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Curator

From Scotland to Thailand: Five Spectacular New Hotels for 2025

This season's most getaway worthy hotels, including refurbished royal palaces and 16th Century former colleges. Plus, Bob Marley's kid photographer, a punk lengend, and more defining artists.

February 26, 2025 By THE GRAND TOURIST
The hillside pool at Few & Far Luvhondo in South Africa. Photo: Courtesy Few & Far Luvhondo

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Few & Far Luvhondo
From the founders of Under Canvas (the eco-minded, U.S.-based glamping company) comes Few & Far Luvhondo safari camp in Limpopo, South Africa. Located next to Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, one of the world’s most diverse regions, the camp is made up of six carbon-neutral cliffside suites. There’s plenty of game drives, treks, an infinity pool, as well as a spa. But perhaps the most exciting offering is the Solfari, a solar-powered cable car that transports guests above the treetops for further exploration. fewandfarluvhondo.com

Kilchoan Estate
Sitting on 13,000 acres in Scotland’s West Highlands, the Kilchoan Estate is a passion project of German businessman and hotelier Christoph Henkel and his wife, Katrin. The couple, who also revamped a former mining town into the luxurious Dunton Hot Springs resort in Colorado, purchased this untrammeled plot of land in 2020. They have spent the past five years rewilding the area as well as refurbishing several cottages, so guests can fish, hike, stalk, and just unwind in one of Britain’s most remote settings. duntondestinations.com

A room at the Collegio alla Querce in Florence, Italy. Photo: Courtesy Auberge Resorts

Collegio alla Querce
Just a 15-minute drive from Florence, the Collegio alla Querce offers a serene escape from the city’s swarm of tourists. Opening this month, the 16th-century former college features original frescoes and 83 spacious guest rooms and suites that were once classrooms. This is Auberge Resorts’ first foray into Italy, so expect stylish and clever details like a cocktail bar housed in an old science room with all the instruments on display, as well as lush gardens, an outdoor pool, and the Aelia spa that implements ingredients from the surrounding vineyards and groves. aubergeresorts.com

Aman Nai Lert Bangkok
Just in time for the third season of The White Lotus, the Aman opens the doors to its latest property on April 2. The brand is headed back to its Thai roots—the first Aman opened in Phuket in 1988. Located in Bangkok’s privately owned Nai Lert Park, the hotel occupies 19 stories of a high-rise tower. Designer and longtime collaborator Jean-Michel Gathy has melded the historic charm of the century-old Nai Lert Park Heritage Home here with the brand’s minimalist aesthetic. The property features open terraces, an infinity pool, a sprawling state-of-the-art spa, as well as a jazz and cigar club and various dining venues. aman.com

The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace atop the Maniyagarh Hills. Photo: Courtesy Oberoi

The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace
This 350-year-old royal palace is perched atop the Maniyagarh Hills in Madhya Pradesh, India. The 66-room property is fit for a maharaja, with preserved gardens, an infinity pool overlooking a lake, and a lavish spa accessed only by boat. Nearby, guests can visit the Panna National Park and Tiger Reserve as well as the UNESCO heritage temple of Khajuraho. oberoihotels.com —Maura Egan

Fergus Greer, Leigh Bowery Session 4 Look 17 August 1991. Photo: Copyright Fergus Greer, courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery.

Bob Marley’s Kid Photographer, a Punk Legend, and a Painting Pioneer; Global Openings Celebrating Defining Artists

London, “Leigh Bowery!” (Opens Feb. 27)
To describe Leigh Bowery as a work of art in himself is not a cliché. The Australian in London would paint himself in flamboyant colors and dress in outrageous garments—or nothing at all. “Flesh is my most favorite fabric,” he once said. Bowery’s outrageous performances, musical performances with his band Minty, short-lived Taboo nightclub, and, most famously, modeling for painter Lucian Freud broke all conventions. In 1981, he wrote in his diary, “Fashion, where all girls have clear skin, blue eyes, blonde-blown wavy hair and a size 10 figure, and all the men have clear skin, moustaches, short waved blonde hair and masculine physical appearance, STINKS.” Bowery died prematurely in 1994 of an AIDS-related illness. This legacy-defining exhibition remembers Bowery’s colorful, unapologetic, and influential life. tate.org.uk

Oslo, “Georg Baselitz: Feet First” (Until May 4)
Though Georg Baselitz was behind his contemporaries in achieving international fame, the 87-year-old painter’s confrontational work is credited with shaping German art emerging in the aftermath of World War II. “I was born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society,” he said in 1995. “And I didn’t want to reestablish an order: I had seen enough of so-called order.” In disruption of convention and perhaps also to find his footing in the art world, he’s been painting his work upside down since 1969. In Oslo, the Munch Museum investigates the German painter’s interest in Edvard Munch. Baselitz was so fascinated by a portrait of Munch in his studio with his feet outside the frame that he made a painting of the missing feet. Baselitz’s references to Munch and The Scream are represented in 80 paintings, drawings, and sculptures from the early 1960s to recent years. munchmuseet.no

Kandinsky’s Universe. Photo: David von Becker, courtesy Museum Barberini.

Potsdam, “Kandinsky’s Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century” (Until May 18)
It’s rumored that painter Wassily Kandinsky’s interest in abstraction began when he came home to his studio one day to see one of his paintings hanging upside down. Confused, it took him some time to realize it was his own work. Kandinsky would describe the stunning potential of abstraction in the foundational text Point and Line to Plane. This survey of abstractionism starts with 12 works by Kandinsky, following his influence in over 100 works by more than 70 artists, including Josef Albers, Barbara Hepworth, Frank Stella, and Victor Vasarely. museum-barberini.de

Paris, “Dennis Morris: Music + Life” (Until May 18)
One of British photographer Dennis Morris’s most famous shots is one he took at 16 years old: a portrait of Bob Marley smoking a joint. In 1974, when Morris was attending school in London, he learned that Bob Marley was playing close by. The aspiring photographer went, camera in hand, and asked Marley for a picture. Marley agreed, but also invited him to join the tour. Morris would go on to extensively document Marley, as well as the Sex Pistols and London’s punk scene. All the while, he preferred an inconspicuous Leica camera. “No one takes it seriously. So you get them to open up.” Now, the first retrospective of the photographer in Paris presents the full range of his portfolio filled with legendary musicians. mep-fr.org —Vasilisa Ioukhnovets

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