606 Unique Hotels in West Europe

Glasgow's latest boutique hotel doesn't just embrace excess - it practically wallows in it. House of Gods, which opened in April 2024 after a three-year renovation, has transformed a corner building in Merchant City into something that feels less like heaven and more like a very stylish purgatory. This is …

Rising from the highest point of Lerma, the Parador de Lerma commands attention from miles away. This isn't just another historic hotel - it's a 17th-century ducal palace where royalty once played, Napoleon Bonaparte laid his head, and Lope de Vega premiered his theatrical works. Today, you can experience this …

Forget everything you think you know about boutique farm stays. Outbuildings in Dorset isn't your typical countryside conversion - it's what happens when a family with 36 years of hospitality experience decides to transform an old dairy farm into something genuinely special. Located just two miles north of Bridport, this …

Perched on a wooded hillside in Málaga's genteel El Limonar neighborhood, the Soho Boutique Castillo de Santa Catalina occupies one of the most romantically improbable spots you could imagine for a hotel. This 1930s Moorish Revival villa sits directly atop the foundations of a 17th-century hilltop fortress – and you …

In the foothills of Portugal's Serra da Estrela mountains, a family turned their weekend escape into something extraordinary. Chão do Rio isn't your typical rural retreat - it's what happens when urban dwellers with dirt under their fingernails decide to share their patch of paradise. Twelve kilometers from Serra da …

In the small Norwegian town of Voss, where extreme sports enthusiasts come to chase waterfalls and adrenaline rushes, a new kind of accommodation has emerged that's as much about the architecture as it is the adventure. Elva Hotel, which opened in June 2023, sits along the shore of Lake Lundar …

Few hotel check-ins require climbing 126 granite steps to reach your bedroom. By the time you've huffed and puffed your way to the top of the Kerbel Lighthouse in Brittany, you've earned the right to collapse onto that bed and stare out at what might be the most spectacular view …

In a city where every canal-side hotel room comes with a premium price tag, one of Amsterdam's most unusual places to rest your head sits 46 meters (150 feet) above the water on KNSM Island. What was once Figee Crane 2868 - a hulking piece of industrial machinery that spent …

The road from Lisbon airport winds through increasingly peaceful countryside before depositing you at what feels like the edge of the world. Here, perched on the cliffs of Praia Grande, sits the Arribas Sintra Hotel – a modest 4-star establishment that happens to hold the rather grand title of mainland …

The stone walls are thick enough to have withstood demolition attempts in the 1930s, and the barred windows remain resolutely in place. But these days, the only thing being executed at Bodmin Jail is an ambitious vision to transform one of Britain's most forbidding historical sites into a luxury hotel …

On a scrap of windswept rock in the Swedish archipelago, where the Baltic meets the North Sea, stands what might be the world's most improbable hotel. Pater Noster sits on Hamneskär island, five nautical miles from anywhere you'd recognize as civilization, crowned by a 32-meter lighthouse that has been guiding …

Checking into a hotel room that once flew at 30,000 feet requires a certain suspension of disbelief. The Natur Air Suite, a 1968 Fokker 27 converted into Italy's first airplane hotel, sits in the countryside near Brembate di Sopra, an hour from Milan. Gianpiero Bianchi discovered the aircraft through an …

The concept sounds like something dreamed up by a particularly ambitious theme park designer: a hotel where you can swim alongside real penguins, separated only by a curved glass wall. Yet here in Lübbenau, deep in the wetlands of Brandenburg's Spreewald region, the Spreewelten Hotel has turned this improbable vision …

Walk through Rome's historic center, past centuries-old churches and crumbling ruins, and you'll eventually find yourself confronted by an unusual sight: a pair of doormen who look more like nightclub bouncers than hotel staff. Welcome to Romeo Roma, where getting through the front door requires more than just wandering in …

High above Lake Brienz, where waterfalls crash down mountainsides and the sound of rushing water mingles with the rattle of Europe's oldest funicular railway, sits a hotel that nearly became a car park. Well, not quite a car park, but something almost as tragic: a concrete "jumbo chalet" complex that …

There's something deliciously impractical about building a hotel on a cliff. While most sensible hoteliers would plant their flag on a sandy beach or charming piazza, Francesco Mansi had grander ideas back in 1956. Fresh from his adventures in Mexico, he took one look at the Amalfi Coast and thought: …

In a quiet side street in the 17th arrondissement, between residential buildings and a stone's throw from Parc Monceau, sits what might be Paris's most brazen attempt at bottling romance. The Paris j'Adore Hotel & Spa doesn't whisper sweet nothings – it shouts them from behind art deco doors flanked …

In a former industrial district of Metz, a small French city better known for its Gothic cathedral than contemporary architecture, stands what might be the most whimsical hotel in Europe. Maison Heler, which opened its doors in March 2025, is both a building and a story – the fictional tale …

On a picturesque hillside in the Swiss Alps, Anakolodge stands out as something different. The seven traditional cabins scattered across two hectares of wilderness are the vision of architect and manager Olivier Cheseaux, who wanted to create a place where people could completely disconnect from the modern world. The philosophy …

The Tranøy Lighthouse rises majestically on Stangholmen at Hamarøy's edge, showing a captivating scenery as one descends toward the parking area. This impressive maritime lookout stands surrounded by charming white buildings, complemented by a distinctive red boathouse and welcoming pier along the water's edge. A winding bridge traverses rocky outcrops, …