We are only one month into the new year and we have already stayed at some spectacular hotels and resorts. However, before we go on gushing about those, we want to take a minute to look back at the best hotels of 2014. We stayed at some incredible hotels with world class accommodation and making this list involved lots of debate.  

We had some especially hard choices to make when it came to best atmosphere, best beach and best food, but we finally narrowed down the winners. Here are the best hotels of 2014 to help you plan your travels this year.

Best Grounds:

• Cape Panwa Hotel and Thavorn Beach Village & Spa

Cape Panwa Hotel is set on a hill in Phuket with incredible views from breakfast, the pool, your room and the beach. Both these resorts have private beaches and their grounds are lush with indigenous flora. Thavorn Beach, also in Phuket, has a similar but more drastic set-up with villas climbing the side of a cliff.

Runner-up: A-Star Phulare Valley Resort, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Best Staff

• Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra

Many of these hotels had stellar staff, but the Sofitel in Krabi shone above the rest. Not only was everyone friendly and greeted us warmly, we were assisted by members of several different teams. We took a private speedboat tour to Hong Island where our driver and personal butler set up a picnic and made sure we had everything we could want. Everyone from the spa to the restaurants was helpful and cheerful and helped make our stay that much more enjoyable.

Runner-up: Anantara Chiang Mai

Best Atmosphere

• Ibrik Resort

Ibrik Resort in Bangkok with its charming three rooms wins for its cozy, intimate atmosphere. Our room had an oversized balcony looking over the river which came right up to the house. We watched bustling water traffic from our quiet room and could even see the Royal Palace.

Runner-up: Bangkok Tree House

Best Food

• Anantara Golden Triangle

Anantara Golden Triangle‘s Italian restaurant, Baan Dahlia, served one of the best meals we have had in Thailand. The spaghetti prepared table-side in a giant wheel of Parmesan cheese topped with black truffles was just amazing. Our meals at the main restaurant and breakfast were also fantastic.

Runner up: B-lay Tong, Phuket, Thailand

Best Villas

• A-Star Phulare Valley Resort

The villas at A-Star Phulare Valley are comfortable, clean, and modern. An outdoor shower, large deck and private infinity pool pushed them to the top of this category. An additional balcony off the bedroom, floor to ceiling windows looking over the hills of Chiang Rai on most of the walls, and a huge bathroom didn’t hurt either.

Best Rooms

• Cape Panwa Hotel

The suites at Cape Panwa all have balconies and most have jacuzzis. There is ample outdoor and indoor seating, the king sized beds were super soft, the living room was spacious, the bathroom was big and there was a separate walk in closet and vanity area. Not to mention the beautiful views of the property and the ocean through the trees.

Best Spa

• Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra

The Sofitel So Spa was incredibly relaxing and the service was perfect. They exclusively use L’Occitane products, bringing some French inspiration to the traditionally decorated Thai spa. The individual treatment rooms are spacious and separated by a beautiful water feature. The lounging area, while outdoors, was still quiet making us feel worlds away from the activities of the rest of the resort.

Best Pool

• Thavorn Beach Village & Spa

Thavorn’s lagoon pool is something to behold. The water snakes around the property past poolside rooms, a swim up bar and even a waterfall. Exploring the winding lagoon entertained us for hours and we discovered a second hidden waterfall as well as countless places to lounge.

Runner-up: Ascott Raffles Place, Singapore

Best Beach

• Cape Panwa Hotel

Cape Panwa’s private beach wins this category hands down. The white sand and clear blue water are flanked by a beautiful colonial mansion that houses the restaurant in the evenings and bar so you are never far from anything you need. There is even an infinity pool with a view of the ocean tucked amongst the palms.

Best View

• Thavorn Beach Village & Spa and Anantara Golden Triangle

The villas at Thavorn Beach in Phuket are stacked on a cliffside so each one has uninterrupted views of the quiet private beach below. Anantara’s Golden Triangle Resort, located on the other end of Thailand in Chiang Rai, offers views of three countries from it’s suites.

Runner-up: Aonang Phu Petra Resort

Best Pillows

• VIE Hotel

If you’ve read many of our hotel reviews you’ve probably noticed that pillows are very important to us. We really appreciate a quality pillow, the bigger the better. So VIE Hotel in Bangkok’s giant square down pillows had to be included!

Do you have a favorite hotel or resort? Have you been to any on our list of best hotels of 2014? Let us know in the comments!