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T+L Releases Best 500 Hotels List; Usual Suspects Appear

And we thought the Telegraph's Best 50 Cozy Hotels had us dizzy this morning. Travel and Leisure has released their annual T+L 500 list for 2009. We are always a bit mystified by these lists. Are they the best hotels? Or are they the most expensive hotels?

For instance, take a look at the New York City winners. These are old-school luxury hotels. Granted, we love The Carlyle so much we want to die there but this list just reads like the phonebook for luxury hotels in the city. It's as if some rich man asked his butler for hotels in New York that cost more than $400 a night. Are they great hotels? Sure. But do you really want to just stay at a hotel because it's the most expensive? Ok, maybe those of you who didn't invest your money with Bernie Madoff do but we know of a few gems in the Big Apple that don't cost that much.

We do however have to give T+L a shout-out for adding such new properties like The James in Chicago (another HC fave), and the Viceroy Santa Monica to their U.S. List.

As far as the top 25 hotels in the world, anyone looking for a luxury hotel in India or a luxury safari hotel in Africa will like this list. And anyone who is a loyal follower of Oberoi Hotels and Peninsula Hotels which each have three hotels in the top 25 list alone.

Another group that will like the 500 list? The Dorchester Collection. Six out of the seven hotels in it's portfolio made the list. Same goes for the Ritz-Carltons and Four Seasons around the world. The list is more than peppered with these chain hotels. Different strokes for different folks, we guess.