Vik Retreat hotel review, Millahue, Chile: Awe-inspiring architecture meets breath-taking surrounds

THE LOCATION

Two highway hours south of Santiago is a valley the Mapuche people of south-central Chile named Millahue, meaning place of gold, for its natural beauty and prevalence of the precious yellow metal. Now it's part of the Colchagua Valley wine region and the place where the 4325-hectare vineyard of entrepreneurial power couple Carrie and Alexander Vik has taken root in recent years. On a small rise near the local reservoir is an extraordinary building the Viks co-designed with Uruguayan architect Marcelo Daglio. Just one in a portfolio of Vik art hotels, its gold-hued titanium roof appears to have been shaped when soft by a gargantuan palette knife.

THE SPACE

Stepping into Vik Retreat I'm amazed at how open to the elements it is. A Japanese-style dry landscape garden bordered by a blooming flowerbed, open to the sky, is the rectangular centrepiece to open-air walkways, guest suites, a living room, library, terraces and a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. The rear of the building drops down to a game room, gym, sundeck, outdoor infinity pool and the Wine Spa.

Art and design are also central to the Vik Retreat experience. Murals, installations, sculptures, furniture and paintings ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous are showcased throughout. Various artists – mainly South American – have left their mark on each suite. Chilean realist Alvaro Gabler, for instance, spent six months living in and working on what is now considered the most artistically intense room. A gravity-defying carbon-fibre hammock bath hangs in the Vik Suite bathroom.

THE ROOM

Of the hotel's 22 suites, five are master suites. I'm in 42-square-metre Louis Louis and my king bed is overlooked by a dramatic painting by the late Jean-Baptiste Edouard Detaille of what appears to be men slaughtering each other in the French countryside. The exterior wall is floor-to-ceiling glass and half of that slides back. All suites accommodate an extra bed.

After dinner and a long bath I lounge against the generous bedhead and read for hours while sampling the free-of-charge minibar. I eventually slip between Egyptian cotton sheets and sleep with the sliding door wide open – assuming that wild puma no longer roam the area – so a fresh breeze cools my face all night.