Torres del Paine National Park, Chile — When building a hotel in one of the world’s last great wild places, it pays to get out of the way of the views. And from a few hundred yards away, Tierra Patagonia looks like little more than a fissure in the earth, with the glacier-blue Lago Sarmiento and the jagged snowcapped peaks of the Torres del Paine massif just beyond.
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Punta Gorda, Belize — The numbers tell most of the story at Belcampo Lodge: twelve low-impact, high-pleasure suites set on three thousand acres of sustainable farmland, with another fifteen thousand acres of rainforest preserve just beyond. Spacious as they are inside, from above the cabanas look like mere blips in the vast, surrounding canopy.
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Canyon Point, Utah — It’s not the first place one expects to find this sort of hotel, but the otherworldly landscape of the southern Utah desert makes a perfect backdrop for Amangiri’s strikingly stark architecture. The minimalist interiors put guests so close to the natural world they can practically reach out and touch it from bed, though as Aman constantly proves, minimalist aesthetics go perfectly well with maximum luxury.
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Bajos del Toro, Costa Rica — Deep in the mountainous Costa Rican cloud forest, El Silencio’s visual and ecological footprint is remarkably light. With their roofs just jutting out from the mist and the trees, the bungalows look almost like an outgrowth of the woods themselves — though inside they’re plenty civilized, with high-thread-count sheets and private hot tubs.
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Puerto Natales, Chile — The luxury hotels around Torres del Paine almost have an architectural vernacular of their own, and it’s largely about humility in the face of natural grandeur. Like Tierra Patagonia, Remota almost disappears into the surrounding steppe, its high glass panes reflecting the scenery and its grass-planted roof camouflaging it from above.
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Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve, Belize — Equal parts rustic escapism and unpretentious luxury, the bungalows at Francis Ford Coppola’s Belizean eco-lodge are anything but ostentatious — just a few thatched roofs peeking through the verdant jungle foliage, set right at the frontier where carefully tended gardens dissolve into the rainforest.
Blancaneaux Lodge →

Madaba, Jordan — Set eight hundred feet below sea level, at the bottom of a canyon whose walls are sluiced by hot spring–fed waterfalls, Evason Ma’In feels about as private — and as close to the stark natural surroundings — as can be. An hour from the Amman airport, it looks like a whole other world — and like a fine excuse for an extended layover.
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Gifu, Japan — Covered in lichen, with simply made walls of pressed earth, and floors and ceilings with uncut tree trunks running straight through them, Wanosato is very much of a piece with its river-valley home. And folded into the woods outside an isolated mountain town, it almost feels as if one big snowstorm or a heavy flurry of foliage could swallow it whole.
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Tarina, Italy — From afar it looks like just a little rocky outcrop in the middle of a densely wooded forest, and even up close Eremito Hotelito is as simple as can be. The rustic stone structure is comprised entirely of single rooms, with an alcove overlooking a seven-thousand-acre nature reserve providing the bulk of the in-room entertainment.
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Big Sur, California — All the material comforts of a decadent spa resort are on offer at Ventana, but what sets it apart is the endless series of hallucinatory Pacific views. Set a thousand feet above the ocean, the hotel’s ten low wooden structures feel hidden away amidst the hills, with gorgeous winding pathways in between.
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Izu City, Japan — If it weren’t for the warmly glowing light seeping out through the slatted windows, this traditional ryokan in a rural mountain valley would nearly disappear into the trees. And with their combination of natural woods, cave-like rock walls and scattered boulders, the shared baths, too, look like something you’d stumble upon during a dreamy amble through the woods.
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