The coolest hotels in Europe according to Time Out editors

Whether you’re in Berlin to party or not, Michelberger is the perfect place to rest your head. We love this hotel for its rave-centric location, it’s breakfast that runs until 2pm and, perhaps most of all, it’s lobby – possibly the best we’ve ever come across. The light-filled lobby here has a café and wine bar, with out-there cocktails (including a mustard martini), good food and plenty of cosy Japandi style sofas to wile away an afternoon in. 

The building itself is also pretty special – industrial, minimal and leaning into its setting, a former factory in Friedrichshain. Rooms start from around €100, and are quietly luxurious while keeping, well, Berlin-esque (e.g. a telly that only shows black-and-white music documentaries). When you pictured staying in Berlin, you probably pictured staying somewhere like this – and trust us, it’s worth it. 

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Address: Warschauer Straße 39-40, 10243 Berlin

Price: From €100 per night

Closest transport link: Warschauer Straße with links to the S-Bahn and U-Bahn

Stella d’Italia is not just a boutique hotel – it takes you right into a whimsical, ornate, fairytale-like world, full of antiques and murals and bunches of dried flowers. Artist Betty Soldi is the owner, and owns three hotels across Florence – but this one is hidden away off the city’s main designer shopping street. So hidden, in fact, you might not find it. According to our reviewer, ‘just like stepping through the looking glass, it’s almost impossible to find the front door first time around.’

But once inside, you’ll find walls covered with 18th century frescos, 24 completely unique bedrooms and over 500 original artworks covering the space from top to bottom. This isn’t a slick, modern experience – you’re stepping back in time in every single sense of the word, and that’s what makes it so special to stay here. You’re also very well placed for exploring the city, if you should ever choose to leave. 

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Address: Via de' Tornabuoni 7, Florence, 50123

Price per night: Starting from €180 per night including breakfast

Closest transport: Florence airport is a 20-minute drive, and the main Santa Maria Novella train station is a 10-minute walk

Lisbon has no shortage of boutique hotels. But The Vintage stands out, big time. Tucked away in stylish Príncipe Real, this five-star stay is all about retro cool, painted in rich colours with mid-century curves, and rooms decked out with mustard-yellow phones and dark wood furniture. Plus your own gin-and-tonic kit for in-room cocktail hour. Downstairs, there’s a moody spa, and upstairs, one of the city’s best rooftop bars, serving sunset views with a side of Ginger Moonshine.

There are so many things that make The Vintage feel special. You’re close to Lisbon’s best bars and shops, but far enough away for proper peace and quiet. Service is warm. Details are thoughtful. And the vibes, most importantly, are immaculate.

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Address: R. Rodrigo da Fonseca, 2, 1250-191 Lisboa

Price: Low season from €200 per night, high season from €240 per night

Closest transport: Avenida and Rato metro stations; 30 minutes by taxi from the airport

There’s design-led, and then there’s Le 9 Confidentiel. This hotel in the ever-beautiful Marais stands out from its (many) boutique neighbours by opting for meticulous design over quaint shabby chic, characterised by its Art Deco façade, bow windows and pink and yellow palette. As Lisa Gerard-Sharpe wrote of her stay, it ‘looks and feels rather like a cluster of macaroons – intensely sweet but not quite sickly.’

Behind it is French designer Philippe Starck, and rooms are equally stylish and Art Deco, decked out with parquet flooring, stylish bathrooms and bronze mirrors. But the hotel’s centrepiece is Le Confidence bar, a 1920s-style space inspired by old-school candy jars. Plus, the best of Paris is quite literally at your doorstep – from Marais food spots to the Seine. 

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Address: Le 9 Confidential, 58 rue du Roi de Sicile, Paris 7004 Tel: 01 86 90 22 33. 

Price per night: Superior room from: €238, Club room from €321, suites from €715

Closest transport: Metro Saint-Paul and Hotel de Ville

Perched on a cliff above the Ionian Sea with Mount Etna rumbling in the distance, San Domenico Palace is probably the hotel from most of our dreams. Yes, and the hotel from season two of White Lotus. A former 14th-century convent, it’s become Taormina’s most glamorous address, pulling in A-listers, honeymooners and anyone chasing true main-character energy. 

Inside find ancient stone cloisters, sleek marble, terraces that look like they’ve been designed for movie trailers and rooms with sea views, private plunge pools and the kind of robes you never want to give back. It’s blow-out luxury, sure, and you’ll pay the price for it – but as a bucket-list stay, it doesn’t really get better than this. 

Time Out tip: Late spring and early autumn mean fewer tourists in Sicily, so time your stay right to avoid the crowds. 

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Address: Piazza San Domenico, 5, 98039, Taormina

Price: From around €1,200 per night

Closest transport: Catania-Fontanarossa airport is an hour  away by car.

Forget the canal-house clichés – The Hoxton, Lloyd shows off a cooler, calmer side of Amsterdam. Set in the laid-back Eastern Docklands, this art deco hotel swaps stag-party chaos for sea air, wide skies and a proper sense of space, with trams whisking you into Centraal in minutes. The building itself is part of the magic: a former shipping HQ with a rather fascinating past, now reborn as a design-forward hotel with a top-notch terrace. 

Rooms keep things slick, but it’s the social spaces that steal the show. Breman Brasserie is destination dining in its own right, mixing brasserie classics with Jewish and Argentinian flavours, and Barbue bar is perfect for a late-night negroni. Plus staying in the Eastern Docklands is a good way to feel ‘like a local’, if that’s what you’re after. 

Time Out tip: Borrow one of the hotel’s free bikes and head towards Oosterpark for a very lovely (and leafy) ride. 

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Address: Oostelijke Handelskade 34, Amsterdam, 1019 BN

Price: From €150 a night

Closest transport: Rietlandpark tram stop is a mere 3-minute walk from the hotel 

The Leinster opened in 2024 in what was once a dilapidated nightclub. The design-led hotel has 55 rooms, but it’s far from minimalist – the space is characterised by plush velvets, brushed gold and upscale maximalism. You’ll also find 300-or-so paintings by Irish artists, and the floral scent of Baccarat Rouge wafting through the corridors. 

Food, however, is still probably this hotel’s main draw. Head to the Collins Club for a cocktail which was concucted in their basement lab, and to Jean-Georges for dinner on the top floor, a particularly glossy, glassy space to eat dinner. If you do want to venture outside, The Leinster is as central as they come, with the Oscar Wilde House and Grafton Street pretty much on your doorstep. 

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Address: 7 Mount Street Lower, Dublin 2, D02 WK33, Ireland

Price per night: Starting from €166 per night

Closest transport: Merrion Square is a well-serviced bus stop, and Pearse train station is a 10-minute walk

If your idea of ‘cool’ is Scandi-chic with a sustainable focus, 1 Hotel Copenhagen pretty much ticks all of your boxes. From outside, this new hotel from August 2025 looks unremarkable, but once inside you’re welcomed with pine scents, a plant-filled atrium and muted wooden features that make it feel like as much like a secret, luxe cabin in the woods as a hotel slap-bang in the middle of the city (as writer Amy Houghton puts it: ‘Wherever there’s space for a plant, there is one.’) 

Every inch of design has sustainability in mind here: sand-timers by the rainfall shower, recycled glass carafes and a hotel restaurant led by Green Michelin starred chef Chantelle Nicholson. The cocktail bar, too, serves drinks made from locally foraged botanicals and ingredients from the terrace herb garden. 

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Address: 1 Hotel Copenhagen Krystalgade 22 1172 Copenhagen

Price per night: From €333 per night.

Closest transport link: A five minute walk from Nørreport Station, which is just a 15-minute ride from the airport

Anemelia is Mykonos, minus the madness. Set on a breezy hill near Elia Beach, this laid-back boutique with just 20 rooms definitely doesn’t feel like your typical hotel stay. But it’s got luxury and seclusion in spades – rooms feature soft tones, silky tiles and cloud-like beds, and some come with their own plunge pools.

Food is a big deal here, too. Much of it is ferried over from the owners’ home island of Naxos, meaning breakfasts piled with creamy thick yoghurt, sweet tomatoes and proper feta. Dinner is Greek classics with a glow-up, to be tucked into on the terrace at sunset. Make sure to take advantage of that free shuttle to golden Elia Beach, and you might find you do not much else. 

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Address: Elia, Ano Mera, 84600, Mykonos, Greece. 

Price: Starting from €427 per night

Closest transport: Mykonos airport is nine kilometres away – the hotel can arrange your transfer. KTEL buses run between Chora and many of the best-known beaches. 

Let’s get one thing out the way first: the area in which you’ll find this hotel is very much not what one would call ‘cool’. But the July at London Victoria shows, loud and clear, that a hotel near a major station doesn’t have to feel boring. Or beige. Or business-only. This slick new stay (the third July hotel, after its first two in Amsterdam), mixes the freedom of an apartment with the polish of a boutique hotel, and as Chiara Wilkinson writes, it ‘feels more Shoreditch High Street than Victoria station’. 

Rooms come with proper kitchens, king-size beds, Marie-Stella-Maris toiletries and full kitchens (including Maldon salt and nice olive oil). Downstairs, The Idler restaurant serves modern British plates in a gorgeously decorated space. There’s also a co-working lobby, an honesty bar and a private-book sauna. Sure, the neighbourhood is no looker. But transport links are unbeatable, and once you’re inside, you simply won’t care. 

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Address: 282 Vauxhall Bridge Rd, London SW1V 1BB

Price: From €287 per night

Closest transport: Victoria Station, if that wasn’t clear already

ION Adventure is shaped like a sleek glass box, rising out of Iceland’s lava-covered wilderness and sort of resembling a villain’s lair. Head inside though, and you’re basically in what feels like the cosiest hideout on Earth. There’s sheepskin throws, candlelight and beds so comfy you forget you’re in one of the coldest countries on the planet. Look outside and there’s snow, steam, dramatic mountains. What a scene.

Sustainability is at the forefront here – everything runs on geothermal power, the food is firmly local, and even the sinks are recycled. But possibly the biggest flex of staying here is catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights from the hotel bar (spoken from experience). As Liv Kelly writes, ION Adventure continuously strikes the balance between high-end and homely – from the hotel beds to the alfresco geothermal pool.

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Address: ION Adventure, Nesjavellir, Selfoss, 805

Price: From €565 a night

Closest transport: A 60-minute drive from Reykjavik airport

Hotel Borneta is proof that Barcelona does boutique cool very, very well. Opened in 2024 and parked right under the arcades of Passeig Picasso, this sleek newcomer sits between El Born and Ciutadella Park, and staying here feels more like an aparthotel (or a very cool friend’s place) than a hotel. 

Rooms are modern, comfy and light-filled, with Le Labo toiletries and terraces for people-watching. There’s a rooftop bar with cracking views, and the genuinely excellent Volta restaurant downstairs already a local favourite, serving Mediterranean plates using local ingredients. Guests are an international crowd, but when even locals come here for brunch on the weekends, you know it’s good. 

Time Out tip: The courtesy room is your secret weapon for squeezing in one last beach trip before heading home.

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Address: Passeig de Picasso, 26, 30, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona

Price: rooms from €270

Closest transport: well-connected in the city centre. The airport is about 40 minutes away.