[vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”11754,11764,11758,11756,11762″][vc_column_text]Every year Virtuoso awards the Best of the Best in 10 Categories. Here are the Virtuoso 2016 Best of the Best winners.
Best Achievement in Design
Faena Hotel Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
Highlights include:
- Floor-to-ceiling murals by Juan Gatti through the lobby “Cathedral”
- A 24-karat gold-plated woolly mammoth sculpture by Damien Hirst guards the garden.
- 169 guest rooms with bold red and teal accents, animal prints, and furnishings stealing attention from the balconies’ ocean views.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a $100 resort credit.
Best Culinary Experience
The Farmhouse Restaurant – Farmhouse Inn, California, U.S.
- Family-owned, 25-room Russian River Valley inn
- Cottages with vaulted ceilings and wood-burning fireplaces, a carriage-house spa, and winemaking owners.
- Michelin-starred restaurant, housed in a restored 1873 farmhouse
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a $100 spa credit.
Best Bar
Gold Bar – The New York EDITION, New York, U.S.
- Original herringbone floors, mahogany walls, carved plaster ceilings, and hundreds of artists’ portraits in gilt frames.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a $100 hotel credit.
Best Family Program
Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- Daily hands-on activities inspired by Mexican arts-and-crafts traditions, such as making piñatas, papier-mâché masks, and ceramics
- Staff members also teach kids about artwork featured throughout the hotel and will help plan families’ days to highlight area art.
Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a $100 spa credit.
Best Spa
Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Lake Como, Italy
- 90-room recently redesigned eighteenth-century wellness villa
- Espa treatments and, among other flourishes, a white marble Hammam Suite with a steam room, couples’ bathtub, scrub plinth, and rain shower with a nebulized waterfall.
- The Grand Garden Ritual, a nearly two-hour aromatherapy session that includes an exfoliation, massage, and facial created exclusively for T Spa.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily, a 25-minute spa treatment, and a winetasting once during stay, and complimentary entrance to Villa Carlotta and its gardens.
Most Innovative Guest Experience
Belmond Hotel das Cataratas, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
- Exclusive access to the falls before and after the park opens and closes.
- A resident biologist who leads guided walking tours of the rain forest and falls, which are visible from many of the 193 guest rooms.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and one-way private airport transfers.
Sustainable Tourism Leadership
&Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Four-lodge, 61-room property worked to transform degraded farmland into a wildlife habitat, set up a “wilderness safety zone”
- Home to South Africa’s fourth-largest cheetah population
- Fostered numerous local partnerships for community projects, including a health clinic that serves 10,000 villagers, a community recycling center, and an education fund.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily, a private dinner for two, and a travel journal and shoulder bag.
One to Watch
Hotel Eden Rome, Dorchester Collection, Rome, Italy
- Historic 121-room property closed for renovations in 2015 and is scheduled to reopen in early 2017
- Impeccable service
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a $100 dining credit.
Hotelier of the Year
José Silva – Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, Paris, France
- Introduced guest experiences such as flower- arranging classes and concierge-led jogging around Paris monuments
- The restaurant bucked Parisian hotel tradition by serving healthy Mediterranean-inspired dishes in a more casual setting than the property’s three-Michelin-starred Le Cinq.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily.
Hotel of the Year
Borgo Egnazia, Savelleteri Di Fasano, Italy
- 183-room resort in Puglian style with a fresh modern feel
- Championship golf course
- Adriatic beach clubs
- A spa that incorporates local herbs and olive oils into treatments
- Six restaurants (one just for kids)
- Enrichment programs from fishing and photography to bartending and wine appreciation.
Vision Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and one dinner for two[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]