Symphony Style Hotel Kuwait

A design collaboration between the fashion house’s Rosita Missoni and the superstar architect Matteo Thun, the hotel anchors Kuwait City’s mixed-use Symphony Centre development, with its attached high-end shopping mall. It’s part business travel, part terrycloth-by-the-pool, and it feels as though it belongs to a different century from the competition.

It's a hotel with a sense of place, but it admits of global influences as well. The restaurants feature a range of pan-Mediterranean as well as Arabic fare and the Six Senses Spa mixes locally themed treatments and traditional Asian therapies. Still, you’ll have little difficulty remembering where you are — especially when you’re taking in the views of the Gulf (Persian or Arabian, depending on your cultural perspective).

That hurdle cleared, you’ll find the rooms as picturesque as they come. Those dramatic sea views are framed by Missoni’s trademark vibrant colors. The appeal goes beyond the visual, however: the fixtures and furnishings are carefully chosen, and the walk-in rain showers are stocked with top-shelf product. Kuwait City may not leap immediately to mind as the sensuality capital of the world, but the Missoni certainly puts it on the map.