Europe and Middle East

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in Europe and Middle East. independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

1024px Paris avenue montaigne plaza athena.1

PLAZA ATHENEE

Eat your heart out, stylish boutique hotels of Paris – the fashionistas are still going for the resolutely period decor of the eternally glamorous Plaza Athenee. For a start, it’s right in their territory on the avenue Montaigne, close to Dior, Louis Vuitton and Valentino, and for another thing, they are used to divas and fulfilling their every demand.

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Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée

ALAIN DUCASSE AT THE PLAZA ATHENEE

Is Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee one of the best restaurants in Paris? Certainly, the man currently regarded as the god of French cooking has the prettiest room in the most glamorous hotel in town

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obsession 16

Obsession 16

Obsession 16 is the latest incarnation of the now famous annual gastronomic celebration at Northcote. Initiated for the new millennium by this Lancashire manor hotel with Michelin-starred restaurant named best place to stay outside London, it will this year field 18 chefs with an equal number of Michelin stars from all over the UK and beyond.

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Solange Berchemin stays at the historic L'Hotel Du Chateau in Carcassonne.

L’Hotel Du Chateau. Carcassonne

L’Hotel du Chateau, situated right below la Porte de Narbonne, the main entrance to the walled city of Carcassonne, is a perfect example of what happened back then. Cecile and Stéphane Rives acquired a 1* hotel and turned it into a stylish boutique hotel

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Hotel les Bains bar

Les Bains Hotel. A famous iconic Paris name is back.

An 1885 bathhouse off a charmless Paris boulevard may seem an unlikely vehicle for one of the city’s most desirable boutique hotels. But Johnny Depp and his cohorts have pulling power, and the too cool for school crowd cavorted for years in the basement of Les Bains when it was a hip nightclub.

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G Hotel Galway Bedroom at the g Hotel Junior Suite 50sqm

G Hotel Galway. Ireland’s glamourous celebrity magnet.

Mad Max meeting Royal Ascot with a light dusting of Vegas stardust comes to mind entering the G Hotel Galway wandering from a glitzy silver grey grand salon hung with two hundred enormous glass ball light installations into a lipstick pink lounge displaying Andy Warhol print fabric covered chairs.

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