“Hótel Búðir, on the Snæfellsness peninsula, is one of my favorite places on earth. It's just the right amount of remote: a few hours out of town, in a cove from which you can see glaciers to the west, the sea to the east, and a tiny black church just up the hill. The rooms are simple, but not in a kind of sleek Scando-minimal way—rather, what you might find in somebody's home, with framed prints and sensible fixtures. Heaven for me, though, is the lounge area downstairs, with a spectacular view through two walls of windows over the comforting but severe landscape. In the winter, one often has the place to oneself, with a real sense of being at the edge of the world but somehow cozy in a familiar luxury.” —Nico Muhly