Art Hotels

A neoclassical château finished in the 1760s and converted, after a long restoration, into a hotel of a few dozen rooms, Grand-Lucé treats its own fabric as the primary exhibit. The painted salons — landscapes and chinoiserie carried across whole walls — were conserved rather than replaced, so guests move through rooms that read as period interiors first and hospitality second.

Contemporary pieces are placed sparingly against that background, which is the point: the house is not a white box and never pretends to be. Bedrooms are furnished with a mix of antique and modern, and the scale of the windows does most of the decorating on a clear afternoon.

Beyond the terrace sit formal gardens and a large stretch of parkland, and the village of Le Grand-Lucé begins directly at the gates. It is a slow property — long breakfasts, an afternoon in the library, dinner that assumes you are not going anywhere.

Set on a cape at the eastern edge of Phuket, Point Yamu faces Phang Nga Bay and the limestone islands that rise out of it. The interiors were designed by Paola Navone, and her hand is unmistakable: strong blocks of turquoise and green, Thai and Italian references set side by side, glazed tilework and ceramics used as structure rather than ornament.

The building is arranged so that almost every room looks outward across the water, and the long infinity pool runs along the ridge as a single horizontal line. Colour is used confidently throughout the public rooms, which keeps the property from reading as another neutral resort.

There is a spa, boats out to the bay, and a restaurant programme that leans on southern Thai cooking. The location — away from the west-coast beach strip — means the hotel functions as a destination in itself rather than a base for nightlife.

Am Steinplatz occupies a 1913 building on a small square in Charlottenburg, and its history is part of the reason it is worth an entry. The house was a gathering place for Berlin's émigré writers and artists in the 1920s, fell out of use, and reopened after a restoration that kept the Jugendstil bones while inserting a thoroughly modern hotel behind them.

The restoration is legible: original stair details and façade elements sit alongside new joinery, and the restaurant and bar on the ground floor do a great deal of the work of making the place feel current rather than preserved. Rooms are quieter than the public spaces, in muted greys and warm woods.

Practically, it is a short walk to Savignyplatz and the bookshops under the railway arches, with the Kurfürstendamm a few minutes in the other direction. It is a city hotel in the proper sense — you leave it constantly and come back to it.