Signature Aviation Spring 2025

This image and below ÖÖD Hekla Horizon in Iceland

Who would have thought a cruise line would be the one to launch the world’s southernmost hotel? Debuting later this year in Puerto Williams in the sub-Antarctic zone of Chile, overlooking the snow-capped Patagonian mountains, Silversea’s as-yet-unnamed 150-key hotel will be enveloped by supreme natural beauty and o ff er utter tranquility, but this sailing company’s unexpected land-based venture isn’t as incongruous as it fi rst seems. Silversea homeports from Puerto Williams for the Antarctic cruise season; the hotel, which sits by the Beagle Channel, will primarily function as a re fi ned pit stop for customers about to commence voyages to the White Continent. Surprising though that hotel opening is, it isn’t the only property of late to emerge in an isolated, extreme and occasionally icy location. A cluster of just seven mirrored houses designed to merge with the landscape, Iceland’s ÖÖD Hekla Horizon sits near Mount Hekla volcano. It’s a primordial setting known as the Gateway to Hell in medieval times, but don’t let that put you o ff ; guests here can ramble along mossy lava fi elds, journey to thundering waterfalls or relax and ruminate during leisurely fl y- fi shing excursions. This is prime Northern Lights territory too, and while bedrooms’ fl oor-to-ceiling windows allow for unimpeded views outwards on frigid winter nights, those ethereal vistas are perhaps best enjoyed from one of the resort’s steaming hot tubs. Some 5,085-ft up, in the foothills of Austria’s Wetterstein Mountains, the nine-bedroom, timber framed Eriro is similarly intimate and elemental (and you might recognize it from the Winter issue of Elite Traveler ). Accessible primarily by cable car, it feels gloriously removed from the regular world — Going to extremes

Photos Gertrud Ots, Ingibergur Thor