When Fogo Island Inn's 29 suites are spoken for, the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino is the swap I recommend first: another wild coastline where storm season is the show and the innkeepers are locals. Tierra and Awasi cover the architecture and private-guide angles in Patagonia; Iceland's Retreat at Blue Lagoon is the easy-access route.
Twenty-nine suites, one restaurant, an island off an island off Newfoundland. Fogo Island Inn opened in 2013 in Todd Saunders' X-shaped building on stilts at Joe Batt's Arm, owned by the Shorefast charity that returns surpluses to the community, and since the Michelin Guide handed it Three Keys in September 2024 the calendar has been tighter than ever. Guests who ring us about it usually want one of four things it does, and each can be found elsewhere if you know which thread you are pulling. All four picks below were verified open and operating as of July 2026.
Front desks hear the same four answers. There is the coastline as theatre: pack ice, caribou, seven seasons, weather you watch from a floor-to-ceiling window with the fire on. There is the architecture, a modern sculpture standing alone in an old landscape. There is the hosted, all-inclusive rhythm: meals, community hosts and outings folded into one rate, no wallet reflex. And there is the conscience: a stay that funds the place it occupies. Decide which of those brought Fogo onto your list, because each pick below leads with a different one.
| Hotel | Setting | Leads with | Season | HFK score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Wickaninnish Inn | Chesterman Beach, Tofino | Coastline as theatre | Year-round | 9.6 |
| Tierra Patagonia | Torres del Paine, Chile | Architecture | Seasonal | 9.4 |
| Awasi Patagonia | Private reserve, Torres del Paine | Private-guide model | Seasonal | 9.7 |
| The Retreat at Blue Lagoon | Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland | Easy-access remoteness | Year-round | 9.6 |
HFK scores come from each hotel's full review on this site, weighted across design, service, location and value; see our methodology. Seasonal lodges: always confirm current opening windows.
What it matches: The weather-as-entertainment soul of Fogo, transplanted to the North Pacific. The Wick stands on a rocky point above Chesterman Beach at Tofino, on Vancouver Island's outer coast, 75 rooms with fireplaces and soaker tubs aimed at the surf. Its famous season is the one other hotels apologize for: November to February, when winter storms roll in and the house hands you rain gear instead of excuses. The founding McDiarmid family still runs it, so the local-roots feeling survives contact with luxury, and it has held Relais & Châteaux membership since 1997.
Where it differs: It is a la carte where Fogo is full board, so the rate looks lower than it finally is once dinner and excursions are added. Tofino is also genuinely reachable, a scenic drive from a regional airport, which means more visitors in summer and none of Fogo's end-of-the-earth solitude.
HFK score: 9.6 · Book if: storm season, a fire and a wild beach are the point, and you want the door open all twelve months.
Read our Wickaninnish Inn review →What it matches: The building-as-sculpture idea. Where Saunders put an X on stilts against the Atlantic, Chilean architect Cazú Zegers laid a wind-carved timber form along the shore of Lake Sarmiento, 40 rooms looking straight at the Torres del Paine massif. Like Fogo it runs on an all-inclusive rhythm, with guided excursions into the park arranged in-house, so the day has that same planned-for-you ease.
Where it differs: This is big-mountain Patagonia, not a working outport; there is no equivalent of Fogo's community hosts or charitable ownership. It also closes for the austral winter and its opening window shifts year to year, so confirm current dates with the lodge before you sketch an itinerary between May and September.
HFK score: 9.4 · Book if: the photograph that sold you on Fogo was the building in the landscape, and you want the South American version.
Read our Tierra Patagonia review →What it matches: Fogo's hosted, nothing-to-arrange feeling, then raises it. Each of Awasi's 14 villas in a private reserve above Lake Sarmiento comes with its own guide and 4x4 for the whole stay, excursions built around you rather than a group schedule. It is Relais & Châteaux, all-inclusive, and at 14 villas it is actually smaller and quieter than Fogo itself. An insider note from years of arranging these trips: ask your guide to front-load the classic park sights early in the stay, then keep the last day for the reserve's own trails, when most guests are rushing and you will not be.
Where it differs: Getting there takes commitment: two flights and a long drive for most travelers, more involved than Fogo's own multi-leg approach. And it shares Tierra's seasonality, closing around the austral winter, so date flexibility matters.
HFK score: 9.7 · Book if: the private-host experience is what you are buying, and you want it purer than anywhere else offers it.
Read our Awasi Patagonia review →What it matches: The otherworldly-landscape immersion, without the pilgrimage. The Retreat's 60 suites sit inside an 800-year-old lava flow with a private wing of the geothermal lagoon, about 20 minutes from Keflavik airport, and the Moss restaurant holds a Michelin star. You wake up somewhere that looks like another planet, having flown direct from most of Europe or the US East Coast.
Where it differs: It is a polished international spa resort, not a community project; day visitors use the wider lagoon complex, and the intimacy of 29 suites at the end of a ferry line is replaced by engineered serenity. Honest caution: the Reykjanes eruptions have forced short precautionary closures of the lagoon several times since 2023, so build a little flexibility into plans and watch official guidance.
HFK score: 9.6 · Book if: you want maximum landscape-shock per travel hour, year-round, with a serious spa attached.
Read our Retreat at Blue Lagoon review →Here is the answer most guides skip: you can stay on Fogo Island without staying at the Inn. The island keeps a handful of small inns and restored saltbox cottages, self-catered and a fraction of the Inn's full-board rate, and the caribou, the trails, the artist studios and Joe Batt's Arm itself do not check your room key. You give up the building, the restaurant and the hosted rhythm; you keep the place. If the geography is what pulls you, start with our Fogo Island guide and price a cottage week against one Inn night before deciding. And if you cannot get dates this year, the Inn's shoulder seasons, early winter especially, open up more often than July does.
Three things worth saying plainly. First, nothing else combines Fogo's four gifts in one building; every alternative here trades at least one away, so choose by the thread that matters most. Second, watch the season lines: both Patagonia lodges close around the austral winter and reopen on shifting dates, and quoting an exact window here would be a guess, which is not a thing we do. Confirm directly before booking flights. Third, compare rates honestly. Fogo, Tierra and Awasi are all-inclusive; the Wick and the Retreat are not, and a storm-season week at the Wick with dinners at The Pointe will land closer to Fogo money than the nightly rate suggests. For more properties in this vein, our most remote luxury hotels ranking goes deeper down the map's edges.
The Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, British Columbia. Like Fogo, it is a family-rooted house on a wild cold-water coastline where the weather is the entertainment: 75 rooms above Chesterman Beach, a Relais and Chateaux member since 1997, and a storm-watching season from November to February that mirrors Fogo's off-season appeal. It is the only alternative that keeps the community feel and the ocean drama in one booking.
Yes. The island has a handful of small inns and restored saltbox cottages at a fraction of the Inn's rate, and you keep the same landscapes, trails and communities. Remember the comparison is not level: Fogo Island Inn's rate is full board with meals included, while cottage stays are self-catered. Our Fogo Island guide lists the options we track.
You are paying for scarcity and a model, not just a room. The inn holds only 29 suites, rates are full board, and the building is owned by Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity founded by Zita Cobb; operating surpluses are reinvested in the Fogo Island community. In September 2024 the Michelin Guide gave it Three Michelin Keys, its highest hotel distinction, which has only tightened availability.
Tierra Patagonia. Fogo's X-shaped building on stilts by Todd Saunders and Tierra's wind-carved timber form by Cazu Zegers are the same idea on different continents: a sculptural building lying low in an enormous landscape. Tierra's 40 rooms look across Lake Sarmiento to the Torres del Paine massif, and the hotel runs all-inclusive with guided excursions.
Awasi Patagonia goes further than Fogo on this point. Each of its 14 villas comes with its own guide and 4x4 for the length of the stay, so every excursion in and around Torres del Paine is private and built around you. It is a Relais and Chateaux member and, like Fogo, all-inclusive; the trade-off is a two-flight journey plus a drive to reach it.
Two are. The Wickaninnish Inn stays open all year and treats winter as high season for storm watching, and the Retreat at Blue Lagoon operates year-round about 20 minutes from Keflavik airport. The two Patagonia lodges run seasonally around the austral summer and their exact opening windows shift, so confirm current dates with the lodge before planning a trip between May and September.
Yes, in substance. The inn was built for Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity established by Zita Cobb and her brothers, and operating surpluses go back into community projects on Fogo Island rather than to private shareholders. It is the reason many guests choose it, and the reason no substitute elsewhere fully replicates what a stay there funds.
Subscriber only hotel offers, suite upgrade alerts, and one honest review every Sunday. Free, weekly, unsubscribe anytime.