HotelChatter

Staying in South America, Montevideo (Uruguay) will see the opening of Sofitel Casino Carrasco and Spa next month. Like several other hotels we’ve recently talked about, the property is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with 93 rooms and 23 suites overlooking the Río de Plata and the Carrasco Beach. We found rates starting from $340 for a Superior Queen room in late March.

Not quite as historic, because, well, it’s Dubai, Sofitel will add another resort to The Palm in July. We’ve previously wondered whether Dubai really needed more expensive hotels, but they just keep coming in. So next up is the resort-style Sofitel Dubai The Palm which focuses on sand and sea, and all the activities you can think of around those two elements. The hotel has 237 rooms, a private beach and jetty, swimming pools, water skiing, fishing, and for even more water-based fun: the Aquaventure water park nearby.

Zooming back to chez soi for Sofitel in its native France, the Sofitel Paris Arc de Triomphe will reappear after a soup-to-nuts renovation, with thoroughly modern interiors to offset the classic Haussman façade. Still open despite the work that is ongoing, we’d be sure to make an effort to see you if you can bag one of the renovated rooms – that tub seems particularly inviting. Paris, as you know, is not cheap with a Superior room running just shy of $500 in March.

And there’s more: we’ve already told you about Bali, there’s a range of hotels in the pipeline in China, and, taking it all the way to the far end of the globe, early 2014 will see a Sofitel in the Kiwi capital of Wellington, New Zealand.

[Photos: Sofitel Hotels]