Fogo Island Inn

Character and identity

Perched on stilts at the edge of Joe Batt's Arm, this 29-room inn is Todd Saunders' modernist riposte to the saltbox fishing stages of Newfoundland: an X-shaped, shiplap-clad building angled so every room faces the crashing North Atlantic. Inside, a double-vaulted lobby with a hearth gives way to a west-facing dining room hung with rope chandeliers, plus a cinema, art gallery and fourth-floor rooftop with outdoor hot tubs and a wood-fired sauna. Locally built furniture, hand-braided rugs and quilts by island women furnish the suites. Service, led by community hosts who feel like old friends by checkout, is exacting but unstuffy.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're paying for here is a place, not just a hotel: the architecture, the cooking, and the islanders themselves are inseparable, and profits flow back into the community via the Shorefast charity. Splurge on a corner Sunrise Suite or the ocean-level Labrador rooms repeat guests refuse to trade up from. Time the trip to early fall for Feile Tilting, or trap berth for icebergs and whales.