Top 10: the best hotel bathrooms

Wow-inducing bathrooms have become as important as seductive boudoirs at the hotels Mr & Mrs Smith visit, and they’re a great opportunity to showcase imaginative design. Double sinks, or even double baths create a glamorous boutique-hotel feel, glass-enclosed wet-room-style showers and baths with a view add drama. Beautiful materials and different textures, from stone tiling to special towels, creates interest. Otherwise attention to detail gives bathrooms more personality, whether it’s an extravagant mirror or beautiful antique chair. Zero clutter, plumbing that really works, adjustable lighting, enough hooks to hang your towels, and even the odd technological flourish are all factors that can turn a good hotel into a great one.

Without further ado, allow us to present, in no particular order, our run-down of the best ’statement bathrooms’ on the great green earth. Hold on to your shower caps…

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01 Hotel on Rivington

New York

Style: Classy, glassy minimalism

Spectacular views both inside and out – this hotel’s bathrooms boast floor-to-ceiling glass walls, offering you the full Manhattan cityscape while you shower - and, of course, vice versa. Some rooms feature triple-headed steam showers and double Japanese soaking tubs big enough for two.

02 Barnsley House

Cotswolds

Style Mod-con manor

This spa-spangled boutique hotel understands the value of a decent bathroom and doesn’t let its 17th-century style get in the way of the modern marvellousness. Room 1 has two tubs side by side, facing a TV so you can watch while you wash. Room 2 has a Jacuzzi, and every suite comes with a roll-top tub at the foot of the bed.

03 Huvafen Fushi

Maldives

Style Sexy on sea

There’s a postcard-perfect panorama from every bath at this indescribably gorgeous tropical island resort, and if you’ve booked a Lagoon Bungalow, you’ll find a cantilevered tub, with the sea spreading out around you on three sides. There are bathroom-fitted Bose sound systems too, so you can sing along in the shower.

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04 New Majestic Hotel

Singapore

Style Super-swish surrealism

The entirely glass-walled bathroom at the centre of this artist-designed hotel’s Aquarium room may be a tad exhibitionistic for some, but it’s certainly unique. More subtle, but still striking, the Attic Suites have freestanding twin tubs set in front of widescreen TVs wildly imaginative hand-drawn murals. Some rooms feature tubs on outdoor terraces.

05 Hazelton Hotel

Toronto

Style Green granite glory

In a word: huge. This sleek boutique hotel in Toronto boasts bathrooms fit for an A-lister (which is handy, given that the hotel’s full of them). Astonishingly spacious, and stocked to the gills with Bvlgari goodies, the slick green-granite lined rooms lay the luxury on thick.

06 Maia Luxury Resort & Spa

Seychelles

Style Back-to-nature beauty

Sometimes it’s the simplest set-ups that prove the sexiest – Maia takes advantage of the balmy climate and equips all its villas with open-air tubs; some free-standing, petal-strewn and shaded by thatched roofs, some square pink sunken tubs set at the centre of a private pool and reached by wooden walkway.

07 Château de Bagnols

Beaujolais

Style Five-star fairytale

Every room in this 13th-century castle is breath-stoppingly beautiful, and the bathrooms are naturally no exception. It’s not just the period features, beamed ceilings and antique marble bath tubs that make chåteau stays so appealing, however, it’s the amazing lavender bath foam that hotel staff make on site – now that’s dedication.

08 Pool House

Wester Ross

Style Chic and unique

There’s almost too much to choose from at this loch-side lodge – each of its suites has a uniquely designed bathroom, including several with ornately painted tubs. Campania, for example, features a Victorian canopy bath, Opportune’s is a smooth curve of carved marble fed by a waterfall tap, and Whimbrel boasts both a terrace hot tub and a bath with a sea view.

09 Malabar Escapes: Trinity

Kerala

Style Alfresco Art Deco

The one-of-a-kind shower experience is a major reason to stay at this bright and modern Fort Cochin boutique hotel – each of the three rooms has an open-air ensuite with one strikingly coloured wall, a delightful rain shower, and two pairs of Japanese wooden sandals to help you negotiate the sole-pummeling stone floor. The toiletries are all home-made too.

10 Rayavadee

Krabi

Style Honeymooners’ heaven

Book a two-floor pavilion at this leafy Thai hideaway and you may never leave the ensuite. Each bathroom has a raised, deep, round bath easily big enough for two. With enough candles to fill a cathedral on hand, as well as a stash of pampering potions such as the resort’s own sea-salt scrub and jasmine after-sun, it’s impossible to imagine a more romantic spot to soak yourself .

CHOOSE FIVE STAR LUXURY HOTEL's FOR UR DREAMLY GIRL

Thursday, May 13, 2010