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Prince Harry's pal and all around glitterati-collector Howard Spooner has again decisively stolen the London nightlife conversation with this rather, well, glittering revamp of a legendary South Kensington nightspot. Once the playground of everyone from Jayne Mansfield to Sean Connery to Sir Elton (not to mention the site of a certain Jimi Hendrix's London debut), the glamorous new incarnation of No. 3 Cromwell is now attracting supermodel sorts like David Gandy and Elle MacPherson. And no wonder. Taking up all three floors of a striking Georgian townhouse, the famous and fabulous could surely want for nothing here. 

The feverish race to the top of the Parisian hotel scene can make the World Cup seem like a game of tiddlywinks. Since 2008, Le Bristol, Le Meurice, and Le Royal Monceau have all unveiled glittering new personalities, while Le Crillon and Le Ritz are currently and expensively under the knife. In the midst of it all, that paragon of swank, the Prince de Galles, has just taken the wraps off its own magnificent makeover to a chorus of oohs and aahs. A virtual landmark of the French art deco style, much care has been taken by ERTIM Architectes SA, in collaboration with Bruno Borrione and that most superstar of designers, Pierre-Yves Rochon, to preserve a genuine sense of its history. To be sure, the salon-like lobby has been made over not with postmodern cheek, but with a swish new collection of furnishings true to the period.

Italians, as we surely know, do love to carry on the family business. After all, selling out to the corporate powers would be just so…American. And so Giuseppe Cipriani’s boys, Maggio and Ignazio, are keeping it in the clan. And though it’s almost hard to believe, this is the brand’s debut entry into a city that seems so perfectly suited to their epicurean ethos. With aesthetic nods to that most famous Venice original, Harry’s Bar (here as well, the room’s energy radiates from the bar), the new Cipriani Downtown Miami exudes their signature low-key glamour. Michele Bonan’s design incorporates striped Venetian floors, Murano chandeliers and massive windows affording gorgeous aquatic views.

Ever since the minders at the Eiffel Tower sorted that there was serious dosh to be made feeding its swarms of oohing and aahing visitors, architecture and food have been making goo goo eyes at each other. And from its inauguration in summer 2012, Renzo Piano's The Shard, in fact, has been as loved and hated by Londoners as was Gustave Eiffel's shocking metal construction by 19th Century Parisians. But as the tallest building in Western Europe, the views are obviously rather gasp-inducing. And so while its first culinary venture, the sleek, dramatic new Oblix restaurant and lounge, could probably get away with serving sauteed cardboard, it genuinely does rise to the level of its surroundings.

Now that humans travel at 600 mph and news travels in milliseconds, is it any wonder we find ourselves looking lovingly back to the less electronically-mediated adventures of the likes of Phileas T. Fogg? Mr. Fogg's, an archly hip new Mayfair watering hole (Pippa Middleton and Princess Eugenie have already warmed its couches) indeed nicks its name from the larger-than-life protagonist of Jules Verne's 1873 classic Around The World In 80 Days--and is correspondingly done up like his international-curiosity-filled drawing room.

Finally! After former prisons, nunneries, and army barracks have all been repurposed as designer hotels, at last we have the glorious conversion of a former millinery factory into the new Refinery Hotel. As you might guess, it’s located in the Garment District, which we’re exceedingly tempted to rechristen as Upper NoMad (Well, guess we just did.) And let’s face it, we accessorize with hats and boutique hotels for much the same reason: they make us seem just a little more sexy. But the design by Stonehill & Taylor (who have already left their mark on the Crosby Street Hotel and the NoMad Hotel) defers more to history than to fashion—a reasonable decision, considering the awesome neo-gothic framework of the Colony Arcade building into which the hotel was fitted.

After introducing “living room” chic to the LA hotel scene with the opening of Palihouse Holloway West Hollywood in 2012, Avi Brosh has headed for sea and sand for the brand’s second opening. In an opulent 1927 Moorish revival building--a designated historic landmark--the new Palihouse Santa Monica has an even cozier feel than its WeHo counterpart (which, by the way, has become a magnet for celebs like Lauren Conrad and Gerard Butler). Lavishly landscaped outside, a charmingly historic atmosphere prevails inside, with beamed ceilings, stuccoed walls, tiled floors and arched doorways.

The Buddha says, "Dwell not in the past, but do concentrate the mind on the present moment." But if the past is a foreign country, it is returning now to home's loving embrace. It was but seventeen years ago (1996, to be precise) that the first Buddha Bar opened on Paris' rue Boissy d'Anglais--and as its journey since has taken it from Dubai to Dakar, Amsterdam to Evian-les-Bains, the circle is now closed, as the George V Eatertainment Group opens the City of Light's first Buddha Bar Hotel. Taking position amongst the swish boutiques along the rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, it arises as a palpable tribute to BB founder and visionary Raymond Visan, who passed on in 2010.

It's hard to imagine--but somehow Philippe Starck still refuses to just leave well enough alone. To be sure, his newest restaurant project (in partnership with Paridis du Fruit founder Claude Louzon), Miss Kō, is plonked along Paris' most haute boulevard, the Avenue George V--yet it appears as if lifted from some surreal X-Box anime game. Or as Monsieur Starck himself describes it, “Miss Kō is a fantasy, an exquisite corpse, where you walk into a faraway court of miracles on a street straight out of Blade Runner, steeped in limitless creative madness." Totally!

There's a brilliant scene in The Simpsons episode "The Trouble with Trillions," where a noir-ish IRS agent growls at a tax-delinquent Homer, "You won't be seeing any prison films where you're going: PRISON!" And visitors to Malmaison Oxford's Cult Screens celluloid series this summer won't be seeing any prison films either. The scholarly city's hippest hotel (opened in 2005) is, in fact, a former house of incarceration, in a wing of the majestic ruins of the 11th Century Norman fortress that is Oxford Castle. A careful collaboration between ADP Architects, Sir Jeremy Dixon Architects, and interior designers Jestico & Whiles managed to maintain the fascinatingly ominous "lock down" atmosphere while, of course, stylistically bringing it up to the luxurious standards of contemporary boutique hotels.