MILAN
Bound to be a hit in the Italian fashion capital – the W Milan is opening next year in a mid-century modern building in the boho Brera district. We're particularly looking forward to cocktails and city-gazing on the roof terrace.
SRI LANKA
British Airways has just started running direct flights to Sri Lanka. Very good news for those hoping to be first to discover the recently opened east coast.
CANNES
The first-ever Giorgio Armani/Caffe is opening on La Croisette in time for the film festival. Adjoined to the first Giorgio Armani boutique in Cannes, it is set to be the place to be seen in daytime – with oversized sunnies and undersized dogs.
WORLDWIDE
The Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize is now open for applications, and this year it's open to young designers in France, Italy, Switzerland and the USA, as well as the UK. The prize includes £25,000 to launch the promising winner's fashion career; to enter, visit www.dorchestercollection.com by 31 May 2013.
ASIA
We've been hearing rumous of beautiful-as-ever Aman resorts in China, Vietnam, Jordan in the pipeline. More details when they come in.
LIVERPOOL
Young-people's-hotel-brand Aloft is opening a 116-room hotel in Liverpool in 2014. Aloft Liverpoolwill be set in the neo-Baroque Royal Insurance Building, which is Grade II-listed, English Heritage-protected and about as fanciful as it gets outside Venice – with cupolas, gilded domes, Doric colonnades and finial-topped turrets. By contrast, expect pared-down affordable contemporary interiors.
BUENOS AIRES
In the Recoleta neighbourhood, new boutique hotel HUB Porteño is now open – beautiful rooms in a beautiful old house. It aims to give guests a local, insider experience of the city and, from this month, the in-house chef is introducing an eat-the-whole-cow option to the menu, if a parrilla-grilled steak just won't suffice.
ROTTERDAM
Here's a reason to choose Rotterdam over perennial-favourite Amsterdam (aside from the excellent bars, clubs and museums): a new Design Hotel, called Mainport, is opening on the waterfront this spring. It's all about getting hot, wet and naked: rooms have private saunas or hot-tubs-with-views, and the spa has a whole hammam complex.
LONDON
Another foodie opening in the revitalised King's Cross Granary Square in June 2013: Grain Store(housed in the former – you've guessed it – grain store; picture here>>) is chef Bruno Loubet's informal new restaurant, which will serve food inspired by cuisine from all over the world, with a particular focus on veggie dishes. There will also be a takeaway counter, should sunny days ever arrive – good news for canal-side picnics.
CHINA
New hotels in both Beijing and Shanghai (and everywhere else in China; it's unstoppable), both part of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group: Beijing's Hotel Eclat is housed in a glass pyramid among designer boutiques, and has a collection of Western and Eastern art. In Shanghai, the five-star WH Ming Hotel has a rooftop cocktail bar called the Ming Club, overlooking Huangxing Park.
WORLDWIDE
Could Gandys be the new Havaianas for the summer? It's a brand of colourful flip-flops created by two orphaned brothers to raise money for fellow orphans; the brothers aim to open their first orphanage in India by next year. Available at Selfridges, ASOS and here>>
TUSCANY
The Scarlino Yacht Club & Residences is the Ferragamo family's latest opening, on the coast of theMaremma region of Tuscany. It has been opening suite-by-suite since last year – the big news for 2013 is the Puro Beach Club next to the hotel's marina. Sleek swimwear and handmade sandals a must.
CROATIA
This summer's new boutique hotel for Dubrovnik is Villa Orsula, set in an opulent 1930s villa. Built of local stone, the hotel has just 13 rooms, but guests can use the facilities of neighbouring Grand Villa Argentina and sister property Hotel Excelsior. Meanwhile they'll have the pretty terraced gardens all to themselves, plus the restaurant and lounge bar with views of the Old Town and the Adriatic Sea.
MONACO
Flavio Briatore's Billionaire Club is popping up at the Fairmont Monte Carlo during this year's Grand Prix, kick-starting at 7pm on 23 May 2013 on the rooftop Sunset Lounge overlooking the Med, and keeping on rocking til 5am on Monday 27 May.
LONDON
Since Café Royal opened at the bottom of Regent Street, this little corner of Soho has been given a new lease of life. Next to open this month is Sharps Barber and Shop on Windmill Street, a bigger, brighter sister to the Charlotte St address. It's an old-school barbershop with retro chairs and interior, which serves barista-grade coffee and, this May, hosts a NYC-style food pop-up.
A hot venue coming to ever-hotter Broadway Market in Hackney on 9 May: Stories is a food-cocktail-arts-posturing hang-out, open morning til morning, with temporary installations keeping the space fresh.
STOCKHOLM
One of the city's starriest places to stay, Berns hotel recently opened Nosh and Chow, a global restaurant and club in a standalone townhouse, with a speakeasy-style bar Bernie's in an adjoining building. The cuisine rotates throughout the year; coming soon are Peruvian and Swiss menus. There's also another restaurant in the pipeline for autumn 2013.
PANAMA
The Grace hotels usually bring to mind the brilliant blue-and-white of the Greek Islands – so the group's latest venture, Grace Panama, is quite a departure. In the Obarrio district, it's much more industrial: 60 bedrooms in a tower block high enough to ensure the roof terrace – where there's a slick modern restaurant and a swimming pool – overlooks the city.
NEW YORK
Going to Frieze New York this 10-13 May? As well as art there are several restaurant pop-ups: Blue Bottle Coffee, Court Street Grocers, Frankies Spuntino, Marlow & Sons, Mission Chinese Food, Roberta's, Sant Ambroeus, and The Fat Radish will all take part. friezenewyork.com
DUNDEE
Part of the doing-up of Dundee's waterfront is the launch of the Malmaison Dundee, opening this summer in a listed 19th-century building. The V&A Dundee is also under construction, opening in 2015 (to read the full story click here>>).
CORSICA
That aromatic island of Corsica has its own Design Hotel opening this month. La Plage Casa del Mar, near the buzzy town of Porto-Vecchio, is a 15-room Design Hotel built from natural local stone and wood, with details picked out in shades of the Corsican landscape. There's a smart beach terrace with loungers on the sand and low furniture for afternoon cocktails.
PERU
Peru is having a global moment, with cevicheries opening up all over London and New York. In Limaitself, in the buzzing Barranco barrio, new boutique hotel and spa Hotel B opens in May 2013. Set in a 1920s mansion house, it has 17 rooms decorated to reflect the neighbourhood's artistic nature.
MONTENEGRO
Since Gold List-winning hotel Aman Sveti Stefan opened, the dramatically beautiful Montenegrin coast has gone from backwater to playground for the superyacht set to moor at Porto Montenegroand, during the daytime, stretch long legs on the loungers at Puro Beach. Now One&Only sees theBay of Kotor fit for its first European hotel, near the little town of Kumbor. The sustainably-built property will be super-sleek, with a tennis academy, an extensive spa, several restaurants and 150 rooms and villas, as well as its own marina so you can hop to Croatia's Dalmatian Coast with ease. Also in the pipeline: plans for a One&Only Sanya, China.
WOODSTOCK
The pretty little Vermont town with a massive reputation is getting a new inn this year. 506 On The River is just that, made of wood in typical New England style and decorated with antiques from local yard sales, with Adirondack chairs for pond-side lounging.
COURCHEVEL
A new super-sleek hotel for the ski set opens December 2013. At the foot of the slopes, L'Apogée Courchevel will have private ski-in-ski-out access. India Mahdavi did the interiors; there will be a spa, a signature restaurant run by star chef Yannick Franques, and a caviar bar; 20 rooms, 33 suites, a penthouse with its own terrace and Jacuzzi, and a five-bedroom chalet with spa and home cinema.
LONDON
Four new hotels this season: the Great Northern Hotel, part of the massive King's Cross renewal;One Leicester Street, on the edge of Chinatown, by Singaporean hotelier Peng Loh; Xenia, in a former Georgian house in South Ken; and a Shangri-La in The Shard, more than 1,000 feet up.
Jason Atherton is opening his Social Eating House on Soho's Poland Street on 19 April; and The Savoy has a new seafood restaurant, Kaspar's, opening on 2 May in a fittingly 1920s style.
And in East London, a whole new park: the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will have a wildness and naturalness to it unusual for urban spaces. It opens in July; or you can preview it on a tour until 6 May.
MARSEILLE
The Provençal capital was, until recently, down at heel (and still is, in places); but its edginess also makes it an exciting place to be right now. It's this year's European City of Culture, and all kinds of cultural things are going on, plus new restaurants, bars and hotels opening – the latest of which will be theInterContinental Marseille Hotel Dieu. Opening this April, it is housed in a grand 18th-century building with rooms and a gigantic terrace bar and restaurant overlooking the Vieux Port. (Read our full story on how to spend 24 hours in Marseille here>> )
Source: Condé Nast Traveller
