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Grande Dames of the World: Editor's Top 10

Our Editor's Top 10 list for Grande Dames of the World helps you decide where you want to go. Editor's Top 10 lists offer selections from our editors that help you plan your travel based on your lifestyle, entertainment, sightseeing, or recreation options.

Each hotel on this list is the best of the best—the most outstanding in the city it calls home. Only the most elegant or luxurious have made the cut
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11 Hotels Found
1. Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi Add to eGuidebook
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$152-$754 
Built: 2002 
Av das Nacoes Unidas, 12901-Brooklin, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Opened in 2002, this $90 million hotel is the third tower in the Centro Empresarial Nacoes Unidas business complex and stands adjacent to the World Trade Center complex. Its construction has been the catalyst for the burgeoning Morumbi business district, and it known as Hilton's largest investment i... Read Entire Review »
2. Hotel Baur au Lac Add to eGuidebook
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$383-$2,076 
Built: 1844 
Renovated: 1998 
Talstrasse 1, Zurich, Switzerland
One of Switzerland's most celebrated properties, this elegant hotel is superior to the well-known Widder. Owned and operated by the same family since 1844, this house continues to get the kind of attention other hotels only dream of. That attention, however, is not just from fans but from its owners... Read Entire Review »
3. Hotel Metropol Add to eGuidebook
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$415-$2,284 
Built: 1901 
Renovated: 1991 
1/4 Teatralny Proezd, Moscow, Russian Federation
Enjoying one of the better locations in town, this is Moscow's grandest grande dame. Built between 1897 and 1904 and restored in 1991, the building is a masterpiece of style moderne, Russia's answer to art nouveau. This hotel is unrivaled in its ability to recapture prerevolutionary charms, though L... Read Entire Review »
4. Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong Add to eGuidebook
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$549-$5,364 
Built: 2005 
15 Queen's Rd Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
This breathtakingly stylish hotel designed by American Peter Remedios boasts some of the largest guest rooms in the city, yet its intimate size allows for excellent customer-service standards and an instant response to any request. Situated near its sister property, this sleek lodging is striving to... Read Entire Review »
5. Le Royal Meridien King Edward Add to eGuidebook
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$216-$441 
Built: 1903 
Renovated: 2002 
37 King St East, Toronto, ON
This hotel sets the benchmark for traditional elegance, its only competition being the Fairmont Royal York and possibly the Four Seasons. The 17-story carved-stone building with quoin edges dates from 1903, during the reign of King Edward VII. Arriving guests enter a classic 80-ft marble lobby that... Read Entire Review »
6. The Dorchester Add to eGuidebook
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$721-$4,604 
Built: 1931 
Renovated: 2002 
Park Lane, London, England
Facing Hyde Park, this property has one-upped its peers with a recent makeover of its public areas that epitomizes 21st-century wealth and taste. Although the Ritz and Lanesborough corner the market for traditionalists and blue-bloods bent on chintz and Belgian tapestries, this spruced-up goose is m... Read Entire Review »
7. Ritz Paris Add to eGuidebook
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$1,140-$7,888 
Built: 1720 
Renovated: 1999 
15 Place Vendome, Paris, France
As the most celebrated hotel in Paris and probably the world, this establishment is the benchmark for grace and elegance in hospitality. Thanks to heavy infusions of capital and continued devotion to noblesse oblige, it continues to deserve its accolades in spite of approximate equality with the Meu... Read Entire Review »
8. Saxon Hotel Add to eGuidebook
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$710-$2,657 
Built: 2000 
Renovated: 2004 
36 Saxon Rd, Sandhurst, Johannesburg, South Africa
On a residential street north of Sandton, this small, luxurious boutique-hotel is the address of choice for moneyed hipsters and power brokers. If any guests have doubts of this property's status when passing through the steel-gated entrance, the presence of South Africa's sole Rolls-Royce dealershi... Read Entire Review »
9. Shangri-La Hotel Sydney Add to eGuidebook
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$331-$3,769 
Built: 1992 
Renovated: 2004 
176 Cumberland St, The Rocks, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
In a prominent harbor-side setting, with stunning panoramas of the harbor bridge, opera house and city skyline, this mustard-yellow 36-story high-rise hotel is a Sydney landmark in it own right. It is among the top hotels here, sharing its altitudinous perch with the Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, Hilton... Read Entire Review »
10. The American Colony Hotel Add to eGuidebook
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$430-$700 
Built: 1860 
Renovated: 2004 
23 Nablus Rd, Jerusalem, Israel
In a solemn but tranquil residential area, this hotel sits next to the mosque of Sheikh Jarrah and 100 m north of the Church of St. George. It is the answer to many travelers' prayers. It is indisputably the most enticing hotel in Jerusalem, bustling with journalists, UN officials and writers, who a... Read Entire Review »
11. The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun Add to eGuidebook
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$339-$1,059 
Built: 1993 
Renovated: 2006 
Retorno del Rey 36, Zona Hotelera, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico
This sophisticated urban hotel almost looks out of place among the resort revelry surrounding it. Guests will not find a swim-up bar here-and if there were one, it would probably require a dress code. Though it may not be authentically Mexican, the hotel does have a fair number of regional accents,... Read Entire Review »