ANANTARA IS FOR WHEN YOU’RE REALLY GOING SOMEWHERE

Anantara is the kind of brand that starts making a lot more sense once your passport gets a little disrespectful. Thailand. Maldives. Bali. Vietnam. Sri Lanka. Dubai. Oman. Zambia. Mozambique. These aren't necessarily the trips somebody books because they found a cheap flight Thursday night. Anantara shows up when we're going somewhere on purpose.

Part of Minor Hotels, Anantara is built around luxury properties that lean heavily into their destinations. That's what we like most. A Thai resort should feel like Thailand. A safari lodge in Africa should not feel like somebody dropped a generic luxury hotel beside some elephants. If we're flying 15 hours, please don't give us the same damn hotel we could have stayed in three hours from home.

The downside? Anantara isn't cheap, its footprint is less useful for the average American trip, and the brand name still doesn't carry the flex of Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton back home. But frankly, if you're choosing your hotel based on whether your coworkers recognize the logo, Anantara probably isn't for you anyway.

This is a brand for travelers who have graduated from simply wanting to go international to wanting to experience somewhere different.