Check in at one of these 10 celebrity-owned hotels
Superstars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Hugh Jackman have gotten into the hospitality game, opening hotels that offer an enviable lifestyle.
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Plenty of luxury hotels claim to offer A-list experiences, but only a few can promise the full celebrity treatment — and the ones that do it best are the rare properties scattered around the globe that are actually owned by celebrities themselves.
Superstars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, and Hugh Jackman have all gotten into the hospitality game, opening hotels that offer a slice of that VIP lifestyle — whether it’s a wellness resort in Australia or a private island in Belize. Here are 10 hotels where you can eat, sleep, and live like the celebrities who masterminded them.
Andy Murray’s Cromlix
Scottish tennis champ Andy Murray returned to his roots when he opened Cromlix (pictured, top) just a few minutes from his hometown of Dunblane, not far from Glasgow. The 19th-century Victorian country estate debuted in 2014 with 34 private acres of beautiful gardens and woodlands. Guest rooms are named after famous Scots, from William Wallace (Braveheart) to poet Robert Burns to actor Sean Connery. The resort’s restaurant is helmed by famed French chef Albert Roux of London’s Le Gavroche. Of course, the resort’s biggest celebrity is Murray, whom guests can sometimes glimpse in action on the property’s tennis court.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Palazzo Margherita
Francis Ford Coppola owns hotels in Belize, Argentina, and Guatemala, but his dream property is Palazzo Margherita, a 19th-century mansion located in Bernalda, the small hilltop town in southern Italy where his grandfather was born. The palazzo was renovated in 2011 as a family-friendly hideaway by Coppola and French designer Jacques Grange; today, it’s a stunning and intimate retreat filled with many a reference to the Coppola family.
Choose from the Francis Suite (with turquoise-and-white terra-cotta chevron tiling and a Moroccan lantern chandelier), the minimalist Roman Suite (the result of a collaboration between Grange and Coppola’s son, director Roman Ford Coppola), or the romantic Sofia Suite (named for Coppola’s director daughter and featuring hand-painted frescoes).
Giorgio Armani’s Armani Hotel Milano
When in Milan, there’s no more fashionable place to stay than at Giorgio Armani’s elegant “home away from home”. Located at the heart of the city’s elegant Brera shopping district, the Armani Hotel Milano expresses the designer’s sleek, minimalist aesthetic. Rooms are designed in Armani’s signature style with countless shades of beige composing the modern — and rather masculine — colour palette. Both the Michelin-starred restaurant and the Bamboo Bar attract a fashionable local crowd with their shimmering onyx and black marble accents and sweeping views of the city.
Robert De Niro’s Greenwich Hotel
Robert De Niro is considered the unofficial mayor of Tribeca for his refined Greenwich Hotel. Opened in 2008, the 88-room property is considered one of New York City’s most fashionable for its spa (the Japanese-inspired Shibui) and restaurant (Andrew Carmellini’s Locanda Verde), not to mention its constant stream of A-list guests.
Next year, however, De Niro will take on London’s Covent Garden with the opening of a new hotel: The Wellington. The 83-room boutique property set within a cluster of Victorian and early-20th-century buildings will debut with a spa, a members-only club, and two restaurants.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blackadore Caye
Next year, Leonardo DiCaprio will be the newest celebrity to join the A-list hotelier club. The Academy Award–winning actor — and an environmental advocate for more than 20 years — will soon open the luxurious and eco-friendly Blackadore Caye on a private island in Belize. Determined to create what he calls “the world’s leading example of green hospitality”, DiCaprio intends to power the island entirely with renewable energy, and more than half of the island will be a protected wildlife reserve. The resort will also be as glamorous as it is green: DiCaprio has hired the designers responsible for the Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives to create the property’s 36 bungalows.
Robert Redford’s Sundance Mountain Resort
Robert Redford proved he was a true outdoorsman in 1969 when he opened Utah’s laid-back four-season Sundance Mountain Resort. Indeed, nature is the star at the 100-room property, where adventures include waterfall hikes and zip-lining in the summer, and skiing and snowboarding in the winter. Wood-paneled guest rooms, crafted with local stone and wood, feature slate-tiled bathrooms and decks or patios overlooking the canyon.
Constructed around a 20-metre pine tree, the candlelit Tree Room restaurant showcases Redford’s collection of Native American art and serves seasonal mountain cuisine like buffalo strip loin with black truffle potato gems. Of course, the resort is a favourite for other celebrities, too, hosting A-listers every year when they descend upon the region for the Sundance Film Festival (also founded by Redford).
Elizabeth Hurley’s 11 Cadogan Gardens
Elizabeth Hurley’s sumptuous 11 Cadogan Gardens is set within four red-brick Victorian townhouses in London’s posh Knightsbridge neighborhood, just steps from the stellar shopping of Sloane Square. Each of the 56 guest rooms is individually decorated and bursting with personality, like the crimson velvet-draped Signature Suite and the ebony-and-gold Sloane Suite. The public spaces are welcoming yet opulent with decadent gilt and glass in the Mirror Room and a dramatic palette of gold and black in the bar. For high-profile guests like Hurley, the hotel also offers several suites with private entrances.
Hugh Jackman’s Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat
Hugh Jackman’s first visit to Gwinganna wellness resort was so transformative that the actor bought a stake in it. Now, the X-Men star is part-owner of the lifestyle retreat set on a hilltop in a lush valley on Australia’s Gold Coast. The property bills itself as a cocoon from external distractions and stress: Mornings start with Qi Gong as the sun rises over the valley, while afternoons are devoted to spa treatments. Should you visit Gwinganna when Jackman is on-site, you’ll have no trouble recognising him — the actor wears a name tag like everyone else on staff.
Olivia Newton-John’s Gaia Retreat and Spa
It’s no secret that Olivia Newton-John is a proponent of physical activity. But less well-known is that the singer/actress is part-owner of Australia’s Gaia Retreat & Spa, a wellness resort located in the idyllic hills near Byron Bay. There, guests stay in suites and villas overlooking lush tropical gardens and participate in wellness activities like morning yoga and meditation. For Newton-John superfans, there’s also a Let’s Get Physical Fitness and Boxing class — leotard and leg warmers not included.
Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn
Located in the tiny upstate New York town of Bedford, Richard Gere’s Relais & Châteaux Bedford Post Inn is an elegant escape spread over 14 acres of parkland. Set within a beautifully restored Dutch Colonial building that dates to the 1860s, the inn taps into Gere’s commitment to Buddhism, offering yoga classes and workshops in a bright and airy loft overlooking a Zen garden. Guests have a choice of eight soothing guest rooms — each with a calming beige palette and soaking tub — and can take their meals in either the casual barn bistro or the more formal farmhouse restaurant.
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