Europe
Grande dames, cliffside palazzos and the hotels that invented luxury.
Europe is where the modern luxury hotel was born, in the gilded salons of Paris, the palazzos of Venice, the alpine castles of the Engadine. To travel the continent well is to move between these institutions, each a small nation of its own with its own rituals, its own regulars, and its own century of stories.
From a garden hideaway two minutes by boat from St Mark's to a Riviera legend that Fitzgerald made immortal, these are the European stays we'd cross a border for.
Hotels in Europe
Lake VillaPassalacqua
The De Santis family restored an 18th-century villa with colour, antiques and operatic generosity. Passalacqua is intimate by Lake Como standards and nearly impossible to experience casually.
Indicative from $1,700 / night
Grande DameThe Ritz Paris
After a four-year restoration, the address on Place Vendôme is once again the most romantic (and most photographed) hotel in France.
Indicative from $1,400 / night
Cliffside RetreatBelmond Hotel Caruso
A thousand feet above the Tyrrhenian Sea, a former bishop's palace holds the most photographed infinity pool in Italy, and a view that ruins you for anywhere else.
Indicative from $1,300 / night
Island RetreatBelmond Hotel Cipriani
On the tip of Giudecca, the Cipriani offers the one thing Venice never can: space. An Olympic-length pool, Casanova's old garden, and no crowds at breakfast.
Indicative from $1,450 / night
Grande DameClaridge's
Royalty checks in under pseudonyms, the foyer pours the best afternoon tea in London, and the service runs like a Swiss watch in white gloves.
Indicative from $990 / night
Riviera LegendHôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc
Twenty-two acres of pine and palm on the tip of Cap d'Antibes, a seawater pool blasted into the rock, and a cash-only history of impossible glamour.
Indicative from $1,800 / night
Alpine Grande DameBadrutt's Palace
A fairy-tale silhouette above a frozen lake, where the Engadine light, the Cresta Run and 130 years of aristocratic après-ski all still hold court.
Indicative from $1,250 / night
Grande DameThe Savoy
A riverside legend since 1889, with an American Bar that pours some of the world's most famous cocktails and a location in the very thick of the West End.
Indicative from $800 / night
PalazzoThe Gritti Palace
Once a doge's residence, the Gritti puts you right on the Grand Canal opposite Santa Maria della Salute, with a terrace made for lingering and Venetian antiques at every turn.
Indicative from $950 / night
Palace HotelFour Seasons Hotel George V
A 1928 Art Deco landmark a step from the Champs-Elysees, celebrated for extravagant floral displays, faultless service, and more Michelin stars than any other hotel in the world.
Indicative from $1,600 / night
Grand DameThe Connaught
Red brick and impeccable manners on a quiet Mayfair corner, with a martini trolley that has become a pilgrimage and service that has never needed to raise its voice.
Indicative from $950 / night
Riviera ClassicSplendido, A Belmond Hotel
High on the hillside above the prettiest harbour in Italy, in a sixteenth-century monastery turned hotel, with terraced gardens dropping toward the sea.
Indicative from $1,300 / night
Europe Guides
GuideLake Como Without the Circus
The lake is still transcendent. You simply need the right shore, the first ferry and the discipline not to chase every famous villa.
4 min read · August 2026
GuideWhere to Stay on the Amalfi Coast: Choose Your Vertical
The view is only half the address. The other half is how you get back to your room.
4 min read · July 2026
GuideParis for Grown-Ups: Fewer Reservations, Better Days
Choose a neighbourhood, give one museum your attention and stop treating dinner as a competitive sport.
4 min read · May 2026
GuideBarcelona Beyond the Sagrada: A Local's Rhythm
See the Gaudi landmarks, of course. But the city really opens up when you learn to eat late, walk the back streets and follow the neighbourhoods.
3 min read · April 2026
GuideLondon in a Long Weekend
Three days in a city with four hundred years of things to do. The version that avoids the queues, the tourist restaurants and the mistake of trying to see everything.
3 min read · August 2026
GuideThe Italian Riviera, Without the Crush
Portofino and the Cinque Terre in the weeks when you can actually move, plus the harbour towns either side that nobody photographs and everybody prefers.
3 min read · August 2026