Best hotels in Europe
Take a grand tour of some of the most enticing hotels in Britain and across the Continent.
Europe’s grandest hotels generally claim storied pasts and guestbooks embracing Western history’s leading players. With lavish staterooms and guestrooms that range the gamut from traditional grandeur to haute contemporary design, these properties exude a romance as captivating to the armchair traveller as the well-heeled global roamer.
In Italy, revive the art of villeggiatura, perhaps a sensual loggia deep in the countryside or a palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. Lose a few pounds in a Swiss health retreat, crush grapes in Portugal’s winelands, frock up in Versailles or indulge in a little Bridgerton-themed, pastel-hued frippery in London.
AIRELLES CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES, LE GRAND CONTROLE, FRANCE
With views of Le Notre’s famous gardens, this petite retreat of just 11 guestrooms and two suites offers the ultimate bigwig (powdered of course) luxury bivouac, with breakfast conceived by Alain Ducasse, a decadent Marie-Antoinette afternoon tea and out-of-hours palace and gardens access (alone worth the price of admission). Tucked cheek by jowl with the palace of Versailles, the hotel combines ravishing 18th-century interiors with bang up to date technology. Carried away by all the gilded grandeur? Feel free to frock up in period costume and call for a horse. From about $2200.
CIPRIANI, A BELMOND HOTEL, VENICE
Some hotels need no introduction. Born in the ’50s when jetsetters, not influencers, set travel trends by word of mouth, this elegant hotel overlooking the lagoon to St Mark’s remains firmly on trend. With the only Olympics-sized pool in the city, sleek timber speedboats (oversized Jackie O sunglasses essential), and old-world interiors marked by Murano chandeliers and Fortuny fabrics, the hotel has 96 guestrooms and suites, many with lagoon views. Make sure to have your star-spotting antenna tuned. George Clooney has been known to pop behind the bar to serve guests. From about $1400.
Founded as a health spa more than a century ago, The Dolder retains a serious commitment to wellness, a place where the well-heeled check-in to detox or shed a few pounds. And the art’s not bad either, considering the museum-quality collection includes works by Pissarro and Warhol. Set in forest above Zurich with long city, lake and mountain views, the hotel has 176 contemporary guestrooms and suites across the original fairytale-style building and two Norman Foster-designed wings. The city is just 15 minutes away via tram and old-world funicular. From about $820.
This 18th-century villa, where former houseguests have included Bonaparte and Churchill, has been painstakingly restored and recently opened by the De Santis family, owners of the famous Grand Hotel Tremezzo, to offer 24 suites across the main residence (with original frescoes by Andrea Appiani, court painter to Napoleon), stables and Casa al Lago on the edge of Lake Como. Guests can expect absolute privacy (there’s even a secret entrance) and three hectares of gorgeous waterfront gardens, including a groovy pool area with parasols and loungers imagined by a la mode Milan-based Californian designer JJ Martin. From about $1900.
LE ROYAL MONCEAU, RAFFLES PARIS
Palace hotels are almost commonplace in the City of Light, although the newest, Bulgari Hotel Paris, offers a more modern take on the genre in a jazzed-up ’70s style with a sleek Italian sensibility and stunning, double-height penthouse. But it was design maestro Philippe Starck who set the standard for un-stuffy next generation palace hotels more than a decade ago at Le Royal Monceau, a macaron’s toss from the Champs-Elysees. All the usual hallmarks of Parisian luxury are here, including cloud-soft duvets, Michelin-starred food and luxury bathrooms, but in a chic, modern guise. There are plenty of playful touches in the 149 rooms and suites, from guitars to slightly surreal art, plus such whimsy as a table in a teapot in the courtyard. From about $2000.
SIX SENSES DOURO VALLEY, PORTUGAL
Situated on the vine-clad slopes of Portugal’s UNESCO-listed Douro Valley, Six Senses operates one of Europe’s loveliest wine estates. Set over eight hectares above the River Douro in one of the world’s oldest demarcated wine regions, the hotel offers 71 suites, many with river views, in an updated quinta (manor house) and contemporary wing. Last month the resort unveiled new pool villas and a wine lodge with nine rooms. Resort facilities include an impressive wine library and the chance to stomp grapes during vintage. (Watch for Six Senses Rome opening in a restored palazzo later this year; the rooftop terrace will offer 360-degree city views and house a large kitchen garden.)
From about $750.
Puglia may be hot to trot but neighbouring Basilicata, in the province of Matera, is far less well known. Here in the little hilltop town of Bernalda, where his grandfather was born, Francis Ford Coppola has transformed a 19th-century palazzo into a family hotel that’s more like a private home. It’s a little jewel, with interiors by acclaimed French designer Jacques Grange and input from Coppola’s children. Pick of the nine guestrooms is number four, “designed” by Sofia Coppola, with delicate frescoes and a private terrace overlooking the garden. Think delicious home-cooked food (and complimentary cooking lessons), lush gardens with pool and a quick 10-minutes to the beach. From about $600.
Like a series of rarefied Doric-columned temples overlooking the Aegean Sea on Greece’s Peloponnesian peninsula, Aman’s exquisite resort houses guests in serene private pavilions, where stone and marble interiors open on to a terrace with private pool. Reopened after a brush with recent wildfires – guests are now invited to plant a sapling and the resort will make a donation to local fire authorities – pavilions come with between one and nine bedrooms; the smart beach club makes a great jumping off point for island-hopping aboard an Amanzoe speedboat. From about $1400.
MANDARIN ORIENTAL RITZ, MADRID
Following a three-year renovation and rebranding, the landmark belle epoque Ritz reopened last year with 153 elegant rooms and suites by French designers Gilles & Boissier. A phalanx of impressive restaurants is led by three Michelin-starred chef Quique Dacosta, there’s a new wellness centre, the glass dome of the Palm Court has been reinstated after 80 years, and the opulent ballroom overlooking the Prado is now restored. From about $1100.
It’s worth the long way to Tipperary to check-in to this newly reopened hotel, occupying a captivating 18th-century Palladian manor, once the residence of Ireland’s archbishops, later hosting Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Spencer, among others. The lovely gardens feature two ancient mulberry trees planted in 1702 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Anne. A five-year restoration, revamping wood panelling and hand-turned barley-sugar banisters, has delivered 42 stylish guestrooms and suites, sumptuous day spa, and plenty of horsey action (hotel owners the Magnier family are the country’s leading thoroughbred breeders with a stud nearby). From about $420.
The Netflix hit series Bridgerton has sparked a revival for all things Regency (though many of us have never recovered from Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice). And of all London’s landmark hotels, The Lanesborough does Regency best, right down to the large team of on-point butlers, at the ready to press crumpled travelling clothes or draw a bath fizzed with Royal extract gel. Not to mention the largest collection of original Regency paintings outside a museum. Reopened with 93 pastel-hued guestrooms opposite Hyde Park seven years ago as part of the Oetker “Masterpiece” collection, following a lavish 18-month Regency-inspired makeover, this proprerty is most certainly Bridgerton-ready. Think silver teapots, dainty china, perfumed handbag dogs and endless posies of exquisite flowers. And until November, there’s a Bridgerton-themed afternoon tea. From about $1650.
The English country house hotel has a new standard with South African billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos (former editor of Elle Decoration South Africa) sinking a fortune in restoring this listed Georgian estate. The couple cut their teeth at the acclaimed Babylonstoren in the Cape Winelands and in Somerset have expanded the gardens first rescued by beloved English gardening writer Penelope Hobhouse. They’ve planted thousands of apple trees, trucked mature hedges from Belgium, established a large cider mill, farm shop, day spa and wild swimming ponds. Twenty-three pared-back, very chic guestrooms are arrayed across the manor and old stables; a further 17 are in the old farmyard buildings. A must for garden lovers. From about $670.
HOTEL DU CAP-EDEN-ROC, CAP D’ANTIBES, COTE D’AZUR, FRANCE
This best known of the Riviera’s luxury bolt-holes, beloved by movie stars and immortalised by F. Scott Fitzgerald in Tender is the Night, is all glittering sunshine, fragrant rose gardens, smart restaurants and a famous swimming pool cut into rocks overlooking the Mediterranean. Hidden away on the tip of Cap d’Antibes, shaded by Aleppo pines and cedars, the hotel has hosted everyone from Picasso to the Windsors, and remains a safe haven for the paparazzi adverse, who generally prefer the private villas. Think caviar water baths in the day spa and on-call make-up artists for that Cannes after-party. From about $2400.
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL GRESHAM PALACE BUDAPEST
This grand-dame hotel occupies a commanding position on the Pest side of the Danube, with views of the historic Chain Bridge. The original building was opened by the London-based Gresham Life Assurance Company in 1906 and instantly hailed as Budapest‘s finest, with lavish apartments, ornamented ironwork, sweeping staircases and intricate mosaics. Unveiled by Four Seasons in 2006 after a two-year restoration, the 179-room property has many heritage features intact, including the Peacock Passage (named for its bird-patterned wrought-iron gates) under a magnificent glass cupola. Gresham Restaurant is wood-panelled and chandeliered and the rooftop spa offers indulgences such as scrubs enriched with particles of gold. From about $665.