As Soon As We Can Travel, These Three Vintage-Inspired Hotels Are First on Our List of Getaways

Last week, Sight Unseen took our annual summer “vacation” (which for me simply meant avoiding email while shuttling my children to various doctor appointments). Were we not to live in an eternal hellscape, however, these three vintage-inspired hotels would be tops on our list of places to visit. The Palm Heights in Grand Cayman was first on our radar; it’s been slowly revealing itself on our Instagram for over a year, thanks to its all-female design team — founder and creative director Gabriella Khalil along with designers Sarita Posada and Courtney Applebaum — as well as its food program, directed by one of our favorite former New York chefs, Gerardo Gonzalez. Each of the 52 suites offers an ocean view, but we might be too busy cataloguing the vintage furniture in our minds to even notice: The property is a serious treasure trove, from an Ettore Sottsass rug in the hotel lobby, to sofas by Mario Bellini and lounge chairs by Pierre Paulin in the suites.

Further away, on the French Riviera, we’ve been wanting to visit two different properties: Hôtel Le Sud, in Antibes, was designed by Stéphanie Lizée, whose take on French coastal style includes plastered walls, sandstone, terracotta, recessed shelves, wicker, and lots and lots of stripes. Lizée says both the palette and the graphic elements were inspired by mid-20th century French artists like Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Jean Cocteau and the ceramicists of Vallauris; these influences were also adopted by artist Franck Lebraly, who designed the hotel’s logo, the murals, and the artwork in the rooms. Three hours away, in Marseilles, is the Tuba Club, designed by architect Marion Mailaender. Seagrass floors, Corbu-inspired plywood headboards, upcycled ceramics, coat racks created by the artist Elvire Bonduelle, and a seriously knockout view complete the picture. Americans are persona non grata in the world right now, but tag us if you visit any of these properties anytime soon so we can live vicariously!