The Curation: Volume 46
The 2024 Happy Hoteling Superlatives, 48 Hours in Torino, my 26 most anticipated hotel openings for 2025, and my top ten favorite books of the year.
Happy Hotelers,
I know I say a rendition of this nearly every week, but I can’t believe this is the last post of the year. It was just January, I really could have sworn. But then, I look back at where I was, where we were a year ago and it’s clear we’ve come quite a long way.
A year ago, I set the intention of making Happy Hoteling full-time in 2024. That was far from possible at the time, but somewhere along the way each and every one of you made it happen. This is now #9 on the Substack Travel leaderboard, which is beyond wild to me. I’m utterly humbled and even more motivated.
This has become a place where I can share my strange superpower with the world. My lifelong niche, my childhood preoccupation, my true love for hotels. But also, it’s become a place where I get to share my mind with you, and with that, a place where I feel free and also obligated to go the distance, every week.
Going the distance is a cliche, perhaps, but it’s an apt phrase for me and Happy Hoteling. I have always felt strongly in doing something well or not doing it at all. I have always found it important to take long flights and long drives and long train drives, to go places where Special hasn’t been spoiled. And as a maximalist only child, I do believe more is more. More context, more truth, more photos, more to choose from. More than just hotels. More than just the classics or the cool. More than America and Italy. That’s where this ship has been sailing all year, and we’re headed due North for the new year.
Italy will always be my special sauce, and California my American emphasis, but the world is so very big and we have so much to traverse. Like the magic of any good relationship, I promise to never stop trying to impress you, while never straying from or suffocating my me-est me.
Thank you so much for being here. You made my year.
Happy New Year and Happy Hoteling!
TODAY’S AGENDA
The 2024 Happy Hoteling Superlatives, of the hotels I stayed at this year
48 Hours in Torino - The Turin Short List
The 26 hotel openings I’m most excited for in 2025
My 10 favorite books of the year, out of 126
In lieu of a curated shopping list, I thought I’d share my full December ‘24 Curation
COMING SOON
A big update to The UK Hotel List
Hotel Reviews for two hotels of my December trip: Hotel Elephant in the Dolomites and Grandhotel Giessbach in Switzerland
An extensive stay journal from my last (epic!!) hotel stay of 2024, The Inn at Newport Ranch on the Mendocino Coast of Northern California
My origin story
Points and Miles 101
The 2025 Italian culture calendar and itineraries for the highlights
Thank you so much for your patience this week. I have had a cold that will not go away and it kicked back into high gear the past couple days.
The 2024 Happy Hoteling Superlatives
This was a year filled with Happy Hoteling. I didn’t stay at a single hotel that I wouldn’t stay at again, for one reason or all the reasons. What a win!
I also didn’t take a single hosted stay that for a property wasn’t already on my list or previously mentioned here or on TikTok. To the humans at the hotels that took a bet on me this year and invited me to stay – I cannot thank you enough.
All the hotels in the running below have been properties I stayed the night – no meals or site visits, it’s impossible to get a real read without an overnight.
Some categories have a sole winner, some many-way ties, some with a traditional third, second and first place winner. It’s all based on what the category is, because I have spent far too long deliberating and want my nuanced thoughts to come through!
Happy, Happy Hoteling!
This post is likely far, far too long for email – if that’s the case for you, click at the top to view in the Substack app or browser.
MOST SPECIAL PIECE OF EARTH
A hotel that has a Special factor beyond digital comprehension, as it comes down to the feeling and sensory experience of the very Special Piece of Earth the property lives and breaths on.
In third place is Two Bunch Palms, in the Palm Springs area of California, for the flora and fauna, the juxtaposition of the desert with the mountains in the distance, and the very Special mineral waters.
Second place is a true tie. Tenuta di Murlo in Umbria, Italy for the entire vast estate that has an energy that can’t be expressed through words. And sunflower fields!
But then equally magical is The Inn at Newport Ranch on the Mendocino Coast of Northern California, from which I just returned. It’s the most magnificent (and green, even in December) property I’ve ever witnessed in the US, period.
And the winner is Grandhotel Giessbach on Lake Brienz in Switzerland. Don’t take my word for this, if you ever have the opportunity, go experience it for yourself.
MOST LIKEABLE AND STRONG STAFF
I’m not going to rank these, I don’t like to pit people together. And this is for guest-facing staff that anyone would encounter on their stay.