Berlin, 2012 – While digging up fresh treasures in the old haunts of Europe like the Swiss and Austrian Alps, Design Hotels™ also discovered some exciting new Asian island properties in Indonesia and Thailand. And entirely new destinations: Malaysia and Ukraine! Balancing both sides of this invisible line, each of the hotels showcase their surroundings in all of its bounty, and delight with well thought out design concepts and details. “With the demand for experiential travel on the rise, our new member properties have ‘Originals’ (behind them) who are excellent storytellers. Be enticed by a sensory assault of sight, smell and taste in Cuernavaca, the cantilevered wonder in Phuket or the open-plan pool villas in Bali. Whatever you choose, we assure you, you’ll be lapping up chapter after chapter,” says Claus Sendlinger, CEO of Design Hotels™. www.designhotels.com/newadditions

The Giardino Mountain resort located in Champfèr, which is a five-minute stroll away from St Moritz, offers views 7,000 feet above sea level from its exclusive mountain lounge. The building’s 100-year history has been carefully restored, then married with a modern take on alpine interior style. While in the restaurant, regional products are combined with imagination by Rolf Fliegauf (the youngest chef in Europe with two Michelin stars). The sister property on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, Giardino Lago, has only 14 rooms and one suite, where maximum comfort and service include luxuries like fly-in transfers with the hotel’s private airline, Fly Giardino.

Named after the colorful, fragrant flowers in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos in southern Mexico, Flor de Mayo Hotel & Restaurant is a sensory delight with blossoming vegetation and views of downtown, as well as the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes. The natural, floral theme continues inside the hotel, where the floor, walls and textiles all incorporate the five-petal Flor de Mayo theme.

Hidden in an ancient valley on the western shore of Phuket, The Naka Phuket allows guests to float among the trees. The discreet, tropical hideout, with 94 glass-built villas cantilevering out from the mountainside above a private beach provides endless panoramas of the sparkling Andaman Sea. In Bali, delMango Villa Estate is an eco-friendly hideaway designed by internationally acclaimed local architect Yoka Sara and Nobuyuki Narabayashi (formerly a creative director at pioneering Japanese design group Super Potato). There are 14 self-contained villas, linked together by cool timber decks and shaded by curvy, white-stone roofs. Macalister Mansion is a quirky and sophisticated lifestyle destination that nods both to Penang’s colonial past and to its colorful present. The renovated and revitalized 100-year-old mansion boasts bespoke features and artwork in each of the rooms, from the privately commissioned love sonnet in the Bridal Suite, to the spiral staircase and turret in Room 4.

The list of nine new members with opening dates is below.

To view them online please visit www.designhotels.com/newadditions 

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