The Best New Hotels in the World: 2019 Hot List
"Finland's handsome capital has never topped the list of Nordic cities on a traveler's radar. It doesn't have an Old Town like Stockholm. Or the food scene of Copenhagen (though Tommi Tuominnen's mini empire is starting to change that). It didn't even have a hotel doing for the city what The Thief did for Oslo. Until—until—last May, when homegrown hotel group Kamp turned an old newspaper publishers a couple blocks from the water into a modern Grande Dame. The stylish St George walks the line between show pony for local design and emporium of international tastemakers. There is the charmingly minimal blond wood desk and chairs in each sunlit room, where function matches design in a way to make Alvar Aalto proud. Ai Wei Wei's wonderfully bizarre hanging dragon commands the space downstairs from the check-in desks. Down the checkered hallway, a Monocle cafe where sharply dressed Finns tap at laptops and sip strong coffee channels Stockholm but serves the city's most fragrant rye rolls, a Finnish staple. The 18th-century building was originally designed by Onni Tarjanne, who also did the National Theater across town; it's why the grand public bar resembles the old winter gardens, with its canopy of plants and pale blue walls, that were fashionable in the 1700s. It's an appropriate way to modernize the city's past, in a hotel that will finally land it on the traveler's itinerary. FLASH POINT The sleek downstairs sauna has a huge thermal bath and sells Finnish beauty brand Lumiere, which is hard to track down outside the country. +358 9-4246-0011; stgeorgehelsinki.com; Doubles from about $180." - CNT Editors
