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It List: The Best New Hotels 2012
Travel + Leisure 2 012 t + l i t l i s t June, 2012 Courtesy of Singular Hotels
Design: The Singular, Puerto Borries, Patagonia, Chile Here’s a challenge: take a century-old meat-storage facility on the shoals of Patagonia’s icy fjords and turn it into a top-notch adventure resort. The first hotel from Singular, an independent, Santiago-based hotel company, is up to the task. Chileanborn designer Enrique Concha helped transform the brick-and-timber structure an hour from Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park into a cavernous main lodge with cathedral ceilings and dramatic walls of glass. Fifty-seven guest rooms—all with floor-to-ceiling windows—look onto the original pinewood dock, the Last Hope Sound, and the snowcapped Andes. After a hearty traditional breakfast we were fortified enough to explore our surroundings, which included the two for-guestsonly private reserves, just a short sail away. thesingular.com. $$$$ —Rocky Casale
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NEWS Now Booking | Patagonia’s Best Beds T R AV EL | BY R O CK Y C A SALE | APR I L 2 3, 2012, 4: 35 PM
The New York Times Style Magazine Tr avel Sec tion April 23, 2012
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedrooms at Singular give a lovely view out onto the water.
Chile’s boutique hotel business is booming these days, most notably with last December’s opening of two stylish resorts that changed the way travelers experience the absolute remoteness of Patagonia. The standout of the two is the Singular Hotel, which occupies a converted sheep slaughterhouse on the shoals of Puerto Bories. On the outside the hotel and spa looks like a cluster of unkempt farm buildings, but the inside is industrial chic: rooms of polished red brick, hulking steel and wooden beams. The meat factory’s former refrigeration buildings were partitioned and converted into 57 guest rooms (from $580 per person per night, including meals), each fitted with a giant glass wall that faces the Patagonian fjords and the snowcapped Andes Mountains. The Singular’s bar, lounge and restaurant is in a turn-of-the-century general store at the base of the old factory. The immense red brick room has cathedral ceilings, long antique wooden tables and high-backed leather Winchester chairs. The bartender makes a pisco sour that will make your blood glow, and the food — the sources are from Patagonia’s backyard pantry of mountains, farmland and sea — is excellent, especially the braised rabbit. And because this is Patagonia, the hotel employs a team of adventure experts to cart guests all over the countryside to horseback ride with professional gauchos, zip around on speed boats between the glacial fjords and trek into the grassy foothills of the Andes and Massif mountain ranges.
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Martha Stewart Weddings community Sec tion March, 2012
March 8, 2012
Talk About Location! This New Hotel Has It in Spades Posted by Kelly Lack If you’re in the market for a far-out honeymoon experience, consider the wildlands of Chilean Patagonia where the new Singular Patagonia is a straight-from-the-fridge-cool hotel in a hundred-year-old factory. The building retains its industrial vibe (think sturdy brick walls and metal fittings), but it’s been retrofitted with all the amenities your little heart could desire like a luxe spa that works pure glacier water and locally grown herbs into treatments. Settings just don’t get more stunning than this (check out Exhibit A below). Don’t the mountains look like a painted backdrop?
Though it would be easy to cozy up in bed all day long, gazing out the floor-to-ceiling windows, the real reason people travel down to this neck of the woods is to be in the thick of the heart-pounding scenery. Get your adrenaline fix hiking past glacial lakes that glow a milky blue in nearby Torres del Paine National Park, or marvel at the waterfall-lined fjords on a boat trip. Rates start at $260 per person for lodging and breakfast, or at $410 per person for your room, all meals, and expeditions. Here are a few more shots to kick start the wanderlust.
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NEWS The Wall Street Journal J a n u a r y 21 , 2 0 1 2
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NEWS The Wall Street Journal J a n u a r y 21 , 2 0 1 2
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Elle Tr avel Sec tion April 11, 2012
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedrooms at Singular give a lovely view out onto the water.
Newly opened in November 2011, The Singular is a renovated cold-storage plant on the shores of Last Hope Sound, just outside the town of Puerto Bories in southern Patagonia. The concept of a factory-turned-hotel may sound a little odd, but in reality it means lots of space, history and just the right amount of quirkiness. Built by the British in 1915, this long red-brick building was used to process wool and meat which was then shipped back home. After almost 70 years in operation, it was declared a national historic landmark and has now been transformed into a hotel which pays homage to its history - the hallways are filled with original Victorian machinery (wheels, steam condensers, boilers and forges) all of which are stamped with their places of origin, like Derby, Birmingham, London and Glasgow. In contrast, is the new wing, which has 57 bedrooms and the biggest spa in Patagonia (3,000-square-feet). In keeping with
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The ELLE Edit Best room: There are 54 rooms and three suites. The style is similar in all the rooms, and all have stand-alone baths and huge beds, but the difference lies in space - the suites measure 70 square metre and come with vast windows and expansive living rooms.
the past, the corridors have industrial-looking stainless steel walls, and the bedrooms are furnished with solid Victorian-style furniture. Full-length windows give the bedrooms a ‘capsule’ feel and make the most of the views over the fjord. Most guests book all-inclusive stays and spend the days on the hotel’s excursions which include hiking, biking, boating and visiting Torres del Paine National Park. After a long day in the elements, the spa with its sauna, steam room and swimming pool is the perfect place for warming up and chilling out. What’s hot? - The Victorian machinery in the hallways - The bedside notes giving snippets of the hotel’s and region’s history - The enormous beds and huge windows overlooking the water - The excursions - especially horse riding and visiting a cave in which giant sloths lived 10,000 years ago - Relaxing in the spa after a day exploring Patagonia What’s not? - The price tag - The swimming pool is quite small – surprising given all the space - This part of the world was previously thought to be uninhabitable, so bring plenty of clothes and be prepared for grey skies, high winds and unpredictable weather
Need to Know: The Singular Patagonia Number of rooms: 54 Check-in/check-out times: 3pm and 12noon Swimming pool: Yes Spa: Yes Dogs welcome: No
Eating and drinking: The spacious restaurant has an open kitchen and plenty of different seating options (from high stools, to big comfy seats and dining room tables). There is a long bar at one end where guests can settle in with an aperitif or partake in beer and wine-tasting evenings. Near to? A whole lot of nothing. Remoteness aside, the hotel is a few minutes outside Puerto Bories, and two hours’ drive from Punta Arenas - where there’s an airport with frequent flights from Santiago. Getting there: LAN (0800 977 6100; Lan.com ) flies from London Heathrow to Santiago via Madrid. Once on the ground, it is a three-hour flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas. The Singular will arrange airport transfers.
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Best dish: Chef Laurent Pasqualetto changes the menu daily and uses local produce and recipes where possible. The soups are delicious (think carrot and ginger ) and the beetroot gnocchi is not to be missed. Also, make the most of the Chilean wine. Fashion /design cre dentials: Designed by renowned Chilean interior designer Enrique Concha and local architect Pedro Kovacic, the building’s historical role gives an extra dimension to this luxury hotel. The combination of original machinery and replica Victorian furniture alongside modern-day comforts and excellent service gives a feeling of complete rest and escapism. Who stays here? Wealthy Chileans and Europeans who come to explore the region, some with a particular interest in historical ties; honeymooners looking to come to the one of the most wild and woolly parts of the globe to share their early days of marital bliss.