New hotels
MANDARIN ORIENTAL PARIS
251 rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris, tel: 00331-7098-7888, mandarinoriental.com
A glass-walled lobby and enchanting courtyard garden set the tone for this sleek and chic hotel, which interior designer Sybille de Margerie has injected with such fashion-conscious elements as pink butterfly-print carpets. The hotel combines classical and contemporary looks, in this case Art Deco and oriental style as seen in the white lacquer mixed with dark wood and dark stone swimming pool. The Mandarin Oriental Paris has location on its side: it is essentially a new building behind an Art Deco facade – in between grand old houses – just south of Opéra and within marching distance of the Tuileries gardens, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay.
ROOMS: there are 99 rooms and 39 suites. Fabrics are sumptuous, beds are large, colours centre on magenta and grey with acid green-yellow zapping up some of the suites. Bathrooms have a generous quota of marble, wet-room elements, unctions by Diptyque and mirrors that morph into televisions. Some rooms overlook the courtyard garden while others gaze onto rue Saint-Honoré, the opera house, Montmarte or the Eiffel Tower. Doubles from €765.
CONSERVATORIUM HOTEL AMSTERDAM
Van Baerlestraat 27, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel: 0031-20-570-0000, conservatoriumhotel.com
History and bright contemporary design combine in this new hotel in an old building in Amsterdam’s museum district. It was built in the late 1900s as a bank and later became a music college, which is the theme the new hotel has picked up on, not least in its name, and in the pianos set in one of its suites and the atrium downstairs. Set Hotels, which converted the Café Royale in London, hired Italian architect Piero Lissoni to design the hotel with an air of “contemporary, vibrant luxury as opposed to stiff luxury”. Lissoni has injected his love of piazza life with the vast glazed courtyard downstairs where locals come to eat and drink in the bright, warm space.
The original building has been left intact with, for instance, mosaic floors just being polished rather than heavily treated, while the vast quantities of new technology has been hidden beneath floor boards and wall panels. The overall feel is reassuringly historic but dynamic with the more breath-grabbing elements being a high-level walkway across the atrium and mirrored walls inside the toilets.
ROOMS: there are 129 rooms including many duplexes with vast windows and beds on large platforms. Each room is a different size, working with the original buildings, and includes period features such as oak floors. Doubles from €250.
MONASTERO SANTA ROSA HOTEL AND SPA, ITALY
Via Roma, Conca dei Marini, Salerno, Italy, tel: 0039-089-8321199, monasterosantarosa.com
This former 17th-century monastery has an astonishing position on a cliff above the Amalfi coast. Now a hotel, it has 20 rooms with a view and the cliff-edge infinity pool does not disappoint on the vista front.
Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel and Spa is in the fishing village of Conca dei Marini, between the towns of Amalfi and Positano, which are within 20 minutes by car or boat.
The property began as a theological university before being turned into a Dominican monastery. In its latest conversion, many original features have been retained – such as vaulted ceilings and arched windows – while high-tech additions include an enlightening glass lift up the outside of the hotel. There’s also an organic vegetable garden that supplies the restaurant. This has a terrace, warmed by an open fire on cooler nights.
ROOMS: there are 20 rooms and suites each named after a herb growing in the garden. Decor is a mix of Italian contemporary design and antiques against a backdrop of neutral tones. Some rooms are adorned with black-and-white historical photographs of the monastery. Smaller rooms have showers and larger ones include baths and showers. While higher up the scale you get a terrace overlooking the Bay of Salerno. Doubles from €412.