Bali, Macau, The Four Seasons Are Big Winners of 2017 Forbes Travel Guide

Bali has emerged a big winner in the latest edition of the Forbes Travel Guide, making its grand debut with a trio of 5-star hotels.

The luxury hot spot is one of 20 new international destinations covered in the 2017 edition of the Forbes guide, which evaluates hotels, restaurants and spas on a 5-star rating.

Other destinations to make their inaugural appearance this year include Barcelona, Bogota, Dublin, Kyoto, Lima, Manila, Seoul, and Sydney.

Overall, inspectors deemed 175 hotels worthy of the Forbes 5-star status, including 22 properties that received the honor for the first time.

In the 59th edition of the guide, editors highlight Bali as particularly noteworthy, for landing three hotels in the exclusive 5-star club including the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan and The Villas at Ayana.

The Four Seasons brand was another big winner, scoring a record 30, 5-star properties around the world -- the largest number of 5-star ratings awarded to a hotel brand in a single year.

Bali also scored 10, 4-star hotels and five 4-star spas.

According to the Forbes star count, the global capital for luxury, meanwhile, is Macau, which boasts the most 5-star hotels (10) and the highest number of 5-star restaurants (11) and spas (7).

For a foolproof guest experience, Forbes recommends properties like the Banyan Tree Macau, Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas and the Wynn Las Vegas, which earned 5-star status for their hotel, restaurant and spa.

A total of 11 properties around the world earned triple, 5-star status.

Meanwhile, in the US, New York is the standard bearer when it comes to luxury, boasting the greatest number of 5-star hotels (8), and 5-star restaurants (7).

Here's the overall star count:

5* hotels: 175

4* hotels: 478

Recommended hotels: 237

5* restaurants: 62

4* restaurants: 176

Recommended restaurants: 73

5* spas: 56

4* spas: 207