Travel + Leisure: Best New Hotels 2011 - Runners-Up

For my final installment on Travel + Leisure's "It List: The Best New Hotels 2011," I'll focus on some of the runner-up hotels. Here you'll find the best and the worst of the list.

Dear Runners-Up, please know that you are both really really special. Don't take this personally. It's me, not you.

1. Fasano Las Piedras, Punta Del Este, Uruguay

This resort is undeniably spectacular. The architects and interior designers, inspired by the dramatic landscape, mixed classic regional elements like native stone, rustic wood, leather and cow hides with expansive glass windows, cement floors, and clean, minimalist furniture.

What kept me from putting this in the top 3 was that it's hard to see myself in something simultaneously so sparse and also so fancy. I feel like I would have to whisper and dress like I'm in a Woody Allen movie.

Photos: Fasano Las Piedras

2. Soho House Berlin

I'm slowly discovering about myself the I tend to prefer mountain, beach and desert inns over any hotels in urban centers. I find most urban hotels either austere in an effort to be modern or stuffy in an effort to be sophisticated. What I like about the Soho House Berlin is that it comes across as extremely cool, but also very cozy and playful.

The hotel is housed in a 1920's Bauhaus building and decorated with pre-war Art Deco details. But then there's this weird/awesome layer of 1980's German country house expressed with tons of ballsy floral design. It's very bold, super local, and zeitgeisty (har har).

Now that Madonna has stayed there it'll probably go out of fashion in 45 seconds, which is why it's not a winner for me, but I'd definitely love to stay there in the next few days.

Photos: Soho House Berlin