The South Pacific’s Best, According to Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler doesn’t hand out superlatives lightly, which is exactly why its new Triple Crown distinction is worth paying attention to.

This distinction is reserved for hotels that have appeared across all three of the publication’s most influential platforms, the Hot List (new openings), the Gold List (editors’ picks) and the Readers’ Choice Awards (voted by travellers), at any point over the past thirty years. Fewer than 400 properties worldwide made the cut, out of thousands featured across three decades of coverage.

Nine of them are properties in our portfolio.

That’s not really a coincidence. It’s a fairly direct reflection of how we’ve built Touch of Spice from the start - not chasing volume, but curating a collection of genuinely exceptional stays across New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, each one chosen because it earns its place rather than simply fills a gap. As the leading destination management company across the South Pacific, that’s always been the point: handpicked properties, higher bar, deeper relationships with the people who run them - all for you to experience and enjoy to the fullest.

Why the Triple Crown is different from most travel awards

Most hotel awards reward a moment, a flashy opening, a good year of reviews, a well-timed press trip. The Triple Crown rewards the opposite: consistency across time and across audiences. A property needs to have impressed CNT’s editors when it first opened, stayed impressive enough to make their annual favourites list, and kept delivering well enough that actual guests, not critics, voted it among the best, potentially years or even decades apart. Very few hotels manage all three. Fewer still manage it more than once.

That’s what makes this list a useful shorthand: it’s the closest thing the travel industry has to proof that a property performs the same way whether an editor is watching or not.

The accolades are extensive. In 2026, qualia became one of fewer than 400 hotels worldwide, and just 13 in Australia, to receive Condé Nast Traveler’s inaugural Triple Crown, which honours properties recognised across the publication’s Hot List, Gold List and Readers’ Choice Awards over 30 years of editorial history. qualia also holds a Michelin Key and membership in Luxury Lodges of Australia, a collective of properties selected for their commitment to place, quality and Australian cultural identity.

What the awards can’t capture is the design logic of the resort itself. Sixty-one individual pavilions are set into the natural topography of the headland, each oriented toward uninterrupted views of the Coral Sea and the scattered islands of the Whitsunday Passage. There are no lobbies to pass through, no corridors. The architecture of qualia works to put you outdoors, in the private plunge pool of a Windward Pavilion, on a terrace watching the light shift over the water, as directly as possible. The landscape does the heavy lifting; the design simply gets out of its way.

Our Triple Crown properties, region by region

Australia

Lizard Island Resort, Great Barrier Reef

About as remote as Australian luxury gets: a private national park island reached by seaplane, with the reef itself starting a short swim from shore.  Built for travellers who want the Great Barrier Reef as their front yard rather than a day-trip destination, this is the only luxury all-inclusive resort located directly on the reef. Surrounded by 24 secluded white-sand beaches, this is barefoot luxury at its absolute best.

qualia, Hamilton Island

Adults-only and deliberately understated for a property this exclusive, qualia is where the Whitsundays’ most fabulous guests, including a fair share of famous faces, go to truly unwind. Indulge at qualia’s two restaurants, Long Pavilion, set high among the eucalypts, and Pebble Beach, right on the edge of the sand, laze poolside with a cocktail, or venture out and enjoy all the beauty the Whitsundays has to offer. Architecture here knows to step aside for the Coral Sea, and service is built around genuine discretion rather than spectacle.

Silky Oaks Lodge, Tropical North Queensland

Rainforest instead of reef, and no less spectacular for it. Elevated above the Mossman River on the edge of the Daintree, Silky Oaks is proof that Queensland’s luxury story extends well beyond the coastline. Stay in beautifully appointed, stylish treehouses, indulge at the spa, and explore the world’s oldest rainforest for a stretch of true, deep relaxation.

Saffire Freycinet, Tasmania

One of the most photographed silhouettes in Australian hospitality, set against the Hazards on the Freycinet Peninsula. Saffire’s pull is as much about the unique architecture as it is about what surrounds it - Tasmania’s wild beauty, fresh produce and sensational seafood, its wine, its genuinely breathtaking coastline. Experience some of the world’s best stargazing, shuck and eat oysters directly from the working farm, or soak in a deep bath overlooking the water to the Hazards.  

Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island

A property that earned this recognition twice over, in a sense: once for the original, and again for the extraordinary rebuild after the 2020 bushfires. Set high on limestone cliffs above the Southern Ocean, its 25 glass-fronted suites make the most of a view with next-to-nothing between it and Antarctica. Days are spent exploring Kangaroo Island,often dubbed the Australian Galapagos, with guided walks among wallabies and echidnas, a visit to the sea lion colony at Seal Bay, and the wind-sculpted granite of the Remarkable Rocks

Halcyon House, Cabarita Beach

The outlier on this list, and a welcome one: a boutique beachfront hotel rather than a wilderness lodge, twenty minutes from Byron Bay, built around genuinely good design and one of the region’s best restaurants. It’s a nostalgic nod to vintage Palm Springs - and you’ll be very happy here, poolside, cocktail in hand, listening to the waves roll onto Cabarita Beach’s pearly white sand. Dine at the coveted Paper Daisy, unwind in the steam room, sauna and cold plunge, or start the day with beach yoga.

New Zealand

Rosewood Kauri Cliffs, Northland

Clifftop golf above the Pacific on the Bay of Islands coast, on a 6,000-acre former sheep farm originally shaped by the late Julian Robertson and now under Rosewood’s management. The championship course runs right to the cliff edge and rarely sees a crowd, while spa trails wind down to deserted white- and pink-sand bays where orca occasionally pass. Rooms are built around the fireplace as much as the view, and the kitchen runs proudly farm-to-table, lamb from the property’s own paddocks, snapper and kingfish caught that same morning.

Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, Hawke’s Bay

Sitting above the coast on working farmland, with the same Robertson pedigree as Kauri Cliffs and an equally strong pull for golfers, thanks to a course regularly ranked among the world’s best. Beyond the fairways, the real draw is Cape Sanctuary, a predator-fenced conservation project reintroducing native kiwi to the mainland, alongside a gannet colony that draws tens of thousands of birds each nesting season. Days can run to farm tours, foraging walks and sanctuary visits, with evenings closing out at the infinity pool, a genuinely excellent spot for stargazing.

Rosewood Matakauri, Queenstown

Set on the shores of Lake Wakatipu with The Remarkables as a mind-blowing backdrop, Matakauri leans into alpine sophistication, white timber, manicured lawns, and floor-to-ceiling windows built to defer to the view rather than compete with it. Service here runs more formal than elsewhere in New Zealand, closer to traditional silver service, and the on-site restaurant does some of the country’s best local salmon and lamb alongside standout Central Otago Pinot Noir. Concierge can arrange helicopter flights to the surrounding peaks or private tastings in the Otago winelands.

Wharekauhau Country Estate, South Wairarapa

A working sheep station since 1844, reshaped into a country estate above Palliser Bay after American businessman Bill Foley and his wife Carol bought it on a New Zealand wine trip in 2010. The estate’s cottages run along paths from the main Edwardian house, each with its own fireplace and pantry, looking out over farmland to the sea. Dinner is an extravagant, well-paired affair, a Matangi eye fillet with goat cheese and olive tapenade is a standout, and the wellness complex includes an indoor pool, sauna and cold plunge. A Relais & Châteaux member with a reputation for laid-back luxury that’s hosted its share of quiet royal history without ever feeling precious about it.

Fiji

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Kokomo Private Island Fiji](https://www.touchofspice.co.nz/luxury-lodges-and-hotels/kokomo-island-beach-front-villa/)

A private island in the far south of Fiji, reached by the resort’s own seaplane or helicopter from Nadi, or a short boat hop from neighbouring Kadavu, an island known for its waterfalls and Pacific gospel choirs, and Kokomo’s own arrivals and departures lean on that same tradition, with impromptu staff send-offs that catch most guests off guard. With just 25 units, it never feels crowded, and the swimmable Great Astrolabe Reef sits close enough that turtles and rays are visible from the villa infinity pools. Dining runs 24-hour room service alongside fresh coral trout sashimi and lobster kokoda, while an on-site marine biologist and glass-bottom boat make it easy to explore the reef properly. Kokomo delivers a genuine sense of place, built on warm Fijian hospitality.

What this means for you

We didn’t need Condé Nast Traveler to tell us these properties were exceptional,  we’ve been sending guests to them for years, and we know the general managers, the guides and the front-of-house teams by name. But it’s a useful external validation of something we say often and mean: this region punches enormously above its weight in global luxury travel, and our job is making sure the right travellers find their way to it.

If you’re planning a trip to New Zealand, Australia or Fiji and want access to stays that are recognised for the right reasons, get in touch with our team. We know these regions and properties properly, and we know how to build an itinerary around them that does them justice.