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Big Sky, Montana

From Anguilla To Australia, Forbes Travel Guide’s 2025 Star Award Winners

The 67th annual luxury hospitality awards celebrate the world’s best hotels, spas, restaurants, ocean cruises and—new this year—cruise restaurants.

The world’s most luxurious hotels can often be discovered in the unlikeliest destinations. From the ancient streets of Azerbaijan to the rugged terrain of Western Montana, Forbes Travel Guide’s annual Star Awards celebrate hospitality’s finest across the globe. This year’s winners—the most geographically diverse list in FTG’s 67 years—showcase excellence across 90 countries, with Brunei, Finland, Montenegro and Romania making their debut appearances.

Behind every Forbes Travel Guide Star Award lies a thousand small gestures: the concierge who tracks down a hidden café beloved by locals, the chef who sources ingredients from a generations-old farm, the spa therapist who crafts custom aromatherapy blends from native flowers. From established luxury capitals to emerging destinations, the 2,187 award recipients for 2025 demonstrate that true luxury is not measured in thread counts or square feet, but in moments of genuine connection.

FTG’s ratings are objective, independent and data-driven. Incognito inspectors pose as everyday guests—checking in at hotels, embarking on cruises, taking in spa treatments and dining at fine restaurants. They test hundreds of exacting standards that emphasize exceptional service, which accounts for 70% of a property’s rating. The quality and condition of the facilities account for the remaining 30%. Beyond these metrics, inspectors assess the intangibles behind a truly remarkable guest experience: whether a property allows you to continue a health-conscious lifestyle and enhance your well-being; whether the location, design or other elements conjured a strong sense of place; and whether all that added up to a stay that was unforgettable.

See the full list of 2025 Star Awards winners here, and learn more about the newest additions to the collection below.

Winning Destinations

Domestically, the United States had several notable Five-Star wins this year. Montana’s RiverView Ranch was joined by The Maybourne Beverly Hills, a glamorous escape with an outpost of New York City’s famed Dante bar; The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale, a water-inspired refuge; and Spa Montage Big Sky, an alpine retreat in Montana.

The vision behind Tom’s 10 at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club

A top-10 experience

We started back up in June 2023, coming off one of the biggest snow years and wettest springs that I have ever experienced. Because of the snowpack and wet weather, we couldn’t get out to do any work on the par 3 until late June.

It was a busy 2023 season with final shaping, cartpath installation, grassing and native establishment. We sodded the last green in early September and laid the last bluegrass sod in the rough surrounds at the end of September. We were able to mow the greens a few times before spraying our snow mold protection, preparing the course for winter, and for the most part, all the sod had rooted before we got our first snowfall. The course was ready for winter, and we felt good about where we were at.

We dedicated the par-3 course to Tom by calling it Tom’s 10. All the holes were homages to his favorite par-3 holes he had played throughout his career:

Hole 1. Design concept from Loch Lomond’s 18th green in Scotland, bunker within a bunker.
Hole 2. Design concept from the Riviera CC’s No. 6 green with the bunker in the middle of the green.
Hole 3. Design concept from Royal Troon’s No. 8 called the Postage Stamp, very small green with bunkers surrounding. Built a sod stacked bunker using ecoturf product.
Hole 4. Design concept from Augusta’s No. 16, we built the pond to mimic.
Hole 5. Design concept from Pine Valley’s No. 10, deep bunker front right of green. We ended up making the depth of this bunker the height of Tom, 6 foot, 3 inches.
Hole 6. Recreation of the original 18th green at Spanish Peaks before we redesigned it in 2020.
Hole 7. Design concept from the greens at Pinehurst No. 2 course, perched greens, convex movement.
Hole 8. Design concept from Merion’s No. 17 green — ridge in front, balls go to back right.
Hole 9. Design concept from Pebble Beach’s No. 7, the short downhill par 3.
Hole 10. Design concept from the Frost Creek’s No. 14 green in Eagle, Colo.

I often am asked, “Why a 10-hole par-3 course instead of a traditional nine-hole course?” The original design was a nine-hole par 3, but during the routing exercises, Tom made it a 10-hole routing. Tom’s answer was, “If we could fit more holes in this parcel, we would; I want to give them as much golf as we can see fit.” So we ended up with 10 holes and a practice putting green.