A Singular Pleasure - Life & Leisure's review of The Singular Hotels
Imagine a brief in which you requested a stylish and chic hotel that spoke to cutting-edge modernity, with a dash of bygone elegance. Sort of Hollywood gentlemen’s club meet Manhattan today. This pretty much sums up the Singular Hotel in Santiago, which opened in 2014.
The monochrome reception is easy on the senses after the 15-hour, 11,000 kilometre flight from Sydney – and you have 62 rooms in the renovated building from which to choose. Outside, the café culture is unrivalled given it’s located in Santiago’s artsy Lastarria neighbourhood, a 15-minute walk to Plaza de Armas in the city centre.
Beat jet lag with a quick workout in the well-equipped gym or have a hot-stone massage in the spa; freshen up in your granite-and glass bathroom with a huge bathtub and rain showerhead, then duck up to the rooftop bar for sunset cocktails under the serene gaze of the Virgin Mary statue on San Cristobal Hill. We didn’t see anyone in the rooftop pool that evening but in this funky bohemian neighbourhood, anything is possible.
Later in the evening, head around the corner to two of Santiago’s hottest nosheries, restaurant Bocanariz and Pisco bar Chipe Libre – Republica Independiente del Pisco, where the war between Chile and Peru over whose pisco sours are the best is depicted via a large selection of each country’s best grape brandies.
From urban standout to wilderness wonder, The Singular’s other project is The Singular Patagonia, which opened in 2011 in Puerto Bories.
This 100-year-old building was originally a cold-storage plant for the pioneering sheep and cattle farmers whose produce was shipped from the isolated region to Europe. It closed in 1971 and languished for years until the owners embarked on a painstaking 10-year restoration to turn the national historic monument into a unique luxury hotel and living museum.
The industrial architecture is juxtaposed against sweeping views of the Patagonia fiords of Last Hope Sound.
