What Is The 50 and What Can You Find on the Site?

Updated

The 50 (formerly 50 Best) is a discovery and editorial site for top global hospitality. It covers restaurants, bars, hotels and vineyards through rankings and stories, and lets you search venues by destination. It is useful if you want expert-voted places to eat, drink and stay, plus guides and films about the people behind them. It is not a booking engine, and the site materials do not state pricing or access terms for venues.

What The 50 covers

The site describes itself as celebrating and connecting the best in global hospitality. Its four core categories are:

  • Restaurants
  • Bars
  • Hotels
  • Vineyards

Each category is presented through rankings and stories rather than a plain directory. The site frames its picks as chosen by a global community of experts.

The main tools on the site

The 50 Discovery

This is the destination-based search. You search by destination to explore “the world's best places to eat, drink and stay, as voted by our global experts.” Popular destinations are surfaced on the page, so you can start from a region or city rather than browsing every list.

A practical use: if you are planning a trip to a specific city, start in Discovery with that destination, then cross-check the venues against the Restaurants, Bars or Hotels sections to see whether they appear in rankings or stories.

Stories

The Stories section holds “inspiration, guides and news from our global community.” This is where rankings are explained and contextualized, and where you will find guides that go beyond a single venue.

Films

The Films section profiles “the people and places shaping the world's best hospitality.” These are short documentary-style pieces rather than reviews, useful if you want background on a chef, bartender or property before you shortlist it.

Accounts and what they add

The site offers registration under “Sign Up to Discover More.” According to the page, an account lets you:

  • Save top venues and articles
  • Create and share your own lists
  • Receive a weekly newsletter

Registration is optional for browsing. The site does not state that any of this is paid, and it also does not state that everything is free, so treat account features as available on sign-up rather than assuming a price.

How to use it for a real decision

Suppose you are choosing where to eat and stay for a long weekend in a city you do not know well:

  1. Open The 50 Discovery and search your destination.
  2. Note which venues appear under Restaurants and Hotels.
  3. Read the related Stories for context on why a venue is ranked.
  4. Watch a Film if you want a sense of the place or the people.
  5. Register if you want to save candidates and build a shareable shortlist.

The expected result is a shortlist grounded in expert voting plus editorial context, not a price comparison or availability check.

What it is not

The 50 is a rankings and editorial platform, not a reservation or booking service. The site materials do not list prices, availability or booking links for venues, so plan to confirm those details elsewhere. It also does not publish a public methodology breakdown on the pages reviewed here, so treat “as voted by our global experts” as the site's own description of how picks are made.

Who it suits

  • Travellers building a food-and-stay itinerary around recognized venues.
  • Hospitality professionals tracking who is being celebrated and why.
  • Readers who prefer narrative guides and films over star ratings.

If you need live availability, pricing or user reviews at scale, this site will not replace a booking platform; it works best as the research layer before you book.