Summer Redux: The New 'It' Hotels

LOS ANGELES (TheStreet) -- They're the winter hotspots that will define this year's travel season. These new hotels will likely book up within a few days of landing that eventual Vogue or New York Times feature. Before they become incorrigibly smug as the journalistically anointed "next global it-spot" -- or simply sold-out -- consider plunking down money now.

James Bond in Bermuda shorts: It's been featured in a Martha Stewart episode, and Vogue and Time magazine did lengthy features on it. Palm Springs is once again a hotspot, with hip new properties like the Ace Hotel + Swim Club and retro hideaways such as the Ingleside Inn proving to be beacons for L.A. weekenders.

This retiree refuge has recently gone through a socioeconomic flush that's resulted in younger buyers seizing on a bottoming foreclosure market that's made the city's iconic mid-century properties a second-home steal. Palm Springs is best experienced in two-night intervals, making a day of hiking trails, like the Indian Canyons, before taking in dive bars along Palm Canyon and eateries such as the Purple Palm.

The Latin fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi has opened a new hotel in Colombia.

Cool in Colombia: It's been the beachside hotspot for Latin glitterati for years, but only now is Cartagena registering on the radar of American and European globetrotters. In one of the most ambitious design projects on the continent, Latin fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi debuts The Tcherassi Hotel + Spa in a 250-year-old former colonial mansion near the city center.

The seven-room luxury boutique hotel is home to four pools, including a glamorous courtyard reflection pond with arched colonnade framing the indoor/outdoor lobby. The hotel is home to VERA Restaurant, a lavish space helmed by former New York chef and Mario Batali protege Daniel Castano. The hotel dazzles with design details and lofty living spaces featuring tumbled stone walls, antique beam ceilings and open-flow bathrooms complete with custom his-and-hers towels.