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Commendable hotels

“Boutique hotels” are small and personal hotels with an attractive atmosphere. They tend to boast stylish design and gourmet chefs.

Often times you will get to know the owners or hotel managers and talk to them about local peculiarities and their individual interpretation of a place.

Boutique hotels are our preferred way of staying abroad. As a nice coincidence, they are mostly situated in luxurious destinations and sometimes even close to spectacular golf courses…

Check out our list of personally recommended hotels here:

Enjoyable boutique and design hotels we personally recommend!

A la carte patio restaurant

Croatia’s Falkensteiner Iadera Hotel – architecture, two gulls, and the sea

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By on Croatia

Falkensteiner Iadera is a lavish design hotel with pools and just steps to the sea, with a sublime spa/hamam, and a breakfast buffet to die for. All as it should be… but, oh those gulls: look out below!

Fishing boat in the Poreč marina
The Poreč marina

Istrian Riviera – from fishing port Rovinj to Opatija seaside resort

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By on Croatia

Istria – where is that Croatian peninsula located again, the one where they come up with the world’s biggest truffles and peddle highly picturesque seaside towns?

Lobby and Shop Huus Gstaad Hotel

My house is your house – feeling right at home in the HUUS Gstaad Hotel

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By on Switzerland

“Mis huus, dis huus – mis Herz isch es Hotel” (“My house, your house – my heart is a hotel.”)

Even though the song by Switzerland’s award-winnning rap duo Lo & Leduc (they rap in the Swiss German dialect) has absolutely no connection to the HUUS Gstaad Hotel, I couldn’t get the catchy tune out of my mind during the drive there. Maybe it was that Latino groove?

Ophelia Restaurant at the Riva Konstanz and two tragic travel bloggers 1 | travel memo

Ophelia Restaurant at the Riva Konstanz and two tragic travel bloggers

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By on Germany

This post is about the time recently that saw us dining at the Hotel Riva Konstanz by Germany’s Lake Constance. We leave it to you, dear fellow traveler, to judge which was the greater tragedy: the story of the curvaceous Imperia, Shakespeare’s tale of the beautiful Ophelia, or how we failed to recognize the star chef of the gourmet restaurant that bears Ophelia’s name. Yes, a tragic tale, but true…

Castle fit for a princess: Château d'Ouchy in Lausanne 2 | travel memo

Castle fit for a princess: Château d’Ouchy in Lausanne

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By on Switzerland

Having heard quite a bit about hotel Château d’Ouchy over the years, I’d always wanted to spend a night as a princess in that castle by Lake Geneva with a history that dates to the 12th century. So, what did I find out when I finally made it there? The Château also once did duty as a prison!

Cervo Zermatt

Cervo Sunday Brunch – the Mountain Boutique Resort way!

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By on Switzerland

My preferred way of launching into Sundays is with a long, leisurely brunch. To heighten the “brunch” experience even more for us, Zermatt Tourism came up with an interesting experiment: the night before they packed us into a real igloo at minus 20 degrees! We make it to brunch the next morning anyway!

Canopy bed in cuddle suite
Canopy bed in cuddle suite

Time for two – in Austria’s Cuddle Hotel Gams

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By on Austria

Not long ago we were abducted into “A Thousand and One Nights” by Austria’s Cuddle Hotel Gams as it does for its guests every Thursday. But, it is also possible on any other day to be seduced into a time for two in this special ambiance…

Seerose resort lanterns in Switzerland

Seerose Resort & Spa – cocooning by Lake Hallwil

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By on Switzerland

On a cold, drizzly autumn day, is there anything better than retreating into a warm, cozy cocoon? This is exactly the autumn delight that the Seerose Resort & Spa on Hallwilersee (Lake Hallwil) celebrates in multiple ways…

Ca Na Xica main building

Ibiza design hotel Ca Na Xica – white oasis on the “white island”

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By on Ibiza

Ibiza, the “white island”. Now, how on earth did it get that name? Not likely that it came from the new-age white beach clubs. We pondered the question in proper style at the white design hotel Ca Na Xica.

Ngoma Safari Lodge dining room with a view
Ngoma Safari Lodge

Ngoma Safari Lodge – a wilderness outpost?

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By on Botswana

The first place we bedded down in Botswana was at the Ngoma Safari Lodge. We’d heard and read a great deal about this luxury destination: the accommodations are supposedly beyond belief and the safaris as well. Naturally, we were curious as cats about what was waiting for us in the renowned Chobe National Park…

Gourmet experience in the Mammertsberg by Relais & Châteaux 3 | travel memo

Gourmet experience in the Mammertsberg by Relais & Châteaux

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By on Switzerland

Recently, Relais & Châteaux extended invitations to one of their legendary gourmet adventures of the special kind. Happening this time: 17 Gault-Millau points, 1 Michelin star, 1 sommelière, 1 world champion chef in a manor house on the shore of Lake Constance. We naturally couldn’t wait to take it in with all our senses…

Hotel Tres Palma de Mallorca
© Hotel Tres

Hotel Tres: An oasis in central Palma de Mallorca

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By on Mallorca

I travel frequently to Palma de Mallorca, typically spending two or three days a month on the island. And when I overnight in the capital, I prefer the attractive four-star design Hotel Tres. From day one of my first stay there, it has felt like I was coming home.

Visit Venice in February? Really? 4 | travel memo
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

Visit Venice in February? Really?

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By on Italy

In our Swiss latitudes, February would be ideal for a stay in our snowed-in mountains. But for his impending 50th birthday, Walter wanted to be in Venice. February in Venice? Really?

The Capra Hotel wooden goat

The Capra – all prissy or what?

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By on Switzerland

The German word “Ziege” meaning “goat” in that language can shade into negative connotations, as in “dumme Geiss”, which means “silly goat” (or worse). From there it is not much of a leap to “Zicke,”  in American English a “priss” — an uptight person. However, in Italian the word for goat is “capra” and the sound alone is charming. Then calling something “The Capra” is high English style, and this is what happened with a new boutique hotel in the village of Saas-Fee named – The Capra. Alone the daring choice of moniker was reason enough for us to make the trip to Wallis Canton (Valais)….

Cal Reiet – Mallorca's 5-Star Boutique Hotel with a difference 5 | travel memo

Cal Reiet – Mallorca’s 5-Star Boutique Hotel with a difference

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By on Mallorca

It never ceases to surprise on Mallorca; barely have you left a village on a side street and you find yourself in the countryside in no time at all. Already as I passed the first entrance gate, in the distance I saw a seigneurial and imposing country mansion dating to the year 1881.

Sunset seen from the Notios restaurant

Design Hotel Almyra on Cyprus – Style & Dine by the Beach

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By on Cyprus

Design Hotel Almyra sits in an idyllic location surrounded by a large garden complex right next to the sea. The lively center of Pάfos with its old fishing harbor and archeological dig sites is just a few minutes walk away. Here is more on the design elements:

Awake from slumber: Hotel Bellevue-Terminus Engelberg 6 | travel memo

Awake from slumber: Hotel Bellevue-Terminus Engelberg

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By on Switzerland

In the center of Engelberg, across from the train station, the Hotel Bellevue-Terminus holds sway — with a renovated interior that might just have been kissed awake like Sleeping Beauty …

Hotel 7132 - where world-class architecture meets nature 7 | travel memo

Hotel 7132 – where world-class architecture meets nature

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By on Switzerland

The mountain village of Vals in the Surselva district of Grisons (Graubünden) is best known for its famous “Vals” mineral water or the legendary Vals Thermal Baths. And if you love masterpieces by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, be prepared to fall for Hotel 7132.

"Designer tea" at the Kontorhaus in Keitum on Sylt 8 | travel memo

“Designer tea” at the Kontorhaus in Keitum on Sylt

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By on Germany

Located at the edge of the captain’s village of Keitum on Sylt, the Kontorhaus represents a special sort of venue indeed: for in what tea trading post (“Kontorhaus”) can you not only sip from a seemingly infinite variety of teas, but also select your home furnishings or, if you choose, even try living in them before you make up your mind? And in a designer’s heaven at that?

25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin - hip and urban 9 | travel memo

25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin – hip and urban

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By on Germany

After the 25hours Hotels in Hamburg and in Zürich both had impressed us, it was high time for us to also visit the 25hours Bikini in Berlin – and not just because of that name…

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