Israel's hotel offerings haven't always kept pace with the more subtle, upscale offerings befitting the global travel circuit, but that's now changing in striking style with the opening of The Jaffa Tel Aviv, in the historic 4,000-year-old port city of Jaffa. The new benchmark is evident from your first step into the minimalist lobby, with sofas and chairs by Shiro Kuramata, a Damien Hirst painting and John Pawson's backgammon tables, all in the presence of a fragment of wall built by 13th-century crusaders, which was discovered during excavation on the more than decade-long project.

If the 120-guest room, 32-residence property – comprising a 19th-century French hospital and a new building at 2 Louis Pasteur Street – feels somewhat game-changing, then it follows the provenance of Aby Rosen, the well-known art collector and owner of New York-based property developer RFR Holding. Rosen has snapped up a prolific inventory of visible real estate and hospitality projects, including the Seagram Building, Lever House, The Gramercy Park Hotel and 11 Howard in New York, along with W South Beach in Miami – where his parties during the annual Art Basel extravaganza are legendary.