Where to Find Winter Sun at the World’s Best New Hotels

Short days, gray slush, and a collective vitamin-D deficit make winter in the Northern Hemisphere seem to stretch a painfully long time. The fix isn’t just a change in latitude, but a direct route to a warmer-weather resort designed to catch light and offer instant rejuvenation. The properties that follow are mostly true debuts or long-anticipated renovations, each resplendent in native materials and considered architecture able to withstand salt, sun, and time.

Here, Galerie has cultivate a list of destinations that offer sun with substance, like a reef-ringed bay where villas terrace down to pale sand and the water stays swimmable past sunset. From a subtropical archipelago where pavilions open to warm rock pools and the sky turns cobalt after a five-minute squall to a heritage port city whose limestone bones warm quickly under a maritime sun, with markets and galleries a short stroll from the quay, these are the spots to check out to escape the winter blues.

1. The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien | Thailand  

An hour from Bangkok and a world from Pattaya’s neon, The Standard’s 161-key beachfront build softens its brutalist bones with curves and coastal color. Interiors infuse sun-washed neutrals with citrus notes; poolside, seaside stripes cue lazy laps and late lunches. Esmé, The Standard’s first beach club, sets Mexican technique against Thai ingredients, while the adults-only rooftop spa Mmhmmm hides mud lounges, ice baths, and a secret pool with horizon views. Come winter, the sea stays swimmable, island boats run on schedule, and the vibe is dialed down to the chic beach scene people book a first-class ticket to experience.  

2. The Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel | Madrid, Spain 

Winter sun doesn’t have to mean surf and sand. In Madrid, it’s crisp blue skies, dry days, and terrazas that buzz even in January. The Palace is built to catch that light. Commissioned in 1912 by King Alfonso XIII and freshly reimagined by Lázaro Rosa-Violán after a two-year renovation, this Belle Époque grande dame sits within the UNESCO-listed Landscape of Light, where broad boulevards and leafy promenades warm quickly on clear afternoons. Mornings begin beneath the restored iron-and-glass cupola—essentially a sun-splashed winter garden—before an easy stroll to the Prado and Retiro, both blissfully uncrowded in cooler months. Inside, leafy motifs nod to the Royal Botanical Garden; outside, south-facing façades and sheltered patios make a late-lunch vermut feel seasonally correct. 

3. The Shelborne by Proper | South Beach, Miami  

Miami’s winter is the city at its best: low humidity, steady sun, and ocean temps that still pass the “quick dip” test. Fresh from a $100 million redo by ADC Atelier, this 1940 oceanfront classic keeps its MiMo pedigree intact—Morris Lapidus’s L-shaped tower and the era-defining pool (with a resorted diving board) still frame the scene—while 251 rooms, villas, and a penthouse read calmer and more edited. Days drift from Collins Avenue terrazas to Pauline, where Michelin-recognized chef Abram Bissell (ex-Eleven Madison Park, The Modern) threads Latin and Caribbean flavors. Nights move to Little Torch for low-lit cocktails and a tight music program. As Collins revives—Rosewood’s Raleigh and Auberge’s Shore Club will soon to enter the mix—the Shelborne feels like the smart winter-sun upgrade. 

4. Desert Rock Resort | Saudi Arabia 

Enter through a seam in the Kingdom’s craggy Hejaz mountains, twenty minutes from Red Sea International Airport, and the lobby is pure geology. Oppenheim Architecture embeds 54 villas and 10 suites in a 5-million-year-old granite valley: some carved as Mountain Cave suites, others thrust forward as Mountain Crevice villas with infinity pools pouring toward the wadi. Meanwhile, Studio Paolo Ferrari keeps interiors super sleek, so exposed rock reads as a rightful guest inside. The dining venues extend the mission: Restaurant Nyra sets volcanic stone underfoot with charred-wood screens; Basalt touts monolithic limestone shelves and pendant lights shaped like cast-iron pots; Mica pours from a bar carved from local yellow limestone. The spa tucks against a cliff for hammam heat, Swiss Alp salt scrubs, gold exfoliation, and camphor cryotherapy, with water features rising through sculpted ceiling apertures. 

5. Reset Hotel | Twentynine Palms, California  

The first full-service boutique hotel built from the ground up in the high desert in 15 years, Reset occupies 180 acres just outside Joshua Tree National Park’s north entrance. The 65 rooms spread across shipping container-style modules designed by co-founder Benjamin Uyeda and interiors studio Gry Space, with only 10 acres developed to preserve the surrounding desert wilderness. Mountain View King suites claim entire containers with picture windows framing the landscape, outdoor stone soaking tubs, and private patios with fire pits that open directly onto the playa. The 3,000-square-foot Clubhouse anchors communal life with co-working spaces, a bistro-café led by Chef Alvaro Castellanos, and a saltwater pool ringed with cabanas. No televisions or single-use plastics here—just raw desert, minimalist interiors with hand-patinated metal and taupe stucco, and hundreds of acres for wandering. 

6. Peter Island Resort | British Virgin Islands  

Winter marks dry season in the Caribbean, so jetsetters can expect big-blue days, steady trade winds, and warm, swimmable water. Seven years after Hurricane Irma, the BVI’s largest private-island resort returns with most of its 52 rooms tucked into the lee of Deadman’s Beach, so mornings open with gentle surf and full sun. Villas step straight onto the sand; at the summit, Falcon’s Nest sprawls over 22,000 square feet with an infinity pool, swim-up bar, and waterfall. Only 300 of 1,800 acres are developed, leaving coves and five beaches to reach by kayak or paddleboard, and the spa folds local sea salt and hot lava shells into treatments before guests venture over for a soak in the cliffside hot tub. The island’s long-running wind project supplies a significant share of power—first of its kind in the BVI—so that Sunset Loop toast comes with a lighter footprint.  

7. Rosewood Miyakojima | Okinawa, Japan 

On remote Miyakojima, Japan’s subtropical answer to the Maldives, Dutch minimalist Piet Boon has conjured 55 concrete villas that seem to meld with the landscape. Opened earlier this year, the resort employs Ryukyu limestone throughout, the same porous local stone found at ancient Okinawan sacred sites, which will darken and mottle with monsoon rains. Pavilions open wide to private onsen-warm tubs and primordial rock forms; inside, the palette stays spare to keep the eye on cobalt sky and sea. Locals call Miyakojima the “Island of Prayers,” and purification rites preceded construction—subtle context that threads through Asaya spa rituals. The result is a subtropical winter refuge where architecture edits the climate with shade, airflow, and just enough sun to reset one’s inner self. 

8. Casa Yuma | Puerto Escondido, Mexico 

This 25-room boutique keeps cool through shade and cross-ventilation: single-story pavilions slip between a palm grove and Los Naranjos Beach, moving guests from palapa reception to shoreline through a calm procession of courtyards and rooftop patios. Throughout, architect Ricardo de la Concha kept the structures low and linear; breeze-block screens, pink adobe from Puebla, and macuil-wood joinery filter heat without obstructing the view. Rooms face either the ocean or Sierra Madre foothills; everywhere else flows outward—to a shaded pool, fire pit lounge, yoga and massage cabins, or a palapa-topped co-working nook. Meals come coastal and close-sourced: tortillas from a wood-fired oven, tamales wrapped to order, and whole fish that lands on the plate just hours after it left the sea. 

9. Mharo Khet | Jodhpur, Rajasthan  

Rajasthan’s best weather shows up in winter as clear, honeyed days and light-sweater nights—perfect for a desert hotel that lives outdoors. On a 40-acre organic farm 50 minutes from Jodhpur, ten geometric cottages (about 2,000 square feet apiece) fold desert logic into comfort with walk-in wardrobes, pebbled courtyards for stargazing, and dual decks facing fields of gourds and guava. The draw is as much edible as architectural with Paeru, a nine-course, plant-forward tasting under fruit trees, where epicureans can sample beetroot as ceviche, mushrooms in the cocktails, and produce pulled from 110 crops grown on site. Unique experiences include miniature-painting sessions, charpoy weaving, and head massages under khejri shade, all led by artisans from the nearby Manai village.  

10. Few & Far Luvhondo | Limpopo, South Africa  

Opened earlier this year on a cliff within UNESCO’s Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, this carbon-neutral outpost from Under Canvas founders Sarah and Jacob Dusek keeps the footprint small and the light generous: six solar-powered suites, about 1,200 square feet each, shaped in curved timber and canvas by Nicholas Plewman Architects and Ohkre Collective, their lines lifted from the surrounding baobabs. Wraparound decks bring plunge pools, outdoor showers, and built-in misting for heat-softened siestas; interiors stay cool and minimal so the view does the talking. The conservation brief is equally considered, thanks to a decade-long plan to regenerate 200,000 acres through reforestation and wildlife corridors that could tempt elephant and lion back to old routes. Even game viewing is rethought via a solar-powered aerial safari slated to float for miles above the escarpment, trading engine noise for birdsong.