The 30 Best Hotel Openings of 2021

Given that the Alila Marea hugs a coastal bluff, San Diego-based Joseph Wong Design Associates and Brooklyn, New York, firm MARKZEFF wanted the 130-key hotel to echo the Encinitas landscape. By integrating materials like concrete, glass, and oak, softened by a color palette of beige and muted gray that references the sand, stones, and driftwood of the beach, Alila Marea merges with the outdoors. In the lobby, a staircase defined by towering steel rods is a showstopper, but it’s the subtler details, including the rope adorning guestroom chairs, large-scale ocean photography by Aaron Chang, and pool bar wall panels crafted with the same techniques used to make surfboards that reinforce the coastal narrative. Photo by Eric Laignel