hotel el ganzo, los cabos
The 72-room Hotel El Ganzo—full name: Hotel El Ganzo Design Boutique, Arts, Live Music, Marina and SPA—is an attractive boutique hotel that overlooks the Puerto Los Cabos marina. This property is teeming with charm: starting with its playful room categories (Large Suites, Very Large Suites) to its underground recording studio (fittingly named The Underground) accessed by a trap door in the floor of the lobby, not to mention its white walls that act as blank canvases for visiting artists. Hotel El Ganzo boasts a rooftop bar, pool and lounge, full-service spa, onsite restaurants, and concierge services that provide guests with off-site excursions such as biking, sportfishing, paddle boarding and swimming with dolphins at the Dolphin Discovery Center. This fall, Hotel El Ganzo is offering its first wellness and fitness week. The Mind-Body-Spirit Retreat, from Oct. 1-7, is a 6-day, all-inclusive package providing guests with nutritional, physical and spiritual guidance from a group of experts that range from a professional fitness trainer to a chef and yoga instructor. The retreat features group workouts, yoga and meditation breathing sessions, cooking classes and one-on-one private consultations. Hotel rates range from $300 to $5,000 a night. The all-inclusive package rate, which includes accommodations, meals and all wellness sessions, starts at $3,200 pp. (855) 835-4269; elganzo.com
archer hotel, new york city
The Archer Hotel is sitting on some prime New York City real estate—nestled between Avenue of the Americas and Fifth Avenue, and only two blocks from Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan’s Garment District. It has a rooftop bar called Spyglass with views of the iconic Empire State Building, and a David Burke restaurant, fabrick, and because it sits in the city’s fashion hub, the hotel’s 180 guestrooms are uniquely designed in one of four different design palettes with custom-made furniture; platform beds with drawers underneath; bathrooms with a walk-in, dual-head shower; work space; a laptop safe; floor-to-ceiling windows; complimentary WiFi; high-quality bedding; and a specialty turndown service for guests that includes treats like Baked by Melissa cupcakes, chocolate-dipped fortune cookies with Archer messages inside, and more. Adding to the hotel’s charm, guests receive aDestination Joker playing card upon arrival—it works as a loyalty program—worth $10 that can be collected or used at the lobby bar, the David Burke restaurant, the rooftop bar, the in-room refreshment bar or at the hotel’s retail shop. A Destination Joker card collected from each Archer hotel (New York, Austin, Napa Valley) creates an Archer Flush and earns guests one night free. Starting rates for Classic King and Classic Queen rooms are $249 a night. (855) 437-9100; archerhotel.com/new-york
ham yard hotel, london
London’s Soho neighborhood sets the scene for the Ham Yard Hotel, a member of Design Hotels and the eighth property by Firmdale Hotels. This 91-room hotel, with a residential component, is nestled in a pedestrian-friendly courtyard and flanked by a restaurant, bar, and 13 retail shops—an urban village in a once-neglected part of London. But that’s not all. The hotel, situated behind Piccadilly Circus, also boasts a public drawing room, a library, and rooftop garden while the thoroughfare features the hotel’s Soholistic Spa, the 188-seat Ham Yard Theater, and an original 1950s bowling alley called The Croc, which was imported from Texas and named for the three driftwood crocodiles that ornament the walls of the bowling alley’s dance floor. Each of the 91 rooms was individually designed and features floor-to-ceiling windows either facing the London skyline or the courtyard; bold colors; wide and colorfully striped wallpaper; eclectic artwork and modern furnishings. To celebrate the hotel’s opening this past June, Ham Yard is offering a 15 percent commission for agents. But act fast—the offer runs only through Aug. 31. Starting rates for Ham Yard Hotel are $453 a night. designhotels.com or designhotels.com/travelpro
