Business Finance Media Technology Policy Wealth Insights Interviews

Art Art Fairs Art Market Art Reviews Auctions Galleries Museums Interviews

Lifestyle Nightlife & Dining Style Travel Interviews

Power Lists Nightlife & Dining Art A.I. PR

About About Observer Advertise With Us Reprints

18 Hotels That Make Sport the Destination, Not the Amenity

The new luxury hotel is a year-round sports academy with rooms—these are the ones worth the carry-on.

The way people pack for a trip has changed—and we're not just talking about fashion microtrends. Ten years ago, a two-week stay in Paris meant jackets, loafers and one pair of shoes that could pass for running. Now the suitcase is half Lululemon, half low-profile trainers, because the run along the Canal Saint-Martin has been mapped and the hit at the Racing Club de France is on the calendar. Sports tourism is projected to reach roughly $928 billion in 2026, per Grand View Research—no longer simply the business of men with golf bags. It's women in Sardinia on 80-mile gravel rides; fathers and daughters learning to fly-cast on the Madison; the padel court going up behind a Hamptons hedge. The pickleball league that has taken over Palm Beach on Tuesday nights. Wellness was the industry's last decade; sport is this one.

The average vacation used to end with a book half-finished and a spa voucher unused. Now, for a certain type of traveler, it ends with an athletic lesson booked for the next morning. Guests arrive having pre-read the course architect, the head pro, the coach's bio, and the previous season's race results. They show up in kit; they ask specific questions at check-in. Hotel concierges who spent a decade recommending restaurants now keep dossiers on tee times, tide charts and bike-fit specialists. The logic is simple: a week off should leave a person better than it found them, not worse. The logistics have caught up, too. Activewear packs a third smaller than the wardrobe it replaced, which means one carry-on now holds a tennis week. Spring’s finally here, so book something that makes you work for it.

18 Hotels Where the Sport Is the Reason You Go

Guarda Golf Hôtel & Résidences

The American Club at Destination Kohler

Verdura Resort, a Rocco Forte Hotel

Paradero Todos Santos

One&Only Moonlight Basin

Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco

The Lodge at Blue Sky, Auberge Collection

The Lodge at Primland, Auberge Collection 

The Ranch at Rock Creek

Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita

Adare, Co. Limerick V94 W8WR, Ireland

There are maybe a hundred people alive who can say they played Adare the year before a Ryder Cup (the property hosts the tournament in 2027), and now, that number is expected to roughly double. Resort guests have priority on the course through the 2027 season, and the rest of the world has been politely redirected. You walk out to the first tee at 8 a.m., before the groundskeepers have lifted the dew, and the fiber-optic cable is already laid under the fairway for the cameras that won't arrive for another 18 months. The starters call you "sir" in a way that suggests they know exactly what you paid to be there. There's water on 14 of 18. Tom Fazio’s 2018 redesign of the original Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout holds up on the bentgrass. Luke Donald's boot prints might already be somewhere on the back nine, and by October, so are yours.

Guarda Golf Hôtel & Résidences

Rte des Zirès 14, 3963 Crans-Montana, Switzerland

The Severiano Ballesteros Course sits nearly a mile up in the Valais Alps, and when you mishit a 7-iron at that altitude, the ball keeps going until you stop being embarrassed. Guarda is a two-minute walk from the first tee. The DP World Tour shows up the first week of September for the Omega European Masters, and for a few afternoons, the hotel lobby fills with caddies and Trackmans and someone's wife holding a glass of Fendant at 11 a.m. The rest of the summer, the mountain belongs to the breed of golfer who believes oxygen is a swing aid. The concierge will get you an 8:12 a.m. tee time if you ask twice.

The American Club at Destination Kohler

419 Highland Dr, Kohler, WI 53044

Whistling Straits looks like someone relocated the Irish coast to Lake Michigan and forgot to tell anyone. Pete Dye designed it that way........

© Observer