The most interesting shift in luxury travel right now isn't a new brand or a designer suite — it's provenance. Reports from Mastercard's Economics Institute and Deloitte's 2025 travel outlook both point the same way: travellers increasingly want stays that could only happen in one place, not interchangeable five-star formula. Mastercard's consumer research found 89% of Europeans ranked travel and tourism as a priority experience for 2025, with 79% prioritising food-related experiences.
Cape Town's Steenberg Farm is a useful case study, partly because of its age. The Constantia Valley estate was established in 1682 by Catharina Ras, and that founding story now threads through everything on offer — hotel, spa, restaurants, vineyards. Guests can drop in for lunch, book a wine tasting or check in for a longer stay, with each touchpoint built around the property's history rather than around generic opulence.
The approach has been noticed. Steenberg Hotel & Spa picked up a One Michelin Key for the second consecutive year in the Michelin Guide Hotel Selection 2026, a rating reserved for hotels delivering genuinely distinctive guest experiences. It sits in good company: Tuscany's Borgo Santo Pietro, Babylonstoren in the Cape Winelands and The Newt in Somerset have all built their reputations on heritage and immersion rather than shiny new build appeal.
Wine is where the sense of place gets most tangible. Constantia's cool maritime climate, ancient soils and proximity to False Bay shape Steenberg's Sauvignon Blancs and cool-climate Bordeaux varieties, and the estate now offers different Sauvignon Blanc expressions to show how vineyard site and winemaking choices change what ends up in the glass. As estate marketing manager Carryn Wiltshire puts it, the location, climate and vineyards give the wines their identity — no manufactured backstory required.
"Luxury today is increasingly about how something makes you feel," says Jessica Louw, hospitality marketing manager at Steenberg. "Guests are looking for experiences that are personal, memorable and rooted in place."
For travellers, the takeaway is simple: when choosing where to splurge, look for properties with a real story — a founding date, a working vineyard, a landscape you can taste. Those details are hard to replicate, and they're increasingly what separates a memorable stay from an expensive one.
