The world’s best hotels for 2024 revealed

The Capella Bangkok didn’t have the easiest of beginnings. It opened in 2020, in the first year of a global pandemic that had the hospitality industry on its knees.

However, just four years later, this sanctuary overlooking the Chao Phraya River has taken the top spot in the second edition of the World’s 50 Best Hotels list, which was announced at an awards ceremony in London on Tuesday night.

All of the hotel’s 101 rooms are spacious and light-filled, but the riverside villas, all with private gardens and plunge pools, are a unique highlight of this five-star offering in Charoenkrung, Thailand’s oldest neighborhood.

“When you come to Bangkok, it’s crazy, it’s chaotic, it’s funky, it’s noisy,” general manager John Blanco told CNN Travel after the ceremony in London’s Guildhall, “but when you come to the hotel, you’re in this little moment of Zen: the sanctuary, the garden with beautiful trees full of birds.”

Capella Bangkok’s director of marketing Josephine Png told CNN Travel her favorite spot in the hotel is “on the terrace by the river under the trees.” By day, it’s “super tranquil,” she said, but by night, the river comes alive with the spectacle of passing party boats.

Opening during the pandemic was a blessing in disguise, said Blanco, as it gave them time to get to know their neighbors. “Covid gave us an opportunity to really get warm and fuzzy and close with the Thais, who are amazing customers.”

Now the rest of the world has been discovering the hotel too – and many of them are making repeat visits, Blanco said. “Thailand is one of those destinations, it’s very sticky. It’s a destination that you fall in love with and you need more of. It’s almost like a drug.”