Travel / Vol. II Best Of Updated September 16, 2026

THE BESTHOTELS

Judged on the bed, the bathroom, the breakfast and — always — the gym.

Rooftop pool above Bangkok at dusk
Bangkok · the sky pool · 13.72° N 100.52° E
Hotel lobby in Bangkok
The hotel gym with the only stair-stepper in the city
A pool set into the dunes
the only stair-stepper in Bangkok →
Lauren tested
Words & testing · Lauren Fowler Open story ↓ Photograph · Lauren
Filed under
Travel / Hotels / Best Of

Tested over
3 years · 40+ hotels

Prices checked
09.16.2026

Published
April 8, 2026

Best by Lauren may earn a commission when you shop through certain links. Every product here was bought with my own money or tested for at least six weeks. No brand has paid to be included, and nothing is ranked higher because it pays more.

I stay in a lot of hotels and I have become boringly specific about what makes one good. It is not the lobby.

Four things: the bed, the bathroom, the breakfast, and the gym. A hotel that gets three of them right is very good. I have found two that get all four.

01
Rooftop pool above Bangkok at dusk
Thailand
Thailand

Rosewood Bangkok

All four. The only stair-stepper in the city, and a sky pool that earns the cliché.

The gym is the reason I book it and the sky pool is the reason I stay an extra night. Breakfast is à la carte and arrives fast, which matters more than a buffet ever has.

Best for
Working trips where you still want to train
When to go
November–February for the weather
02
The Chao Phraya river from the hotel
Thailand
Thailand

Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya

The river, the garden path, and a bathroom I did not want to leave.

Set back from the road along the river, which in Bangkok is worth a great deal. The walk from the lobby to the room goes through a garden and the city disappears entirely.

Best for
A first trip to Bangkok
When to go
Year round
03
A simple guesthouse room with the sea outside
Maldives
Maldives

The guesthouse in Baa Atoll

Not a hotel. Better than most of them.

A room, a fan, a boat outside and the same water the resorts charge two thousand dollars a night for. It is on this list to make a point.

Best for
Proving the resort is optional
When to go
November–April
Four things12 frames · Bed, bathroom, breakfast, gym
Hotel lobby in Bangkok
A garden path inside a Bangkok hotel
The walk to the room
The Chao Phraya river from the hotel
The hotel gym with the only stair-stepper in the city
The reason I book it
Plates laid out at the hotel restaurant
Breakfast, à la carte
A printed weekly wellbeing class schedule on a table
Hotel gym mirror selfie among the machines
Rooftop pool above Bangkok at dusk
The sky pool
A simple guesthouse room with the sea outside
Not a hotel. Better.
A pool set into the dunes with nothing around it
A rooftop sky pool with loungers and the city beyond
Swimming at night in a lit pool below a floodlit palace
Questions
What do you look for in a hotel?

The bed, the bathroom, the breakfast and the gym — in that order. Most luxury hotels fail on the gym and it is the easiest of the four to get right.

Is the Maldives worth it without a resort?

Better without, in my opinion. The local-island guesthouses in Baa Atoll have the same water, the same sandbanks and a tenth of the price.

Best hotel in Bangkok?

Rosewood if you train and want a sky pool. Four Seasons at Chao Phraya if it is your first trip and you want the river.

Best by Lauren Awards 2027
xo Lauren
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