Movie stars and musicians have branched out from their primary careers to become owners of hotels, inns and resorts around the world. Here are 10 places to stay where you’re sure to feel like a celebrity.
Bedford Post Inn
Actor
Richard Gere and his wife, Carey Lowell, restored an 18th-century house and barn into a small luxury hotel called the
Bedford Post Inn, which opened in July 2009. Located in the tony enclave of Westchester, N.Y., just 45 minutes from Manhattan, the inn has eight guest rooms, an on-site gourmet restaurant and yoga and meditation studios frequented by Gere.
Palazzo Versace
Donatella Versace’s glittering
Palazzo Versace in Queensland, Australia, is as stylish and chic as you’d expect from a fashion designer. White, stately Italian columns and palm trees under the Gold Coast sun lure sun-seekers from around the world.A popular surfing beach nearby is a bonus, but there’s also a warm-water lagoon pool and beach at the hotel itself. Want a more private water experience? Book one of the condos with a plunge pool.
Ulusaba Safari Lodge
Virgin Group founder
Sir Richard Branson has developed a luxurious private game reserve,
Ulusaba, near the border of Kruger National Park in South Africa. When you’re not traveling by Jeep looking for lions, buffaloes, leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses, you can kick back in style in the reserve’s two lodges, built high on hills with amazing views.For extra fun, walk on swinging bridges between the treehouse-style rooms of the Safari Lodge. Tennis, swimming and a spa are also available, as is a daily bush walk for those who really want to get up close to wildlife.
Vermejo Park Ranch
This wilderness area near the New Mexico-Colorado border has been a recreational retreat since 1902 and over the years has been host to President Herbert Hoover, director Cecil B. DeMille and actor Douglas Fairbanks, to name just a few. CNN founder
Ted Turner purchased the 920 square miles around
Vermejo Park Ranch in 1996 and began multiple conservation programs designed to reintroduce endangered species and restore forest and prairie ecosystems.Today, visitors can see herds of elk, bison, antelope and deer — as well as their predators, bears and mountain lions — in their natural habitat. The ranch caters to nature-lovers, fishermen and hunters out to bag an elk, deer or bison.
Eleven Cadogan Gardens Hotel
Located near the River Thames and Hyde Park in the Knightsbridge district of London,
Eleven Cadogan Gardens Hotel (or No. 11 to those in the know), is a chic, 60-room, private club and hotel owned by actress
Elizabeth Hurley. Luxury features include claw-foot tubs, Victorian-era furnishings, private dining and a chauffeur service through which you can ride in style in a Rolls-Royce or Bentley.
Twin Palms
Singer
Frank Sinatra originally requested that his architects build his Palm Springs, Calif., house with lots of opulent columns, but they talked him into this more casual “desert-appropriate” home. He lived in the home from 1947 to 1957, years that saw many ups and downs in his personal life, including a divorce from his first wife, Nancy, and his marriage to and divorce from Eva Gardner. Through it all, it was a refuge for Sinatra and the Hollywood elite.True to Sinatra’s style, Twin Palms remains a fabulous house for entertaining. Visitors can now stay overnight at the estate, sleep in the master bedroom — secluded from the rest of the house for privacy — swim in the pool and soak up the sun and desert mountain views.
The Greenwich Hotel
When a vacant lot opened next to his office in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, actor
Robert De Niro seized the opportunity and created
The Greenwich Hotel, which opened in 2008. De Niro, who co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival and the film studio Tribeca Productions, among other ventures in the lower Manhattan neighborhood, wanted to build a property that represented the historic architecture of the area. The result is an eight-story building housing 88 rooms and suites. Reclaimed wood was used for the floors and doors, and the spa features a 250-year-old pine-and-bamboo house transported from Kyoto, Japan, which was reconstructed in the building
Terrace Beach Resort
The
Terrace Beach Resort in Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada, is a collection of waterfront cabins surrounded by evergreen forest. Actor
Jason Priestley and his family opened this haven on the rugged southwestern coast of Vancouver Island, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Popular with surfers, hikers, whale watchers and storm watchers, the cabins and rooms, starting at $99, offer in-room spa treatments and modern amenities such as kitchens and hot tubs.
The Clarence
Rock stars don’t have a great reputation as hotel guests, but evidently they make fine hotel owners. As young band mates in the 1970s, U2’s
Bono and
The Edge, among other artists, musicians and writers, frequented the Temple Bar district of Dublin. By 1992,
The Clarence hotel, on the banks of the River Liffey, had fallen into ill repair, so the pair bought and restored its 50 rooms.
Jardin Escondido
Director
Francis Ford Coppola not only has a thriving winery in Geyserville, Calif., he has a handful of hotels around the world, including Turtle Inn in Belize and La Lancha in Guatemala. Perhaps his most intimate hotel is
Jardin Escondido in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a garden retreat with just seven bedrooms. It also features a solar-heated pool, an outdoor kitchen and multiple levels of gardens.Even though the bustling and fashionable neighborhood of Palermo Soho is just outside the front door, the hotel is so secluded that Coppola himself occasionally comes here to write.
Mission Ranch
The
Mission Ranch, on California’s Monterey Peninsula, was bought and restored by Academy Award-winning actor and director
Clint Eastwood in 1986. The barn dates back to the 1850s, and the 22-acre ranch was the site of one of California’s first creameries. It is adorned with gardens, cypress and eucalyptus trees and has sweeping views of the surrounding meadows and coastline.
Sundance
In 1969, actor
Robert Redford bought a Utah ski resort with a vision of creating a community for environmental conservation and artistic experimentation. Today, this year-round resort,
Sundance, is popular for skiing, hiking, fly-fishing and horseback riding. Redford has become practically synonymous with Sundance, which is also the name of the independent film festival he founded in nearby Park City, as well as the character he played in the 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
Cardozo Hotel
The Art Deco
Cardozo Hotel in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood is owned by singer
Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio Estefan Jr., who helped refurbish the iconic, 1930s beachfront building.
Gaia Retreat and Spa
Musician
Olivia Newton-John is co-owner of the
Gaia Retreat and Spa on Australia’s New South Wales coast. Set in the lush, rolling hills around Byron Bay, this relaxing retreat opened in 2005 and offers classes on fitness and well-being in addition to a full-service spa.
