ever feeling like one. Our editors have stayed here four times this decade. The lemon-tree garden, the lift down to the swim-platform, the restaurant above the sea — still the most convincing hotel on the coast.
Stays our editors would return to.
Aman Kyoto
Soneva Fushi
Casa Angelina
La Mamounia
Hotel Nimb
Hotel Matilda
How our editors pick a hotel.
A short, sharp guide to the checklist we run — from how we judge a bathtub to what we do with the first hour after check-in. Recommended reading before you book.
Read the feature →Shinta Mani Wild
The Newt
Aman Venice
destination.com earns a small affiliate commission from Expedia Group — which is how this journal stays independent and ad-free. No hotel pays us for placement. Every recommendation here has been stayed in by an editor.
Stays, grouped by mood.
Twelve curated lists of hotels that share a sensibility — so you can browse the ones that suit you, without scrolling through the ones that don't.
Design-led small hotels
The sea, from a balcony
Alpine stays, year-round
Family, without the compromise
Historic ryokans
Hotels our editors return to
Every stay here has been stayed in by an editor.
We're not scraping hotel databases or repackaging press trips. An editor books a room, pays for it, and files notes the next morning. If the room turns out to be wrong, we take it off the list.
That's a slow way to build a hotel catalog. It's also, we think, the only honest one.
Stayed, not scraped
Every property visited in person by a contributing editor within the last 24 months.
Priced live, booked in one place
Live inventory via our booking partner — Expedia Group. Free cancellation on most.
No pay-for-placement
Hotels can't pay to be listed here. Our edit is our edit, which is the whole point.