Forbes Travel Guide, the global authority on luxury travel for hotels, restaurants, spas and cruises, announces the 2024 Star Awards which recognized properties and new destinations, including Sardinia, Baku in Azerbaijan, Curacao, Iceland, Kenya;
Algarve and Madeira in Portugal, Rwanda, Koh Samui in Thailand;
Rabat, Mecca, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The list includes more than 2 thousand properties around the world: 340 five-star, 600 four-star and 503 recommended hotels;
78 five-star, 121 four-star and 59 recommended restaurants;
126 five-star and 201 four-star spas;
and 7 four-star and five-star recommended cruise ships.
For Italy in particular there are 19 5-star hotels, 36 4-star hotels and 4 spas and 15 hotels (including the new entries 7Pines Resort Sardinia and Conrad Chia Laguna Sardinia) among the recommended ones.
In particular ,
Dubai
, which already hosts 12 5-star hotels, acquires five new five-star hotels (Address Beach Resort; Armani Hotel Dubai; Atlantis, The Royal; The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai; and The St. Regis Dubai, The Palm ), more than any other market.
In addition to Dubai, the Middle East sees other new winners, including
Doha
(Four Seasons Hotel Doha and Raffles Doha) and
Kuwait
(Waldorf Astoria Kuwait), earning the country the most 5-star awards.
Luxury adventure travel
is on the rise
: Rwanda debuts on the list with two 'five-stars' (One&Only Gorilla's Nest and One&Only Nyungwe House), while
Kenya makes its first appearance with animal-focused experiences
: four-star Giraffe Manor stars in Nairobi and at the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club.
For the second consecutive year,
Macau remains the city with the highest number of five-star hotels
(22), joined by Paiza Lofts at The Parisian Macao.
Three hotels earned their unique triple five-star status
, the highest accolades for hotels, restaurants and spas:
Salamander Middleburg, Virginia;
Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, California;
and Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman
, captured the Caribbean's first triple five-star title with its Blue by Eric Ripert restaurant and Ritz-Carlton Spa, Grand Cayman.
According to Forbes Travel Guide,
travel to smaller metropolitan areas
such as Nashville, Charleston and New Orleans is increasing.
Five-star restaurants appear for the first time in Grand Cayman (Blue by Eric Ripert) and Tokyo (Nouvelle Epoque).
Also debuting
in Dubai with the four-star Armani/Ristorante Dubai
and Stay by Yannick Alléno at One&Only The Palm, and in Los Cabos with the four-star Cocina de Autor at Grand Velas Los Cabos.
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