The Banquet
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Travel

Travel at The Banquet is not a list of hotels. It is the study of how places teach taste: where to stay, how long to linger, what to eat, and what a city rewards the patient traveler for noticing.

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Street corner view of Azumi Setoda’s tiled roofs, white upper storey, and dark wooden lattice on Ikuchijima
Travel

Skip the Marble Lobby in Asia’s New Hotels

Merchant houses, machiya sequences, hanok compounds, and shophouse suites are rewriting the stay brief. The interesting new keys measure themselves in courtyards and alleys, not atrium volume.

Start Here

Essential Reading in Travel

Venice; the classical Grand Tour in miniature
Travel

The Asian Grand Tour

Nine cities where luxury, culture, appetite, inheritance, and power now finish the education of taste.

Tokyo skyline and Rainbow Bridge at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Tokyo

Where Michelin counters, centuries-old craft, and contemporary design converge. An insider's map to the capital's most refined addresses.

Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong skyline at sunset
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Hong Kong

Harbour views, Cantonese precision, and the neighbourhoods insiders actually stay in. A curated map to the city's most refined addresses.

Seoul skyline at night with Namsan Tower
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Seoul

Korean fine dining, hanok calm, and the neighbourhoods where taste moves fastest. An insider's map to the capital's most refined addresses.

Editor's Route

City Guides

Stay, eat, shop, and experience maps for the capitals of the Grand Tour.

Tokyo skyline and Rainbow Bridge at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Tokyo

Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong skyline at sunset
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Hong Kong

Seoul skyline at night with Namsan Tower
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Seoul

Marina Bay Sands and Singapore skyline at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Singapore

Wat Arun on the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok
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The Banquet Guide to Bangkok

Marine Drive and Mumbai skyline at dusk
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The Banquet Guide to Mumbai

Lujiazui skyline and Pudong towers at night, Shanghai
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The Banquet Guide to Shanghai

Taipei 101 and Xinyi skyline at golden hour from Elephant Mountain
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The Banquet Guide to Taipei

Editor's Route

The Asian Grand Tour

Our signature route through nine capitals of culture, appetite, and inheritance.

Venice; the classical Grand Tour in miniature
Travel

The Asian Grand Tour

Mumbai harbour with boats and heritage architecture near the Gateway of India
Travel

Three Nights Facing the Gateway

Ornate palace architecture and formal gardens in Rajasthan
Travel

Three Nights at Rambagh Palace

The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace above its rain-fed lake, Maniyagarh Hills, Khajuraho
Travel

Three Nights at The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace

Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak at dusk
Travel

Hong Kong, Turned Down

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok suite interior
Travel

Three Nights on the Chao Phraya

Singapore skyline at dusk
Travel

Singapore's Hotels Finally Have a Point of View

Editor's Route

Slow Cities

Itineraries built for attention, not throughput.

Torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto
Travel

You Need a Week in Kyoto

Traditional Japanese ryokan interior with tatami and shoji screens
Travel

The New Generation of Luxury Ryokans

Row of heritage shophouses along a George Town street
Travel

The Case for Penang Now

Taipei 101 at night
Travel

Taipei After Midnight

All Stories

More in Travel

The fire-lit dai character of Gozan no Okuribi on Nyoigatake above Kyoto
Travel

Watch Daimonji and Let the Other Fires Go

Aerial view of Premier Residences Phu Quoc Emerald Bay along Kem Beach at sunset, with hotel towers and villa residences set in tropical forest
Travel

Vietnam’s Hotel Pipeline Sells Residences First

Aerial view of Garrya Mu Cang Chai thatched villas set into rice terraces and mountain forest in Yen Bai
Travel

Vietnam’s New Luxury Hotels Are Moving Beyond Colonial Nostalgia

Aman Kyoto Living Pavilion terrace in autumn with sunken lounge, fire pit, timber lattice, and maple hillside
Travel

Three Nights at Aman Kyoto

Infinity pool and timber deck of an Amanoi Ocean Pool Residence overlooking Vinh Hy Bay
Travel

Three Nights at Amanoi

Long wood-lined arrival corridor at Capella Kyoto with shoji screens, courtyard garden glimpses, and a circular red artwork at the far wall
Travel

Capella Kyoto Starts in the Alley

Terracotta undulating facade of Mandarin Oriental The Landmark on Queen's Road Central with the gold fan logo and a Hong Kong taxi passing
Travel

Prove the Fan on Queen’s Road

Songtsam Linka Kunming terraced white and timber buildings on a wooded hillside overlooking Dianchi Lake and distant mountains
Travel

Songtsam Comes Down to Dianchi

Night arrival at Capella at Galaxy Macau with gold Capella signage, Tree of Life lobby structure, and a Bentley at the porte-cochère
Travel

Ninety-Five Keys on Cotai

Overlapping dark-tiled roofs of Azumi Setoda against a pale Setouchi sky on Ikuchijima
Travel

Stay at Azumi Setoda

Indigo facade of Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion with lanterns and rickshaws, George Town
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Penang

Taipei 101 and Xinyi skyline at golden hour from Elephant Mountain
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Taipei

Architectural watercolor rendering of Sowaka's sukiya-style exterior in Higashiyama, Kyoto
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Kyoto

Residential seating area in a Rosewood Hong Kong harbour-view room overlooking Victoria Harbour and Central
Travel

The Case for Rosewood Hong Kong

Open terrace at Songtsam Lodge Cizhong overlooking the Lancang River valley
Travel

Stay at a Winery Hotel in Asia's Bordeaux: Cizhong

The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace above its rain-fed lake, Maniyagarh Hills, Khajuraho
Travel

Three Nights at The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace

Taipei 101 at night
Travel

Taipei After Midnight

Ornate palace architecture and formal gardens in Rajasthan
Travel

Three Nights at Rambagh Palace

Marine Drive and Mumbai skyline at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Mumbai

Lujiazui skyline and Pudong towers at night, Shanghai
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Shanghai

Wat Arun on the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Bangkok

Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong skyline at sunset
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Hong Kong

Seoul skyline at night with Namsan Tower
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Seoul

Marina Bay Sands and Singapore skyline at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Singapore

Mumbai harbour with boats and heritage architecture near the Gateway of India
Travel

Three Nights Facing the Gateway

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok suite interior
Travel

Three Nights on the Chao Phraya

Row of heritage shophouses along a George Town street
Travel

The Case for Penang Now

Venice; the classical Grand Tour in miniature
Travel

The Asian Grand Tour

Tokyo skyline and Rainbow Bridge at dusk
Travel

The Banquet Guide to Tokyo

Traditional Japanese ryokan interior with tatami and shoji screens
Travel

The New Generation of Luxury Ryokans

Singapore skyline at dusk
Travel

Singapore's Hotels Finally Have a Point of View

Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak at dusk
Travel

Hong Kong, Turned Down

Torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto
Travel

You Need a Week in Kyoto