Grand old houses.

How to choose

Some hotels are worth the trip for the building alone. The ones in this collection were palaces, private mansions or grand hotels long before they were famous, and they still carry the marks of that history in their staircases, salons and gardens. Most have been restored in recent decades, so the plumbing and the beds are modern even where the ceilings are not.

Paris has the deepest bench, with hotels on the Place Vendôme, the Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and the avenue d'Iéna that date from the 18th and 19th centuries. In Asia, the great colonial era hotels of Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong opened between 1876 and 1928 and are still the addresses many travellers ask for first. In Portugal, the list runs from a clifftop hotel on Madeira to an 18th century palace in Lisbon and a manor house in the Douro.

History brings character, but it can also mean rooms of very different shapes and sizes within one building. A room in the original wing may have higher ceilings and better views, while a newer wing may be quieter and larger. Each hotel page notes the signature suites, and we are happy to point out the rooms with the most of the original house in them.

These hotels also tend to be at the centre of things, on a square or a river, so the history continues outside the door.

Questions

Good to know.