Culture: The Leading Hotels of the World

There are many ways to travel the world and many different reasons to do so. For those who enjoy the exclusive hotel experience, this title, which focuses on a selection of properties held by the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio, is a feast for the eyes and a prompt for both the imagination and travel plans. Pico Iyer (Aflame: Learning from Silence) provides a foreword, centered on his experience in London’s Brown’s Hotel and the ineffable sense of culture that it and other hotels emanate. In his introduction, editor Bailey (In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials) expands on the idea of culture, considering art, architecture, and food. What follows is a grand tour of more than 80 glamorous hotels, arranged by region. Each hotel is showcased in a few highly curated glossy photographs, accompanied by short texts attributed to various art, travel, and culture writers. A few hotels get a bit more coverage, with multiple-page essays extolling their qualities.