J. Wayne Frye and Lynton Globa Vinas explore 40 of the most iconic hotels in the world. They might not be the most familiar hotels, but they are incredible testaments to the architectural genius of a few people who brought dreams to reality. From Cape Town, South Africa to Victoria, British Columbia, the authors have ferreted out the most incredible structures that titillate the eyes with beauty and assault the senses with a mystique that dances with the gleaming sparkle of grandeur. Each hotel has its own story, and the authors have laid bare the details that helped make these structures as inspiring as the works of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso. Like a train ambling along through wondrous mountains, valleys and cities, Frye and Vinas are engineers at the helm of a train into the portals of time where magnificent hotels are not just structures of concrete and steal, but actually have character.