Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Virgin Limited Edition
Virgin Limited Edition hotels
Holiday retreats become hotels, from a Caribbean island to safari camps and mountain chalets.
Virgin Limited Edition brings Richard Branson’s individually chosen islands, safari lodges, mountain chalets, and estates into a small collection of retreats. The story began with Necker Island in the Caribbean, establishing a personal approach to hospitality that lets the setting shape each stay.
10 Virgin Limited Edition hotels in 6 countries on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.
- Owned by Virgin Group
- On the atlas: 1 Apex Luxury, 5 Grand Luxury, 3 High Luxury, 1 Core Luxury
History
Richard Branson added retreats slowly, often beginning with a place where he wanted to spend time himself. Local charitable partners became part of several properties’ wider work, including Pride ’n Purpose, the Eve Branson Foundation, and Unite BVI. The collection’s personal origins remain visible in the individual islands, lodges, and houses.
Timeline
- Late 1970s — Richard Branson buys Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, drawn to its reef-ringed, turquoise waters seen first from the air; the island becomes his family home.
- 1999 — Branson purchases the Ulusaba site in South Africa's Sabi Sand, including the existing 1983 Rock Lodge built on a granite koppie historically used by Shangaan lookouts.
- 2000 — Virgin Limited Edition officially launches, comprising Necker Island, the newly built Ulusaba Private Game Reserve, and the Roof Gardens private members' club in Kensington (subsequently sold), Branson's first formal collection of owned retreats.
- 2006 — Kasbah Tamadot opens in the Atlas Mountains near Asni, Morocco, built around a 1920s house Branson bought and expanded, expanding the collection beyond Africa and the Caribbean for the first time.
- 2007 — The Lodge, a nine-room mountain chalet in Verbier, Switzerland, joins the collection, extending Virgin Limited Edition into European ski country.
- 2013 — Mahali Mzuri, a tented safari camp in Kenya's Maasai Mara, opens, the collection's first Kenyan property.
- 2014 — Mont Rochelle Hotel and Mountain Vineyard, on a working wine estate in Franschhoek, South Africa (previously known as La Coranne, South Africa's first Black-owned wine estate, and rebuilt after a 2007 fire), is purchased in May and reopens in September under Virgin Limited Edition.
- 2016 — Son Bunyola, a historic finca in Mallorca's Serra de Tramuntana, opens, beginning a multi-phase restoration of the wider Son Bunyola estate.
- 2023 — A major earthquake strikes Morocco's Atlas Mountains in September, and Virgin Limited Edition and its Eve Branson Foundation raise more than £1.2 million to help rebuild vital infrastructure around Kasbah Tamadot; the hotel closes for repairs and later reopens.
- 2024 — Finch Hattons, an established luxury safari camp in Kenya's Tsavo West National Park (operating independently since 1991), joins Virgin Limited Edition.
- 2025 — Virgin Limited Edition marks its 25th anniversary with a 25-night suite-escape offer across the collection; the brand's cumulative community-impact tally over the period includes 30 pre-schools, five literacy centres, and eight orphanages built around the Sabi Sand, and a primary school for 450 pupils near the Maasai Mara.
- 2026 — Virgin Limited Edition announces its second Moroccan property, a new 37-suite estate roughly 25 minutes from central Marrakech, developed with Marrakech-based Sazanes Immobilier on a 10-hectare agricultural estate, phased to open its first 22 keys in Q1 2027 and the remaining 15 in Q1 2028.
The houses to know
- Kasbah Tamadot, Asni, Morocco — A 1920s Atlas Mountains house expanded into a Berber-inflected retreat, and the site of Virgin Limited Edition's largest post-earthquake philanthropic response.
- The Lodge, Verbier, Switzerland — The nine-room mountain chalet brings Virgin Limited Edition to Verbier.
- Son Bunyola Hotel & Villas, Banyalbufar, Spain — A historic Mallorcan estate in the Serra de Tramuntana mountains, restored in phases from 2016.
- Finch Hattons, Tsavo West National Park, Kenya — An established luxury safari camp, independently run since 1991, that joined Virgin Limited Edition in 2024.
- Mahali Mzuri, Maasai Mara, Kenya — Virgin Limited Edition's first Kenyan safari camp, opened 2013 on private conservancy land bordering the Maasai Mara National Reserve.
- Necker Island, Necker Island, British Virgin Islands — The reef-ringed private island Richard Branson bought from the air in the late 1970s, and the property that gave rise to the entire collection.
- Mont Rochelle, Franschhoek, South Africa — A working wine estate in the Cape's Franschhoek Valley, formerly South Africa's first Black-owned wine estate.
- The Branson Beach Estate, Moskito Island, British Virgin Islands — A private beachfront estate on Moskito Island, Necker Island's neighbouring private-island property.
- Ulusaba, Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa — A private game reserve built around a 1983 lodge on a granite koppie once used by Shangaan lookouts, and the collection's founding safari property.
- Moskito Island, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands — A second private island in the Necker Island archipelago, developed as a residential and retreat estate.
Newest openings
- Son Bunyola Hotel & Villas — Banyalbufar, Mallorca, Spain — opened 2024 — part of the wider, multi-phase restoration of the historic Son Bunyola estate in the Serra de Tramuntana, following the original 2016 opening of the estate's finca.
- Finch Hattons — Tsavo West National Park, Kenya — joined the collection 2024 — an established luxury safari camp operating independently since 1991, now Virgin Limited Edition's second Kenyan property alongside Mahali Mzuri.
Opening next
- Marrakech estate (unnamed, 37 suites) — Marrakech, Morocco — expected 2027 (first 22 suites) and 2028 (remaining 15 suites) — Virgin Limited Edition's second Moroccan property, developed in partnership with Sazanes Immobilier on a 10-hectare private agricultural estate roughly 25 minutes from central Marrakech and about an hour from Kasbah Tamadot, designed as a "twin-centre" pairing of city and mountain retreats; bookings open September 2026.
Every Virgin Limited Edition hotel on the atlas
British Virgin Islands
- Necker Island — Necker Island · Grand Luxury
- The Branson Beach Estate — Moskito Island · High Luxury
- Moskito Island — Virgin Gorda · Core Luxury
Kenya
- Finch Hattons — Tsavo West National Park · Grand Luxury
- Mahali Mzuri — Maasai Mara · Grand Luxury
South Africa
- Mont Rochelle — Franschhoek · High Luxury
- Ulusaba — Sabi Sand Game Reserve · High Luxury
Morocco
- Kasbah Tamadot — Asni · Apex Luxury
Spain
- Son Bunyola Hotel & Villas — Banyalbufar · Grand Luxury
Switzerland
- The Lodge — Verbier · Grand Luxury
Open The Maison in the atlas for Virgin Limited Edition's full dossier, with prices and maps.