How The 50 Chooses the Restaurants, Bars, Hotels and Vineyards It Features

The 50 presents venues through rankings and editorial stories, and its site describes the featured places as "voted by our global experts." That is the core of the selection model: inclusion is tied to votes from a global expert community rather than to a public popularity poll or a pay-to-list directory. The site does not publish the full voting rules, panel composition, or eligibility criteria on the pages available here, so anyone who needs the precise methodology should consult the About section of the site.

What the site says about selection

The 50, formerly 50 Best, describes itself as celebrating and connecting "the best in global hospitality." Its discovery section invites visitors to "explore the world's best places to eat, drink and stay, as voted by our global experts." That single sentence carries most of the publicly stated selection logic:

• Scope: four categories — restaurants, bars, hotels and vineyards.
• Basis: votes from a global expert community.
• Output: rankings, plus stories and films about the people and places behind them.

Because the site frames the results as expert-voted, the lists function more like peer recognition than like user ratings. A venue does not appear to submit itself for a score in the way it might on a review platform; the emphasis is on what the expert community collectively rates highly.

Rankings and stories: two ways venues appear

The 50 surfaces venues in two distinct formats, and they serve different purposes.

The discovery tool adds a practical layer: you can search by destination to see the best places to eat, drink and stay in a given area, alongside popular destinations. For trip planning, that destination search is usually more useful than reading a global ranking top to bottom.

How to use the site to judge a venue

If you want to decide whether a listed venue suits you, a few steps work well:

1. Start with the category and destination. Use the Restaurants, Bars, Hotels or Vineyards entry points, then narrow by destination through The 50 Discovery search.
2. Read the ranking as one signal. A high position reflects expert voting, not your personal taste, budget or travel dates. Cross-check the venue's own site for hours, booking policy and current offerings.
3. Read the story or film, if one exists. These pieces typically explain what a place is known for, which helps you judge fit better than a rank number alone.
4. Save what interests you. Creating an account lets you save top venues and articles and build and share your own lists, and you can opt into a weekly newsletter.

Common points of confusion

• "Voted by experts" is not the same as "audited." The site's language points to a community of global experts; it does not describe a public vote or an open application process on the pages summarized here.
• A listing is not an endorsement of every detail. Rankings speak to overall standing in a category; they do not confirm prices, availability or accessibility. Check the venue directly for those.
• The name changed. The 50 was formerly 50 Best, so older references and articles may use the previous name for the same rankings and stories.

Where to confirm the methodology

The site's About section, linked in the footer alongside partner, contact and press information, is the place to look for details on how the lists are compiled. If the exact voting process matters to you — for example, before citing a ranking in published work — treat the About pages as the authoritative source rather than secondhand summaries, and note that the publicly available pages here do not spell out the panel size or voting rules.