22/09/2026
The luxury hotels living rent free in my head. Every once in a while a hotel ruins me for other luxury hotels. These are the five-star hotels I can’t stop thinking about, can’t stop recommending, and absolutely cannot stop talking about.
As a luxury travel advisor for 9+ years, selling multiple millions in luxury travel a year, I look at (and book) dreamy hotels for a living.
These are the ones I cannot stop thinking about.
Hotel: Ett Hem
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
“Ett Hem” means “A Home” in Swedish — and somehow, improbably, this 25-room Östermalm townhouse actually delivers on that. Designed by Ilse Crawford. Staffed by people who know your name before you arrive. Breakfast in a greenhouse. Dinner by the fire in a kitchen you can sit in. No lobby, no front desk, no performance of luxury. Just fireplaces, bookshelves, and the quiet feeling that you’ve been let in on something most people don’t know about.
Hotel: Ett Hem
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
“Ett Hem” means “A Home” in Swedish — and somehow, improbably, this 25-room Östermalm townhouse actually delivers on that. Designed by Ilse Crawford. Staffed by people who know your name before you arrive. Breakfast in a greenhouse. Dinner by the fire in a kitchen you can sit in. No lobby, no front desk, no performance of luxury. Just fireplaces, bookshelves, and the quiet feeling that you’ve been let in on something most people don’t know about.
Hotel: Ett Hem
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
“Ett Hem” means “A Home” in Swedish — and somehow, improbably, this 25-room Östermalm townhouse actually delivers on that. Designed by Ilse Crawford. Staffed by people who know your name before you arrive. Breakfast in a greenhouse. Dinner by the fire in a kitchen you can sit in. No lobby, no front desk, no performance of luxury. Just fireplaces, bookshelves, and the quiet feeling that you’ve been let in on something most people don’t know about.
Hotel: NIHI Sumba | Edge of Wildness™
Location: Sumba Island, Indonesia
Nihi has won Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Hotel — not once, but twice. And once you understand Sumba, you get it immediately. The island is wild, raw, and completely its own thing. NIHI leans into t