Openings: Algodon Mansion, Buenos Aires

If Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, can steer her country clear of another financial disaster (the economy collapsed in 2001), its sultry capital should very soon emerge as a major stylista destination. And if Buenos Aires lacks the requisite private hotel that every fashionable capital should flaunt, Algodon Mansion, opening February 2009 in the city’s chic Recoleta district, fits the bill in a grand manner.

From the team behind Algodon Wine Estates, the Mansion’s gorgeous Belle Époque architecture will contain just 10 immense and elegant contemporary suites (with B&B and Cappellini furniture, Italian marble, hand-carved stone and original artworks) as well as a wine cellar, a library bar, spa and haute French-Argentine restaurant, rooftop pool and lounge. Just in case you weren’t completely convinced of Algodon’s stylistic preeminence, take note that all suites feature dazzling views of a private and distinctly Babylonian four-story waterfall and hanging garden. Don’t cry for me, indeed.