Window shopping #44

Aman at sea, a hotel floor that behaves like a neighborhood, and hospitality’s shift to worldbuilding

Jan 23, 2026

This is Window Shopping, a weekly mini-letter from Window Seat—your stylish scroll through what’s new and noteworthy in the world of travel. Each issue blends timely headlines, personal favorites, and design-forward hotels to keep your wanderlust well-fed.

Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center has officially opened Sky Garden, a residential-style floor that blends art, wellness, and food into a private, intentionally-paced experience high above the city. Instead of another premium room category, the property is testing what happens when a hotel floor behaves more like a neighborhood, offering everything you could ever need. What stood out on my private tour last month wasn’t the square footage or skyline views (although those were equally impressive), but the way the spaces are intentionally designed to slow you down. Add it to the long list of reasons it’s become one of my favorite city hotels.

Aman has unveiled the inaugural itineraries for Aman at Sea, its long-anticipated yachting arm, with bookings now open for Amangati ahead of its Spring 2027 debut. The yacht’s first season will feature five to eight-night Mediterranean journeys designed for immersive coastal navigation and overnights in intimate harbors, rather than rushed port-hopping. Interiors borrow from the design of Japanese ryokans with full-height windows and an emphasis on light and openness. I’m dying to experience the Aman brand for myself, and am especially curious how it might feel in motion, unanchored.

Hospitality is shifting from destination-driven to universe-driven. More hotel groups are thinking beyond individual stays and toward fully formed worlds: places with a visual language and sense of continuity across destinations. Instead of offering perks, the most powerful thing a hotel can offer right now is a kind of feeling you can instantly recognize and attribute to their brand.

Earlier this week, I got to sit on my first panel representing Window Seat.

Praytell invited me to speak on their Niche Communities Redefining Modern Travel Discovery panel with fellow newsletter writer James Barrett (founder of the Jimmy Rox newsletter), and content creator/brand consultant Gabby Beckford.

My favorite question of the night asked about my previous role working within a more traditional media structure, and how moving into independent work has changed the kinds of travel stories that resonate today.

In my past life, marketers often came to me with fully built frameworks: campaigns with very predefined constraints. There was room to advise and push a bit, but the parameters were already set, and those limitations were always felt. Now, it’s the opposite. Brands come to me to build the framework. The result is more emotionally resonant, more authentic, and ultimately leads to more trust from the audience.

At one point I said, “my POV is the product,” and it became the throughline of the rest of the conversation. Because in modern travel discovery, trust doesn’t come from just scale, it comes from perspective. Curious if you all have any thoughts on this!

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise — Alberta, Canada

I love when a hotel feels inseparable from its setting, and that’s exactly the case here, where the building feels less placed beside the lake than built in conversation with it. The wellness offering follows that same logic. Nestled within Banff National Park, the hotel recently opened Basin Glacial Waters, an adults-only, indoor-outdoor, all-sensory experience centered on thermotherapy. Fed by natural glacial waters and framed by alpine views, Basin blends heat, cold, and recovery in a way that feels both restorative and deeply personal, with space to slow down and listen to your body. Paired with the hotel’s charm, natural springs, and those endless lake-and-mountain vistas, wellness here feels less like a program and more like a natural extension of the place itself.

Tori Simokov is a Travel Writer and Graphic Designer/Strategist based in New York. To get in touch, email tori@v1projects.com. Want more? Check out Instagram, TikTok, or shop her curated favorites.