15 January 2026
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The most remote hotels in the world aren't merely remote for travelers in one hemisphere or the other. Of course, your home base may exacerbate the journey. But in most cases, this handful of accommodations remains inconvenient to all: these are the spots on the far-off islands, the driest deserts and the highest mountains. And despite that, they draw travelers from all over the world.
It's a testament not just to the bucket-list settings, but to the additive qualities of the hotels themselves. They might have rested on their settings' natural gifts. As you'll find below, they did not.
Estancia Cristina — El Calafate, Argentina
What it's all about: First-rate facilities, hikes and horseback rides in Patagonia.If you’re going to embark on a Patagonian trek, you may as well get deep in it. From the already remote outpost of El Calafate, you board a small boat for a three-hour ride across the deep blue Lago Argentino and up into its long glacial fingers, ringed by impossibly tall peaks.
When finally you arrive at Estancia Cristina you’ll feel — with some justification — as though you’ve arrived in another world entirely. The main event here is the Patagonian wilderness, with treks that include everything from hikes and horseback rides to 4x4 rides to the Upsala glacier.
Six Senses Zil Pasyon — Felicite, Seychelles
What it's all about: A high-end , private island Two-Key with a leading spa and wellness program to boot.Deep into the Indian Ocean, on a private island in the Seychelles called Félicité, you’ll find Six Senses Zil Pasyon. And while there’s not a bad island in the Seychelles, they’re not all as pristinely beautiful as this.
652 acres of dramatic elevations and virgin forests are home to just 30 extraordinarily luxe timber villas, each of which includes a sundeck and an infinity plunge pool among its many high-end comforts.
Longitude 131 — Yulara, Australia
What it's all about: A Two-Key candidate for our inaugural Local Gateway award.Longitude 131° refers to the precise east-west location of Uluru, the rust-colored monolith and primary attraction in Australia’s remote Red Centre. Not quite the only lodging within sight of this popular tourist destination, Longitude 131° is the most luxurious, and offers the best view — each of the tent-like guest cabins looks through full-length windows across six miles of desert at the thousand-foot-high rock.
The Kumaon — Himalayas, India
What it's all about: A miracle of construction by Sri Lankan disciples of modernist master architect Geoffrey Bawa.That the Kumaon even exists is almost unbelievable. High among the Indian Himalayas, nine hours by automobile from Delhi, it takes the better part of a day to get here. When the owners found it, no roads led to the site.
A simple log cabin would have been challenging enough to construct. The Kumaon is no log cabin. It is a work of hotel art, a feat of tropical modernism superimposed on a mountaintop almost entirely by hand.
Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort — Vanua Levu Island, Fiji
What it's all about: Coral reefs and phenomenal diving accompanied by the in-house marine biologist.Fiji is far from being a hidden gem, but that doesn’t make it any less of a challenge to get there. It is, after all, a cluster of small islands in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. But if there’s a good excuse to make the long flight, aside from the warm blue seas and coral reefs, it’s the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, where the son of Jacques has created the ultimate island resort idyll.
While high tides mean the beautiful beaches are not those for a typical day of lounging, guests who make the trek have before them endless choices of adventure, cultural immersion and ecological discovery amidst the island's rainforests, reefs and waterfalls.
Explora Rapa Nui — Easter Island, Chile
What it's all about: On the island of the famous Moai statues, a collision of architecture and adventure.Easter Island is some 2,237 miles from the American continent, and a hefty five-hour flight from the closest airports in Santiago and Tahiti. Explora Rapa Nui is well worth the trek, though, melding raw architectural materials with a hyper-contemporary, open-plan layout against some truly outstanding views.
But don’t come just for the hotel — rumor has it the island also hosts a few sites of modest archaeological interest.
Fogo Island Inn — Newfoundland, Canada
What it's all about: Luxe rooms, spectacular views, and whale-watching excursions at one of Canada's only Three-Key hotels.Perhaps the only thing stopping the Fogo Island Inn from becoming the most famous high-design luxury hotel in the world is its far-flung location, on a tiny island off the coast of Newfoundland, closer to Greenland than to Montreal or New York.
Of course, its remoteness is key to its appeal, along with its architecture, an ultra-modern reinterpretation of traditional, utilitarian Maritimes architecture.
Manshausen — Nordskot, Norway
What it's all about: A One-Key standout for outdoor, Nordic exploration.Even by Norwegian standards, Manshausen Island is out there. This island in the Steigen Archipelago was once a traders’ outpost, and the hotel’s 1880s-vintage main house is a relic of this era.
But the sea cabins are quite a bit newer. These pared-down larchwood-and-glass structures perch right at the water’s edge, affording vertiginous views through full-length windows from living rooms furnished with mid-century reproduction furniture.
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Top image: The remote Estancia Cristina in Patagonia, Argentina. ©Estancia Cristina
