Today’s catch: eight destinations, each earning a trip on a single specific note — a Kengo Kuma hotel hiding inside a Kyoto townhouse, a Chilean desert that blooms once a decade, a Tokyo micro-house where every cubic inch does something, a stack of turquoise hot pools at the end of a Utah trail, a Starck-designed coastal villa being cartoonish on purpose, a Joshua Tree house with a terrazzo-floored courtyard, twenty-four rooms on a working Japanese farm, and a fifty-five-foot concrete whale on Route 66.
Kengo Kuma-designed hotel that feels like an old townhouse, not a chain
→ wallpaper.com
Penguins, blooming desert, and 'sun wine' in the less-traveled half of Chile's Atacama
→ afar.com
Japanese micro-house where every cubic inch does something
→ boutique-homes.com
Cascading turquoise hot pools with waterfalls between them
→ theoutbound.com
Philippe Starck designs a coastal villa that's almost cartoonish on purpose
→ wallpaper.com
Desert modernist house with a terrazzo-floored courtyard
→ boutique-homes.com
A 24-room slow-living retreat on a working Japanese farm
→ wallpaper.com
55-foot concrete whale on Route 66, Oklahoma
→ roadtrippers.com