Recommended Hotels in Germany

Two capacious and lofty apartments in an enlighted conversion of a former cotton mill, now populated with art studios and galleries, and one of Leipzig’s prime attractions. Fun interiors and huge rooms, sleeping up to six. Super trendy place to stay, but good value, too.

This is the posh place to stay on a very fashionable island. Looks of good taste and unfeasibly good skin amongst media celebrities and millionaire clientele. A fine spa, fine restaurant, with chic design and muted colours in the rooms.

Lovely parkland setting and riverside location for this beautiful half-timbered hotel, in one of the finest stretches of the Moselle. A rare and authentic combination of luxury accommodation and ayurvedic principles, with ayurvedic doctors on hand, and carefully constructed treatment programmes and menus. Lavish spa. No expense spared.

The castellated, handsome former wages hall of a coal mine stands alongside a defunct pit-head. Inside, the hotel is idiosyncratic and small, with just 17 rooms around a galleried hall. Quirky décor, good parking, but a bit out of the way.

Billed as a nature resort and medical spa, this place was first a monastery mill (thus Klostermühle) back in the 18^th century, then a holiday estate for East Germany’s secret police. The idyllic lakeside setting is a pretty good start, but there’s also a spa, a concert hall, outdoor and indoor pools, etc. The owners, an enthusiastic couple from Dusseldorf, have supplemented the original building by  more modern residences to provide more rooms. The region around the neighbouring Alt-Madlitz castle is really beautiful, close to the bewitched Oderbruch forest.

The tiny town of Trendelburg is dominated by its castle-hotel, which plays up to its fairy-tale image. Grand old creaking staircase, oil portraits, original antique furniture, and rather basic bathrooms hidden away behind wardrobe doors. Rooms in its exterior tower were supposedly used by the artist who first illustrated Rapunzel letting her hair down. There’s a limited attempt at a spa, and a tremendous dungeon-like dining room used for special occasions, plus a great view from the walls.

Terrific location on a hilltop above the mythical and mystical Lakeland of Edersee, a popular escape for stressed-out execs from Frankfurt. The thousand-year-old castle comes complete with spa and gourmet restaurant, where lobster and goose are on the menu. It has done time as a prison, but it is now all sophisticated and boutiquey on the inside, while on the outside the UNESCO-registered Kellerwald Forest rumbles on and on over the hills as far as the eye can see.

Ultra-luxurious hotel located at the heart of the sleepy little gem of a town, right on the cobbled market square, in a fetchingly-pretty array of half-timbered 16^th century houses, and on either side of a medieval town hall roofed with witches’ hats. Five restaurants, 60 rooms and a tunnel under the marketplace to the Moroccan-themed spa. Celeb hangout, although perhaps not internationally renowned celebs, with mega ratio of staff to guests. Rooms are pretty, and sun-themed, but can be a bit small. Owned by a wealthy industrialist, the hotel even has its own airport, a few short kilometres away.

This is as fancy as Black Forest hotels can get. A fabulous privately-owned holiday resort with capacious guest rooms, particularly good for families. The building is contemporary, and interior design somewhat conservative, but the facilities include a celebrated hotel restaurant with no fewer than three Michelin stars, and a lip-smacking spa, too. The temptation must be to go nowhere further than the pool, despite all that great countryside around.

Newish chalet-style family-run hotel on the edges of Füssen, one of the most popular destinations in southern Bavaria, thanks to proximity to the Alps, to lakes, and to King Ludwig’s castles (Neuschwanstein is only a couple of miles away). The Sommer is a spa hotel, and its spa building sits right on the edge of Lake Forggensee. Friendly staff, good location and excellent breakfasts.