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CHAMPAGNE SPECIAL
FAENA HOTEL MIAMI BEACH
�ough the Faena District Miami Beach complex is unnished,
the recently opened Faena Hotel Miami Beach provides a
dramatic glimpse of what's to come. Designed in collaboration
with lm director Baz Luhrmann and his costume designer
wife, Catherine Martin, it's a gleefully unrestrained homage to
Miami Beach's 50s heyday and South American heritage. Vivid
turquoise and ruby-red interiors glisten, ethereal gold-leaf murals
decorate the grand hallway and a 24-carat-gold woolly mammoth
skeleton stands sentry by the beach. Unwind with cabaret at the
in-house theatre and 'shaman-developed' spa treatments.
Double room B&B from £600, faena.com
1 HOTEL CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK
Taking a radically dierent approach from the often-fusty grande dames populating this
stretch of Manhattan, the ivy-clad 1 Hotel Central Park seduces sustainability-minded
consumers with features that are both eco-conscious and beautiful. For example, the entrance
doors feature reclaimed wood that's an accumulation of 16,000 fallen twigs, while bedside
chalkboards replace notepads and, instead of plastic bottles of water, the hotel has installed
water lters in each room: a simple innovation reecting consumers' changing expectations
and the 1 Hotels group's mantra of '�ose who travel the world, care about it'.
Double room (excluding breakfast) from £408, 1hotels.com
THE TEMPLE HOUSE, CHENGDU
With the surrounding region home to some 80 per cent
of the world's pandas, Chengdu's Temple House provides
an attractive base from which to explore the Chinese
city, though this pocket of it is as rich in history as you'll
nd -the 1,000-year-old Daci Temple stands next to the
hotel and the property's ancient courtyard dates back to
the early Qing dynasty. Respectful, traditional touches -
such as bronze detailing referencing the Shu embroidery
practised here - dominate, though rather less traditionally,
the house's signature restaurant is Italian.
Double room B&B from £257, thetemplehousehotel.com