The Hamptons is not a place you arrive at loudly. You slip into it, along the Montauk Highway, past the farmstands and the privet hedges and the weathered shingle houses, and suddenly you are in a world that operates by entirely different rules. Slower. Quieter. More considered. The summer address of New York's most discerning.
For generations, the East End of Long Island has been where America's artists, writers, editors and financiers have come to exhale. East Hampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, each village carries its own character and its own codes. The beaches here face the open Atlantic, wide, clean, and serious, nothing like the sheltered shores of the Mediterranean.
"On this coast, luxury is not one language. It is spoken in gold in Miami, in whispers in the Hamptons, and in quiet confidence in New York."
Topping Rose House is the only hotel in the Hamptons that we believe truly captures this spirit: the particular combination of historic beauty, farm-to-table excellence and unhurried hospitality that defines the East End at its finest.
The Hamptons practise a form of luxury that Europe's great resorts rarely manage: completely effortless, never showy. The most impressive homes have no gates. The best restaurants look like farmhouses. This is luxury as confidence, not display.
The East End's farm culture is legendary. The Hamptons grows some of the finest produce in America, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and the restaurants here have built their reputations on the quality of what's grown an hour away. It's the most honest luxury of all.
The beaches of the Hamptons face the open Atlantic, long, wide, and powerful. Walking them in the early morning, with nobody around and the surf breaking in long white lines, is one of the great simple pleasures in American travel.
Handpicked by AiA Waves
Iconic
Mid-Beach · Miami Beach, Florida
A gilded, oceanfront fantasy in Miami's Mid-Beach, where a gold-leafed Damien Hirst mammoth presides over the oceanfront garden and Baz Luhrmann co-designed the cabaret theater. Faena is unapologetically maximalist, flamboyant, theatrical, and unlike anything else on South Beach.
Faena doesn't do subtle, and that's exactly the point. Walking through the lobby with a view of that gold mammoth in the garden never gets old. It's the hotel for people who want Miami at full volume, the cabaret shows, the beach club, the sense that something is always happening. A complete contrast to the quiet of the Hamptons, which is exactly why it belongs on this list.
Official photography
coming soon
Bridgehampton · The Hamptons, New York
A magnificent Greek Revival estate built in 1842, set on three acres of rolling Hamptons farmland. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's celebrated farm-to-table restaurant sources directly from the estate's working farm and local producers. Just 22 beautifully appointed rooms, a stunning pool and that particular Hamptons magic, quiet, historic, completely unhurried.
Topping Rose is the Hamptons distilled. The architecture is extraordinary, a real 1842 Greek Revival estate, not a pastiche. Breakfast on the porch with farm eggs and coffee while the mist is still on the fields; dinner where Jean-Georges Vongerichten's team cooks with produce grown a few hundred metres away. With only 22 rooms it feels entirely private, which is exactly right for the Hamptons.
Official photography
coming soon
Upper East Side · New York City
An Upper East Side icon a block from Central Park, reimagined by Jacques Grange with a playful, art-filled elegance. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurant anchors the lobby, while the rooftop duplex penthouse remains one of the most coveted addresses in Manhattan.
The Mark gets the balance right, old New York grandeur with a wink of irreverence. The black-and-white checkerboard lobby floor, the bar that fills with the Met Gala crowd, the rooms that feel like a chic friend's apartment rather than a hotel. It's a five-minute walk to the Met and the park, which makes it our pick for a classic Manhattan stay.
Official photography
coming soon
NoMad · Manhattan, New York City
Set within a historic Gilded Age mansion in NoMad, The Fifth Avenue Hotel pairs old New York grandeur with a quietly contemporary edge. Egyptian cotton linens, a celebrated cocktail bar and a discreet butler service via in-room tablet make this one of the most talked-about new openings in Manhattan.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel is what happens when a historic building is restored with genuine care instead of a generic luxury template. The cocktail bar alone is worth the visit, and the butler service means anything you need arrives without ever picking up a phone. NoMad has been waiting for a hotel this good.