Years ago, checking into a suite at the most luxurious of hotels was the definition of exclusivity, but that is no longer the case. An extravagant suite may not always seem so extravagant if a more sprawling and impressive one exists. It’s the "anything you can do, I can do better" mentality, and it applies to luxury travel as much as it does to athletic accomplishments.

Whether they offer extraordinary views, a vast amount of space, or a unique connection to history, the best hotel suites are those that elicit surprise and delight, and inspire repeat stays as often as possible.

The Manhattan Project
The Ty Warner penthouse suite at the Four Seasons (www.fourseasons.com) in Manhattan should come with a disclaimer for all guests who spend the $35,000 a night to stay there: don’t bother with a trip to the top of Rockefeller Center or to the Empire State Building; you’ll be disappointed. Not to detract from the views afforded at either of those 70th-floor or 86th-floor observation decks, but with floor-to-ceiling, 8-foot-square bay windows and four 80-square-foot diagonal balconies, the hotel’s 52nd-floor penthouse suite offers equally dramatic views. "You feel like all of Central Park is laid out at your feet," says Peter Marino, the suite’s architect. "You look to the south and you see all the skyscrapers going all the way down the island. You’re there for an hour and you feel like you’ve visited New York."

The suite was unveiled in August 2007, but only after seven years was spent opening the space and relocating the machinery that previously was stored there. "We’ve taken down concrete columns and concrete walls and created this full, open space," says Linda Aslanian, the director of development for Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts. "It blends into the nature and the view around it. It really brings the whole city in."

From the moment the plans were drafted until the day that the suite’s doors were first opened to guests, Ty Warner, the owner of the Four Seasons New York, met regularly with Aslanian and Marino to conceptualize and realize his vision. "Mr. Warner is a complete and total detail freak, and it mattered to him a lot," Marino says. "He always saw this as his big symphony, and that’s a good thing."

Every material was selected by Warner for its ability to reflect the light and to convey a sense of what Marino describes as "quiet luxury." The master bathroom, clad in chinese onyx, has sinks carved from a solid block of rock crystal and lit from below with LED lighting; while the living room’s hand-lacquered walls are accented with mother-of-pearl inlay that reflects the light differently at various times of the day. The 4,300-square-foot suite holds a few other notable distinctions. First, it remains the highest hotel penthouse suite in Manhattan; and second, because it occupies the entire 52nd floor, the suite is the only room in the hotel that offers grand views from all four sides of the building. "Each view is better than the next," says Marino. "That’s what makes it so gorgeous and special."

While it may seem paradoxical to describe this penthouse suite as understated—given its 26-foot cathedral ceilings, 25-foot-high bronze-clad bay windows, and a library complete with a grand piano—in many respects that’s exactly what it is. Artwork is displayed sparingly so as to not detract from the suite’s main draw: the views. As to the suite’s configuration, the standard layout accommodates only two people, which also reflects the owner’s "less is more" philosophy. "It’s really not about how many people you could have in there," says Aslanian. "It’s the experience that a couple could have there."

Familiar Stompin’ Grounds
When the Savoy hotel (www.fairmont.com/savoy) reopened last October after a restoration that spanned 34 months and exceeded $350 million, Kiaran MacDonald, the hotel’s general manager, held his breath. MacDonald, who served as the hotel’s general manager for a year and a half prior to the beginning of the restoration, recalls many of the hotel’s regular guests approaching him and wishing him good luck on the project. But he vividly remembers one guest’s specific request: don’t change a thing. "It was said with such meaning," MacDonald says, "and I thought, ‘I’m screwed from the start!’"

MacDonald was understandably nervous, especially since the front hall, which represents a guest’s first interaction with the hotel—save for pleasantries exchanged with doormen adorned in top hats and tailcoats—experienced a significant transformation. The hall’s original mahogany paneling now is a lighter shade than in decades past, and the friezes have brightened from the original chocolate brown to a softer, sea-foam shade of green. "One guest said, ‘It’s as if you turned the lights on,’" says Brett Perkins, the hotel’s director of communications—a poetic statement considering that the Savoy was London’s first hotel to feature guest rooms lit by electricity, not to mention the first to boast an elevator, which at the time of the hotel’s opening, in 1889, was known as an "ascending room."

A small museum displaying a rotating selection of photos, memorabilia, and hotel records dedicated to the high-profile guests who regularly stayed at the Savoy is tucked into an alcove not far from the American Bar, where Frank Sinatra is said to have sat at the piano and played. Upstairs, on the sixth floor, an Art Deco–style suite is dedicated to Ol’ Blue Eyes, one of nine personality suites ($4,000 to $5,000) on the premises. But contrary to what guests may think, those suites are not the actual rooms where their namesake celebrities once unpacked their bags. "It’s not that you’re going into the suite, but that you’re going into a beautiful river-view suite," says MacDonald. "We’re just layering in that sense of history and celebrating the personalities that stayed here."

The hotel’s Royal Suite ($16,200), however, is known to have welcomed some notable guests in the past, even if it was not known as the Royal Suite at the time. Stretching out across the front of the entire fifth floor and offering expansive views of the Thames River, the 3,500-square-foot suite holds a lot of history, despite the fact that it was constructed as part of the recently completed restoration. The suite, which boasts 24-hour butler service, a his-and-her bathroom equipped with deep soaking tub and steam shower, and two bedrooms appointed with king-size Savoir Number 1 beds, once was eight separate one-bedroom suites, two of which were home to Claude Monet over the course of a three-year period when the Parisian artist painted many of his most popular scenes of the Thames. Room 618 may be enshrined as the Claude Monet suite, but it was really out on the balconies of two suites one floor down where the Impressionist painter found inspiration along London’s riverbanks.

Center of Attention
It takes a certain type of person to book the Chairman’s Suite at the Fairmont Pacific Rim (www.fairmont.com/pacificrim) in downtown Vancouver. Specifically, the 2,250-square-foot suite, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and a perch on the top two floors of the hotel’s west wing, requires guests to be comfortable in the spotlight. The suite, which runs about $6,200 per night, offers all of the same indulgences as the Presidential Suite, which spans the 22nd floor of the hotel’s east wing and overlooks Coal Harbour, Stanley Park, and the North Shore Mountains. But since the west wing is shorter than the east, guests staying in the Chairman’s Suite, which covers the eighth and ninth floors, will find that downtown Vancouver literally towers above and all around them. "It was a suite that was designed for someone who wasn’t looking for something corporate like the Presidential Suite upstairs, but wanted something a little more edgy," says Randy Zupanski, the hotel’s general manager. "It’s about people being there and looking out, but also about people outside and looking in."

Captivating accents in the suite include an 8-foot-tall Swarovski crystal chandelier that illuminates the two-story living room, and a 500-square-foot marble spa bathroom. A hand-carved soaking tub serves as the centerpiece of that bathroom and looks out over an 1,800-square-foot, fully landscaped rooftop terrace complete with a reflecting pond, fire pit, and cabana, as well as views of Coal Harbour and the Olympic torch. However, because the suite—much like the rest of the hotel—incorporates many floor-to-ceiling windows, it has created a few compromising situations. "It’s gotten [guests] in trouble a few times, I think," Zupanski says with a chuckle. "For somebody that is looking for the utmost privacy, it’s not the suite for them."

City Living
Like the Chairman’s Suite at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, the aptly named Peninsula Suite at the Peninsula hotel in Chicago (www.peninsula.com) stands out for its expansive outdoor space—a rare quality for a hotel set in a major metropolitan area. The suite, which occupies the 18th floor and can expand from 3,113 square feet for a single bedroom to 4,363 square feet for a three-bedroom configuration, boasts a 2,000-square-foot wraparound terrace complete with an outdoor Jacuzzi. With views of Chicago Avenue almost directly below and a stretch of Michigan Avenue better known as the Magnificent Mile to the north, the suite’s outdoor terrace brings the energy of downtown Chicago to guests who stay there.

According to Maria Razumich-Zec, the hotel’s general manager, the suite was designed to evoke the feeling of many of the city’s finest residences. With Michigan Avenue, Astor Street, and Lakeshore Drive in mind, designer Michael Booth set out to create a space that brought in plenty of natural light and also provided a luxurious and comfortable space. "All the colorings are soft," says Razumich-Zec. "I hate when you go into some hotels where there are a lot of busy patterns and dark colors. Everything [in the Peninsula Suite] is more of a lighter pastel."

Gas-lit fireplaces and a baby grand piano accent the living spaces, while the formal dining room accommodates a dozen people comfortably. At $8,000 per night, the suite offers all the amenities and en suite luxuries that discerning travelers have come to expect, but a stay offers guests more than what can be seen and touched. "There’s not much that we wouldn’t do for a guest staying in the Peninsula Suite," Razumich-Zec says.