Legendary travel stories usually come with a heaping serving of blood, sweat and tears: miles traveled, discomforts withstood, challenges endured. Effort is rewarded, expenditure recompensed.
For some travelers, however, the experience is emphatically about the destination, not the journey—and the less difficulty, the better.
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For these dedicated comfort-seekers, who prefer to experience the world’s most captivating attractions in concert with unsurpassed amenities, a boutique hotel, air-conditioned bar or sumptuous spa is the ideal.
Tokyo’s Palace Hotel, for example, is home to a luxury spa that peeks into the city’s Imperial Palace gardens. For a view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour without the noise and smog, the pool on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton overlooks the historic body of water in peace and tranquility.
In Vietnam, the stunning limestone karsts of Halong Bay can be observed supine, from a deck chair on the Emeraude, a 19th-century paddle-steamer replica that blends colonial aesthetics with a luxury voyage through the azure waters of the bay.
In Chiang Mai, the Chedi has transformed one of Thailand’s iconic British consulates into a gourmet restaurant with a shaded veranda and a stellar high tea, successfully remaking a landmark into a place of leisure so visitors can enjoy history without stirring a step.
An enjoyably stress-free mode of travel, this armchair approach needn’t mean sacrificing must-sees. Choosing the right hotel means maximum reward for minimum effort, and the more sights one can take in from one’s suite, restaurant or bar, the fewer there are to squeeze in while on foot. Keeping in mind that an unhurried vacation is the sweetest kind, here are ten fabulous rooms with a view.
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Spectacular rooftop hotel pools
Stunning hotel dining-room views
Caravelle Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
One of the most vivid photos from the Vietnam War is the 1975 image of refugees fleeing from a rooftop on one of the last helicopters leaving Saigon.
The iconic building has since undergone construction, but you can still see the historic landmark from the rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel in what is now Ho Chi Minh City.
The Saigon Saigon Bar is a piece of history, the same bar where war correspondents gathered, sinking gin and tonics and filing reports as Saigon fell to the communists under their very noses.
Rooms, from $210; 19–23 Lam Son Sq.;
Chedi Chiang Mai, Thailand
The jackpot for armchair tourists is when the hotel is the landmark.
The Chedi Chiang Mai, a five-star property perched on the banks of the Mae Ping River in one of Thailand’s most charming cities, occupies the site of a former British consulate compound.
Designed by Kerry Hill, the sleek hotel is a modern masterpiece of internal courtyards and teak panels, with the flagship restaurant housed in the consulate building itself.
The consulate, which dates back to 1915, was built in accordance with Britain’s standard foreign office design for tropical countries.
Today air-conditioning instead of servants with fans keeps guests cool, but the colonial glamour remains.
Rooms, from $545; 123 Charoen Prathet Rd.; 66-53/253-333; ghmhotels.com.
The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
There is nothing more evocative of Asia than verdant rice fields. Unfortunately, they are most often glimpsed from the hard seat of a local train or out the window of a packed bus.
For visitors to Bali, however, some of Asia’s most sublime paddies are spread across the grounds of the Chedi Club Tanah Gajah.
The best venue is the hotel’s open-air restaurant, where guests can recline on one of the extended sofas, order a rice dish (with grains grown in the very same fields) and feast their eyes and appetites at the same time.
Rooms, from $370; Jalan Goa Gajah, Tengkulak Kaja; 62-361/975-685; ghmhotels.com.
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