New thatched roof huts on Lake Kivu, Rwanda

Welcome to T Wanderlust, a new travel newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Twice a month we recommend worldwide destinations and hotels worth visiting. Register here to find us in your inbox every other Fridayalong with our T List newsletter every Wednesday. And you can always reach us at [email protected].

Greece

A heritage-inspired guest house in the Aegean Sea

Twenty years ago, when Maria Lemos of the Mouki Mou lifestyle store in London and her husband, Gregoris Kambouroglou, a retired trauma surgeon, first visited Patmos, an island of about 3,000 inhabitants that belongs to the Dodecanese archipelago in the Aegean Sea. they immediately fell for it. After recently taking over a 16th-century guest house from the Monastery of St. John and turning it into the three-suite pagostas, they’ve fallen for it again. “With simplicity as the guiding principle, we wanted to create a universe that is modern and light, yet rooted in our Greek heritage,” says Lemos, who grew up between Greece and England. Together with Greek designer Leda Athanasopoulou and Apostolos Koukidis of Mouki Mou, Lemos purchased vintage wicker furniture from Athens, ceramics from Lesvos and hand-blown Cretan glass. A lace tablecloth from Mary’s own grandmother adorns the walls of one of the rooms. The Athenian landscape gardener Helli Pangalou, known for her work with the architect Renzo Piano, designed the small garden somewhat reminiscent of monastic courtyards, with plantings of jasmine and myrtle. Toiletries will feature a proprietary scent with notes of eucalyptus, cypress and frankincense – a collaboration with Lyn Harris of Perfumer H in London. “We are a house with a soul,” says Kamboroglou, “welcoming travelers who want to understand the Patmian way of life.” Rooms from $300; pagostas.com.

The Portuguese seaside town of Comporta and the neighboring community of Melides may be where some of Europe’s most fashionable personalities – Jacques Grange, Philippe Starck, Christian Louboutin – buy extraordinary holiday homes, but it’s still possible to drive through and notice little more than fishing villages and the occasional stork’s nest stacked on a utility pole. That’s because exceptional private properties are tucked out of sight – or, like Pateos, a new quartet of dramatically angular holiday homes nestled at the end of a bumpy dirt road, obscured by cork and olive grove, near Melides. Designed by award-winning Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus, the interiors of the Tetris-style concrete bunkers are serenely minimal, with smooth stucco walls, furniture clad in earth tones, and sliding glass doors that offer sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean. There is little art except the floating Danish Flensted mobiles, but most guests will spend their afternoons lazing by the shared triangular pool. The one-, two- and three-bedroom units were originally intended as guest accommodations for friends and family, but Pateos owners Sofia and Miguel Charters became so involved in the design process that they decided to try hospitality. Private yoga sessions are available onsite and one of the area’s most pristine beaches, Praia da Aberta Nova (Vigia), is just a 20-minute drive away. Rooms from $560, including breakfast; pateos.pt.

Rwanda

A culturally immersive experience on Lake Kivu

Travelers ready for mountain gorilla trekking and Big Five game drives will soon have a compelling new reason to take in wildlife sightings on hilly, verdant Nkombo, an island of about 8.5 square miles in Lake Kivu near the Congolese border to end. The Capanne project will launch in August with two thatched huts, inspired by exhibitions at the Ethnographic Museum of Rwanda in Butare. The rustic accommodations are built in a folk style with bamboo, Congolese hardwood and five types of straw; vaulted entrances provide the only natural light, although each domed cabin is equipped with modern conveniences such as electricity and hot water. Capanne is the third property developed by conservation-focused hotel group Sextantio, whose other retreats, in Matera and Santo Stefano di Sessanio, have helped preserve the disappearing architectural heritage of rural southern Italy. The founder Daniele Kihlgren wanted to replicate his so-called social-upliftment model in Africa, where he traveled extensively by motorcycle. Kihlgren funded the construction of the Capanne project himself, and the proceeds will benefit Sextantio Onlus, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2008 to provide health insurance to residents of the area with treatable diseases such as malaria. Rates are by donation only, and visitors can have chance encounters with local fishermen, basket weavers, and others who call Nkombo Island home. “It’s a bit experimental,” Kihlgren says. “This is not the typical luxury African resort. You really feel the day-to-day of the place.” sextantiorwanda.com.

An island of finely crafted temples and sprawling rice terraces, Bali has seen its share of artists, dreamers and spiritual seekers over the years. That utopian fantasy is set in Lost Lindenberg, an eight-room boutique inn that just opened near a black lava sand beach on the west coast. Before guests can enter the compound, they must find a door hidden along a 3-meter high wall created by German sculptor Tobias Rehberger. Like a Vegas casino, the facade is covered in flaming neon signs that read “24/7” and “Relax Later” – making the zen-like serenity of the surrounding jungle feel much calmer as guests pass through. “It’s all about the contrast,” Rehberger says. Once inside, they are overrun with ferns, crimson Heliconia plants, and lush banyan and banana trees. The rooms are hidden in modern treehouse-like structures built from Bangkirai wood and designed by German architect Alexis Dornier and Venezuelan-born Maximilian Jencquel of Studio Jencquel, both expats who have been practicing on the island for over a decade. After a day of reading by the pool or surfing at the nearby Medewi break, travelers can connect with slow-cooked jackfruit rendang and other plant-based Indonesian dishes, served around a 22-meter communal dining table. Rooms from $350, including breakfast and a surf lesson; thelindenberg.com.

Less touristy than neighboring Tuscany, the green hills of Umbria, Italy, are filled with tranquil hamlets; one of the region’s newest hotels, Vocabolo Moscatelli, immerses guests in the everyday rhythms of the countryside. Opened August 1, in a restored 12th-century convent 45 minutes from Perugia, the 12-room inn was designed in mid-century Italianate style by Jacopo Venerosi Pesciolini of the Archiloop studio in Florence. The raw materials and furniture are also predominantly Italian: bathroom tiles come from Cotto Etrusco, 20 minutes away; four-poster beds are the work of Lispi in nearby Città della Pieve; and the iron door frames in the monastery’s original arches were made by Eros, a blacksmith less than a mile down the road. In the public areas and neutral-toned rooms (with original wood-beamed ceilings), visitors will encounter the chromatic works of regional artists, including Massimiliano Poggioni and Edoardo Cialfi, selected for the hotel by Umbrian curator Matteo Pacini. The restaurant’s seasonal lunch and dinner menus are centered around vegetables, which co-owner Frederik Kubierschky hopes will also attract locals. Kubierschky, a former caretaker at Park Hyatt Zurich, was born in Germany but grew up in Italy; together with his partner, Catharina Lütjens, he opts for a personal approach to hosting. The couple plans to offer pottery classes for guests at the nearby Endiadi Ceramic studio and truffle hunting excursions with their dog, Wilma, a Lagotto Romagnolo. “Smaller is the future of hospitality,” says Kubierschky. “People want someone who listens to their preferences and can lead them to a beautiful experience.” Rooms from about $327, including breakfast; vocabolomoscatelli.com.

France

A Paris hotel with green ambitions

With 18 accommodations across France, MyHotels group co-founder Joris Bruneel is no beginner when it comes to hospitality. But its latest opening – a collaboration with the designer Marion Mailaender, known for her work at the trendy Tuba Club in Marseille – represents a turning point. Located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, the 60-room Hôtel Rosalie is an overhaul of an existing hotel – one that takes a sustainable approach to reclaim nature’s rightful place in the urban landscape. The pair hired landscapers from Merci Raymond to weave foliage into the renovation — now plants overflow the roof and lichens and moss grow where there used to be concrete slabs. “At Rosalie, the boundary between inside and outside has been deliberately left out of focus,” says Bruneel. Galvanized steel, typically used in garden furniture, infiltrates the rooms via sofas and wall lamps designed by Mailaender. The carpet in the rooms is made from recycled fishing nets; vintage chairs have been carefully restored; and plastic from the original hotel baths has been reused in terrazzo-like surfaces. Behind a door on the third floor, travelers can relax in a secret roof garden, trimmed with hazel trees, purple willows, a 20-metre-high hop plant and a demolished Peugeot 205. By the end of the year, the founders hope that Hôtel Rosalie will restore the prestigious Clef Verte title — France’s first sustainable tourism seal, encouraging the travel industry to go beyond the environment. Rooms from $150; hotel-rosalie.com.

Thailand

A new standard in Bangkok

With a pixelated facade that looks like it stops charging halfway through a shaky dial-up connection, the Ole Scheeren-designed King Power Mahanakhon building has been a defining feature of Bangkok’s skyline since 2016. Now this aberrant skyscraper has found a new tenant in the Standard, Bangkok Mahanakhon. After making its Thailand debut last year with the Standard Hua Hin, a 1960s-inspired beach retreat three hours to the southwest, the hotel group launched its Asia flagship on the tower’s top three and bottom 18 floors. Along with Spanish artist Jaime Hayon, Standard’s design team, led by Verena Haller, imbued the space with signature quirks—a Matisse-meets-Memphis mix of scribbled rugs, checkerboard tiles, and sculptural rattan lampshades hanging from the lobby ceiling. dangled. Ranging from cozy studios to party-sized penthouses, the rooms follow a similar theme, with round sofas and cartoonish side tables. But this is more than just a pretty place to sleep: destination restaurants include Thailand’s first outpost of Hong Kong dim sum powerhouse Mott 32 and a rose gold-hued rooftop spot that serves contemporary Mexican cuisine, created and overseen by the locals. Chef Francisco “Paco” Ruano, and the onsite cultural calendar covers everything from DJ sets to queer tarot card readings. “We don’t see ourselves as a traditional luxury hotel,” said Mai Vejjajiva Timblick, Standard’s Chief Creative and Culture Officer in Asia “We hardly see ourselves as a hotel.” Rooms from $200; standardhotels.com.