Hotels with landmark views
Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan, Paris
10 Place de Mexico, Paris, France, tel: 00-331-56904004, radissonblu.com/hotel-pariseiffel
On the west side of Paris in a smart part of the 16th arrondisement is Le Metroplitan hotel – acting like a European cousin of New York’s Flatiron Building – which forms a point at the end of two streets. And, amazingly, it points to the Eiffel Tower which looms large in the foreground. The 324-metre high tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel (who also created the Statue of Liberty) to be the entrance arch to an 1889 World Fair.
To get a room looking at the Eiffel Tower you need to book a suite – complete with living room facing the tower – with 11 at the end (eg 211, 311 up to 511). These start at about €600 a night but if you book a double on the hotel’s south side you’ll get an eyeful of tower if you lean out the window (on the north side the view is of bourgeois living rooms and their inhabitants). Better still, hang out in the cocktail bar on the first floor and gaze at the floodlit icon to your coeur’s content. As you wander around the hood, the tour’s presence is always there. The hotel itself is very sleek and the staff are attentive and welcoming.
Even the swimming pool in the basement is sleek: all thin and self-aware, like the models who were staying here during Paris fashion week.
Rooms: there are 38 rooms and 10 suites, designed by François Champsaur, who made a name for his boutique hotel designs in the city and has a knack for creating a relaxed chic ambience with close attention to detail. The four-posters in the larger rooms are a case in point: pared-back opulence. Doubles start at €269.
Park Hyatt, Sydney
7 Hickson Road, The Rocks, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, tel: 0061-29256-1234, sydney.park.hyatt.com
This hotel is right on the harbour between the opera house and Sydney harbour bridge so was always going to offer decent views of the famous waterfront but now it’s been revamped and three new suites have been added on a new fourth floor. From these you get a near-360 degree view of the harbour, taking in the opera house and bridge.
Sydney Opera House, which opened in 1973, was designed by Danish man Jørn Utzon who won the project in an architectural competition, after one of the judges took his entry off a reject pile. There were complications during the build – the iconic tiled shell structure was a complicated engineering feat – and Utzon resigned, but he was later taken on as consultant for the building and to oversee all future changes to it.
Sydney Harbour Bridge, which opened in 1923, was designed and built by UK steel company Dorman Long and Co.
While Hyatt is an international chain, the decor in this hotel has concentrated on local materials with Sydney sandstone and timber being used in the rebuild (in which only the hotel walls were left standing). The work of Australian sculptors, painters and photographers also adorn the hotel.
Rooms:there are 155 bedrooms decked out with unique artifacts and books. Bathrooms can be closed off or made open-plan with the bedroom. Most of the rooms have floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open on to private balconies. Doubles from $745 (€599).
Parador Granada, Spain
Real de la Alhambra, Granada, Spain, tel: 0034-958-221440, paradores-spain.com
This 15th-century hotel is in the grounds of the Alhambra, meaning “the red castle”, a series of palaces and fortress built by Moorish rulers during the 14th century and later partly inhabited by conquering Christians.
The building that houses this four-star hotel has had a varied history which reflects that of it tourist-attracting neighbour. It began life as a palace and mosque in the early to mid 1300s and later became a Franciscan convent. A new palace was built in the complex by Roman emperor Charles V in the early 1500s.
The hotel’s interior reflects its history, being home to antique furniture and paintings in Arabic and western styles. Guests can roam some of the Alhambra’s gardens in the evenings after all the day-trippers have left.
Rooms:there are 10 doubles, 25 twins and five suites which have varying views of the buildings that make up the Alhambra. Doubles from €264.