The question of how to turn a fluorescent-lit, dingily-painted Kyoto school into something entirely new, but still connected to education, led to one clear answer: an ‘edu-hotel’.

The 29-room Hotel Kanra, which opened late last year, sports a mission to help guests understand its historic Japanese home, weaving subtle lessons through design.

Inspired by Kyoto’s famous classic machiya, or long and narrow shops, guests rooms are similarly shaped. The concept is also reflected “by the use of natural materials such as volcanic stone, cedar, and paper — all of which express Kyoto tradition.

As one might expect from the designers responsible for Tokyo’s first boutique hotel, Claska, guest rooms and public spaces skillfully merge Japanese motifs with contemporary style through the use of timeless touches like sliding doors, washi paper hangings, tatami mats and, everywhere, clean lines.

Rooms feature minimalist white bedding and blond woods, and their linear layout evokes those of Kyoto’s shops. Guests walk along a passageway lined with a wash-basin and a writing desk. Beyond the bed, a tatami-matted area awaits.

Colors and textures — the greens of moss and matcha tea, the bumpiness of rocks — connect with the city’s visual vocabulary.

Through it all, gentle instruction is at work. One good example is the variety of grid patterns used on sliding doors. In Kyoto, explain the designers, customers can tell what kind of business a store is by the grid design, so this is a subtle cultural lesson.

The work of local artists, too, is important, since Kyoto remains a center for craftsmanship.

Photos courtesy of the hotel

Lighting designer Chiaki Murazumi created the white fabric lamps that glow gently in the lobby.

An artisan named Michiko designed, then photographed, the pressed flower images that adorn guest room walls. She’s also responsible for the ikebana arrangements that lend flare to bathrooms.

Most eye-catching is a lighting installation that hangs from the ceilings of the lobby and first floor restaurant, The Kitchen Kanra.

Designed by Tokyo-based American artist Alexander Reeder, the angular panels are programmed to respond to the season and time of day, as well as the sounds and movements made by passersby.

With a full slate of courses available — on everything from cloth wrapping to Kyoto dialects — and a charming in-room notebook detailing such traditions in every room, the hotel takes its educational mission seriously.

For guests, “back to school” has a most welcoming ring.

A visual odyssey, the hotel’s reception is a striking contrast of colors and textures — white Venetian plaster against black glass walls, glistening marbled surfaces, and shocking pink corridors.

In a moment of awe, when it seemed as if Hollywood glamour surrounded me, I realized I had fortuitously happened upon a live pre-run of a fashion show, with runway models at every turn.

I chose a camouflage print sofa in the “Pink Parlor” to watch the spectacle, all the while becoming more enthralled with the hotel’s extraordinary décor and eclectic style.

I began to contemplate various perfect occasions for a getaway at the g: a mother/daughter celebration, a special anniversary or a girls’ trip.

With unique appeal, the award-winning g hotel and spa was designed by celebrated Irish milliner Philip Treacy. Known for his originality and exquisite hat designs, Treacy draws inspiration from the landscapes and seashore of his native County Galway in a contemporary, sensuous style intended for pure comfort.

Photos by Ann Yungmeyer

Down to every detail, the g is a designer’s paradise — from the Connemara bred seahorse tank to the overall effect of thematic art, reflective light and bold color. As befits Treacy’s work for royal families and noted celebrities, a hat theme runs throughout the hotel decor. A photo of his first hat design in the form of a tall ship is displayed at the reception, and arrangements of hydrangea in the shape of a hat grace the salon tabletops.

The g has a first rate restaurant featuring local cuisine by an award-winning chef, and its state-of-the-art ESPA spa facility is a draw for locals and visitors alike. The spa offers a roof top bamboo garden and clever packages such as pajama parties, hide and sleep, and spa adventure for men.

Facing Galway Bay, the hotel is a short walk to the city center. Galway City offers much to see and explore including the  Spanish Arch, St. Nicholas church in the medieval center, countless traditional Irish music pubs, excellent restaurants and shopping. Summer buzzes with activities from the famous Galway Races to arts and cultural festivals.

Popular day excursions include taking the ferry across Galway Bay to the Aran Islands or a short drive to the dramatic Cliffs of Moher. The Burren, south of Galway City, is one of Ireland’s most fascinating natural landscapes, a mix of glaciated limestone plateaus and hills among fertile valleys and ancient stonewalled pastures.

While the natural beauty, culture and music of traditional Ireland are most often the focus of a visit to Galway, it’s hard to beat a few days of flamboyant style and modern luxury at the g.

Stands the Church clock at ten to three?

And is there honey still for tea?

Rupert Brooke, the English poet who penned those yearning nostalgic lines, would surely have approved of the lavish afternoon tea served Saturdays and Sundays at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York. After all, it’s been a tradition ever since the hotel opened in 1929.

At that time, “The Dowager of Front Street’ was the tallest building in the British Empire. Winston Churchill was among its first guests, and it’s been a favorite of the glitterati ever since. Queen Elizabeth has stayed here three times — in the Royal Suite, naturally. So have entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Justin Bieber, Cary Grant and Antonio Banderas.

The Lobby dazzles still with chandeliers, travertine pillars, a hand-painted ceiling — and lots of lions, sprawling everywhere from the rugs to the pedestals. Feeling hungry rather than regal, my daughter and I climbed marble stairs to the Library Bar, a large clubby space filled with an agreeable clinking of tea-cups and the gentle strumming of a guitar.

Photos courtesy of Fairmont Royal York

Once seated, we were offered a “fine selection of loose leafs [sic] teas .“ No tea-bags here. An affable waiter soon arrived with our choice, a large pot of Empress 1908 Blend. Next came the first of three courses, a crumpet, topped with fresh berries and a drizzling of butter and Grand Marnier sauce. Then a plate of finger sandwiches: lobster and mango salad, smoked Nova Scotia salmon, smoked turkey breast, and, cucumber, of course.

The grand finale, a three-tiered tray, fairly groaned with cranberry scones and clotted cream and preserves, honey and white chocolate madeleines, and strawberry cheesecake squares.

From May to September, there’s another treat, an après-tea tour — some 14 stories above ground. Way back in 1998, an employee suggested installing an herb garden on the roof. Now the 110 cooks, apprentices, and Chef David Garcelon enthusiastically moonlight as gardeners, tending the seventeen raised beds and planters. This oasis in the sky is surrounded by high rises, which shelter it from the wind, creating an urban micro-climate.

They grow lavender, calendula, rapini, kale, rhubarb, six kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, horseradish, many herbs,, and edible flowers. They’re experimenting with two kinds of grapes and a fig tree. It’s totally organic, with compost from the garden refuse. All the vegetables, fruit and herbs are used in the hotel restaurants.

Photo by Mary Alice Downie

Three years ago, a different sort of royalty moved in permanently, in partnership with the Toronto Beekeepers’ Co-Operative. The cooks helped build and now maintain six hives with their queens. (A single summer hive may contain 60,000 bees.)

The honey is harvested twice a year. In 2010, they gathered 450 pounds – and again, with the lowest of carbon footprints, took it downstairs. The hives are green, reflecting the mood of the hotel.

Several sister properties such as le Chateau Frontenac and Hotel Vancouver, thinking the idea the bees’ knees, have installed apiaries and herb gardens of their own. And so. . . another fine tradition.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's second "bed-in" at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal; courtesy of hotel

Most hotel rooms are a blank slate, no more than a (hopefully) comfortable place to temporarily lay your head. A select few, however, are branded with pop culture everywhere you turn. Stamped with the legacies of previous guests, these rooms will be forever immortalized in books and “E! True Hollywood Story’’ episodes.

These rooms generally gain their notoriety as stages for politicians and celebrities behaving badly. While they have been the backdrops for drug overdoses, murders, and sex scandals, they have also inspired flashes of artistic genius. For a break from the ordinary, check into one of these famous –– and infamous –– rooms.

Presidential Suite, Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin It was the celebrity moment that made everybody –– not just parents and child safety advocates –– cringe. In 2002, greeting his cheering fans below, Michael Jackson dangled infant son Prince Michael II (“Blanket’’), his head covered with a towel, over the balcony railing of this hotel room.

The king of pop later explained he was “caught up in the excitement of the moment.’’ The hotel’s website features a virtual tour of the suite, including the view from the window toward the Brandenburg Gate and down to the sidewalk. Even online, it’s dizzying.

Room 1220, Westin St. Francis, San Francisco Long before TMZ and Gawker, this hotel room was at the epicenter of one of Hollywood’s most salacious scandals. In 1921 silent film star Roscoe “Fatty’’ Arbuckle hosted a wild party in the sitting room of his top-floor suite. The actor was accused of raping actress Virginia Rappe in an adjacent room, and when Rappe died four days later, Arbuckle was charged with her murder.

After three highly publicized trials, he was acquitted, but his career was ruined. In another brush with fame, Al Jolson died of a heart attack after playing gin rummy in this room in 1950.

Monet Suite at The Savoy in London; courtesy of hotel

Room 618, The Savoy, London Fascinated by the interplay of sunlight and London’s pea-soup smog, French impressionist Claude Monet on three occasions at the turn of the 20th century checked into the famed Savoy, unfolded his easel, and painted the Houses of Parliament, Waterloo Bridge and other city landmarks through the grimy haze.

During the recent renovation of The Savoy, two of the sixth-floor rooms from which he painted were remodeled into the one-bedroom Monet Suite. The artist’s views of London brighten the walls, and windows open to a dazzling, smog-free view of the Thames and London Eye. Monet, however, would find no inspiration today from the clear skies. “London would be quite ugly if it was not for the fog,’’ he once wrote.

Room 118, Cadogan Hotel, London Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde was arrested in this Knightsbridge hotel room in 1895 on the charge of “gross indecency.’’ His crime? A homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. John Betjeman’s poem “The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’’ should be required reading for anyone checking into the Oscar Wilde Suite today.

Wilde’s fans can also cross the English Channel and stay in Room 16 of L’Hotel in Paris where the bedridden writer uttered, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.’’ On Nov. 30, 1900, the wallpaper emerged victorious.

The John Lennon and Yoko Ono Suite today; courtesy of the hotel

Room 1742, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, Montreal Spending a week in a hotel bed might sound blissfully relaxing, but it was pure bedlam when John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their second bed-in for peace here in 1969.

Fans, celebrities, and as many as 150 journalists a day crashed the couple’s pad. Asked by one reporter what they were trying to achieve, Lennon replied: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.’’

A peace anthem was instantly born, and on June 1, 1969, the pair –– with vocal help from Timothy Leary and Tom Smothers among others –– recorded “Give Peace a Chance’’ in what today is the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Suite.

For a trans-Atlantic two-fer, stay at the John and Yoko Suite at the Amsterdam Hilton, where the pair held their first bed-in during their March, 1969, honeymoon.

Room 871, Mayflower Renaissance, Washington, D.C. While the luxury Mayflower commemorates Room 776, where Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote his famous inaugural speech in 1933, and Room 570, where the G.I. Bill was drafted on hotel stationery, it understandably does not boast of the political history that occurred in this room.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day in 2008, George Fox (a.k.a. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer) booked this room for a tryst with a $1,000-an-hour call girl. A little more than a month later when Spitzer was identified as “Client 9’’ in a high-end prostitution ring, the revelation drove him out of office.

The Hotel Hershey

“Milk or dark?” That’s the question posed to every guest upon check in at The Hotel Hershey and how you know you’re not just in any resort. Appropriate chocolate bar in hand, you are ready to relax, Hershey-style.

The crown jewel among Hershey’s holdings in a small town about 100 miles from Philadelphia, the 75-year-old property is reminiscent of a kinder, gentler age. This grande dame hotel is adjacent to Hershey’s other Pennsylvania attractions, which include a theme park, zoo and its staged factory tour, yet a world away in terms of amenities and ambience.

Opened in 1933 (and air-conditioned throughout in 1955), the hotel is as gracious as an old friend. Eclectic touches abound, like its fabulous Havana-style Iberia lounge, which was inspired by founder Milton S. Hershey’s sugar plantation and mills in 1920s Cuba.  Its 276 well-appointed rooms and cottages overlook gardens and the rolling countryside, with some offering a glimpse of the nightly fireworks at Hersheypark during the season.

Circular dining room; images courtesy of hotel

Guests dress up to dine in the Circular Dining Room, designed in the round by Hershey himself to be sure nobody, including solo diners, ever got stuck in a corner. Touches like ruby-toned leaded glass and hand-crafted ornamental wood keep company with a 1,200-bottle wine cellar and a restored ceiling mural, part of a recent $1 million renovation.

It all sets the stage for signature dishes, many of which include chocolate, such as cocoa-dusted sea scallops. Executive chef Ken Gladysz happens to think chocolate is a great ingredient in both sweet and savory treats. The hotel also offers more casual dining experiences at Trevi 5, which has an Italian menu, and the American-themed Harvest.

A cottage guest room

Meanwhile, the grounds invite strolling or hiking depending on your mood.  An expanse of lawn framed by koi ponds and an outdoor pool, is often the setting for weddings when the weather is fine.

In front, a gorgeous patio is used for sunning, dining and live jazz music. Just down the road, the stunning Hershey Gardens, lush with roses, herbs and seasonal specimen plants, include a children’s area and butterfly house.

In need of pampering? The Spa at The Hotel Hershey, which opened ten years ago, has expanded its “social” area to accommodate the many guests who come for family occasions and girlfriend getaways.  But there’s still plenty of quiet available, if you prefer.

Specialty services and treatments include getting your nails painted 1933 –– a mocha color formulated in honor of the hotel’s diamond anniversary; getting a chocolate bean polish, and a fondue wrap. Or try a mojito sugar scrub, another nod to Hershey’s love of Cuba.

Should you feel guilty about all this indulging, remember the hotel and other attractions support a local school for disadvantage youth created by Milton S. Hershey, and his wife, Catherine, in 1909.  The “sweetest place on earth” has substance, too.

To read more about unique travel destinations, check out Beth’s blog, Unchained Travel.

Re-opened last year under the Waldorf-Astoria flag as the Roosevelt, after a $145 million restoration, the property has returned to its former glory — and then some. “I think it’s even better than before,” says Steve Finegan, the New Orleans architect involved with the project.

Redesigned guestrooms lean toward the neoclassical, with a palette that skews to the autumnal (olive, berry, gold, and brown). Architects reconfigured the room layouts, bringing 700 rooms down to 504, of which 135 are suites.

Other additions include a new restaurant, Domenica, by New Orleans’ star chef John Besh, who this time ’round tackles the rural cuisine of Italy, offering everything from homemade pastas and cured meats to wood-fired pizzas. The eatery joins the classic and beloved dining offerings of the hotel, including the Sazerac Bar, a one-time favorite of renegade  Huey Long (who served as first governor then senator), and the Blue Room, once the hotel’s cabaret space, it now features Sunday jazz brunch.

There’s also a 12,000-square-foot Guerlain spa, one of only three in the United States, and a reworked outdoor pool deckm complete with rooftop bar.

Located just outside the French Quarter, the hotel, which opened in 1893 as the Grunewald and was renamed the Roosevelt in 1923, has seen everyone from NOLA-born Louis Armstrong to Frank Sinatra walk through its doors. It  suffered through the various design vagaries of the passing eras, and by the time it changed hands once again to become the Fairmount in 1965, much of its Art Nouveau glory was thoroughly covered up.

This restoration unveiled long-hidden charms. Craftsmen hand-cleaned crystal chandeliers throughout the lobby, restored the murals of the hotel’s signature Sazerac bar, and exposed, once again, a round ceiling medallion in Teddy’s Cafe, which now serves as the hotel’s casual coffee bar. Coffered ceilings are everywhere in the lobby, and romantic lighting and golden mirrors drip with what Woody Allen-as-Alvy Singer once amorously called “that touch of Old New Orleans.”

photos by JoAnn Greco

Perhaps the greatest treasure was discovered by interior designer Lisa Haude of Houston-based Paradigm Design Group. “I was there during one of the demolition walk-throughs,” she says, “and I noticed this great mosaic tile flooring in the lobby.” Although the tile was too damaged to use, Haude worked closely with Daltile to recreate it, a method she used throughout the hotel.

Her office custom-designed both millwork for Teddy’s that echoed those from the era, and carpets for the lobby that incorporate New Orleans’ motifs such as the fleur de lis and Mardi Gras crests.

“There’s an intricate link between the city and this hotel,” Haude says. “When it reopened, people came up and hugged us and said, ‘this means New Orleans is back.’”

However, as I found out after a Sunday stroll through the Marais, it’s only “easy” walking downhill. Coming back up, I argued in vain with my significantly younger travel companion about the merits of taking the Metro. “But we’re in Paris,” she insisted, “I don’t want to miss anything.” Fortunately, the Jules provides deep, long tubs in which I soaked my aching muscles.

Then again, why leave the neighborhood? Some of Paris’ most delightful treasures were just outside my door. A three minute walk from the hotel, is A la Mere de Famille, an eat-your-heart-out confectionery shop that hasn’t changed since Marie Antoinette was nibbling bon bons. As when it opened in 1761, transactions here are still handled in a vintage cashier’s “cage.” The staff is tres congenial, used to tourists (like me) wandering around in a daze, ogling the artful displays of chocolate as if we were in the Louvre.

On the same street, Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, I stumbled into Verdeau Passage, one of several intriguing covered passage ways connecting the Grand Boulevards, each containing antique shops, bookstores, cafes and boutiques. Verdeau Passage is one of the most endearing, filled with curios I don’t need but desperately desire. I caved in for a print illustrating the many moods of “Le Chat Domestique,” an alluring was of describing the common cat. (Hey, it was only 10 Euros.) I exited the Passage, crossed the boulevard and entered Passage Jouffroy where I savored a cup of tea and a delicious pastry at Le Valentin.

Anyone who says you can walk from Hotel Jules to Provence is taking poetic license, but when I entered Premiere Pression Provence on Rue des Martyrs, I could taste the olives, literally. The boutique sells first press olive oils from 23 Provencal producers in just about every form imaginable, from the olives (some of them, chocolate-covered!) themselves to soaps and chutneys. It was all packaged so adorably and affordably, that I did some serious souvenir shopping. After all, given the exchange rate, the only perfume I was bringing home was truffle-scented olive oil.

photos courtesy of Hotel Jules

Exhausted from a day of meandering without a map (we used Sacre Coeur as a compass), my companion and I were thrilled to discover an abundance of reasonably priced, ethnic restaurants within crawling distance from the hotel lobby along Rue de Faubourg Montmartre. It was a hard choice: Moroccan, Greek, Japanese, an Irish pub, mixed in with typical French bistro fare. Plus a number of kosher (You vant fries with that?) eateries catering to the neighborhood’s sizeable Orthodox Jewish population.

Of course, when it comes to hotels, location isn’t everything. The buzz that’s attracting hip, young travelers to Hotel Jules is generated by the snazzy retro décor which features a white leather sofa in the lobby lifted from the back seat of a 50s Cadillac, a public computer station tucked inside a 70s spherical shell and guest rooms decorated with tongue-in-cheek whimsy. Our junior suite had a zebra rug, over-sized floor lamp and lip-shaped sculpture — all of which made me feel like I was inside a Pink Panther movie. Holy lava lamp! Where’s my bong?

Hotel Jules is one of the “casual chic” properties of the G.L.A. Hotel group which, in Paris, include the Lancaster, Bel Ami, Monalembert and the (also) newly opened Hotel Beauchamps. Ask for a courtyard room to avoid street noise and don’t miss the scrumptious breakfast buffet in the dining room that recalls a 50s diner.

The Capital Hotel

Little Rock is best viewed from the front porch — as in the meticulously restored Capital Hotel downtown and the veranda at Moss Mountain Farm outside the city on a idyllic stretch of the Arkansas River.

The hotel, built in 1870, is known as “the front porch of Little Rock” because of its long history as the place to see and be seen. Bill Clinton, Arkansas’s best-known native son, is a guest there when he visits his presidential library, a pork chop toss off Interstate-30.

Moss Mountain Farm is the home of P. Allen Smith, the well-known advocate for gardening and gracious living dubbed “the next Martha Stewart” by The New York Times.

Smith built a Jeffersonian-style farmhouse on the property, with such charming southern features as a second-floor sleeping porch with an open-air shower overlooking the garden. A second summer kitchen is detached from the main house, the better to serve groups who come to tour the property and its tidy plots bursting with heirloom vegetables and flowers. Visitors enjoy drinks — Farm Ade, poured from sweating silver pitchers, is laced with vodka — and family-style dinners, wagon rides, bonfires and live bluegrass music; prices range from $90-$150 per person.

Moss Mountain Farm

I play checkers on the front porch with Smith’s niece, Laura, who hopscotches the board as she scratches the ears of the Jack Russell terrier depicted in his latest coffee table book, Living in the Garden Home (Potter, $32.50). Over yonder, in the poultry yard, rare native species of chickens, ducks and turkeys roam free near their coops.

“I’m committed to preserving these old American breeds,” Smith tells me back in town, over dinner at Ashley’s, the Capitol Hotel’s sumptuous restaurant. “It’s extremely difficult with birds, because you can’t save the seeds like you can with plants.”

In Little Rock, the distance from the farm to the table is deliciously close. Smith has supplied Ashley’s with eggs from his farm, so fresh their yolks are more orange than yellow. The succulent lamb on our plates grazed not long before in Moss Mountain’s meadow.

The boutique hotel doesn’t have a spa or a pool. But the Capitol oozes elegance, with well-appointed rooms with soaring ceilings. There’s a nicely equipped business center with free Internet access. The hotel is ideally sited for walkers, since it’s a short jaunt from a riverfront market teeming with small restaurants and vendors hawking goods from jewelry to roasted peanuts.

Guests will find unfailingly polite and helpful service at the Capitol, including a ride to Little Rock’s jot of an airport when, unfortunately, it’s time to head home.

Plus Berlin; photos courtesy of HostelBookers

Anyone who has lived in or traveled to Berlin will tell you that “location, location, location” is a crucial determinant of the experience you have (and the amount of money you spend) in Germany’s capital city.

Some neighborhoods, such as Prenzlauer Berg, which has evolved from a gathering place for artists to a popular spot for families, have changed greatly, while others, such as Kreuzberg, where left-wing punk-rockers still congregate, and Schoeneberg, still the center of gay and lesbian nightlife, have remained much the same.

Regardless of where you stay, the dual requirements of “cheap” and “chic” are always at the top of the agenda. With this in mind, here are five top bargain picks, organized by neighborhood. Each property combines discount prices with a stylish design.

Friedrichshain is a haven for creative types, filled with media companies, artsy cafes, boutiques and vintage stores. The neighborhood also is home to The East Side Gallery, which encapsulates the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall.

Located in the midst of this action is Plus Berlin, a 100-year-old neo-Gothic building that has been carefully modernized, balancing beautiful architecture with a range of new mod cons more often found in a five-star hotel.

Perfect for those seeking a little something extra on the luxury stakes, Plus offers an indoor swimming pool, sauna, spacious outdoor courtyard, on-site Italian restaurant and lounge bar serving up a menu of tasty and adventurous cocktails. Private and dorm rooms are available from $22 a night.

Pfefferbett Hostel

Once a bohemian center for artistic youth, the now gentrified Prenzlauer Berg is the home base for a number of young Berlin families. Amid this scene is the modern panache of Pfefferbett Hostel, which offers dorm and private rooms from about $21 a night.

This mid-19th century former brewery is like a one-of-a-kind cultural center, combining elegantly historic industrial architecture with a stylish interior design. Think original beamed vaulted ceilings, impressive 20-foot-high ceilings and open fireplaces juxtaposed with bold walls, steel and plywood designer furniture, ceiling fabric and a charming beer garden in which to relax with a quality German pint.

Located within the central borough of Mitte, Tiergarten is the political heart of German public life, and is the site of the presidential residence; the Bundestag, or Parliament, in the Reichstag building, and the famous Checkpoint Charlie remnants of the Berlin Wall and associated Berlin Wall Museum.

Three Little Pigs is located smack bang in the center of Potsdamer Platz,  a square with a mix of cinemas, theaters, quirky shops and cute cafes that is one of the most popular attractions of New Berlin. Built as a convent in 1910, the site was converted to a hostel in 2006. Perfect for a little bit of holiday relaxation, Three Little Pigs offers a charming beer garden and spacious yard away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Private and dorm rooms are available from about $17 a night.

A good starting point in Schoeneberg is the Mann-O-Meter, the city’s main gay community center.  From here, a short walk down Motzstraβe and its side streets will uncover all range of bars, cafes, boutique shops and nightclubs. Make sure you check out the famous KaDeWe, the largest department store in continental Europe, trumped only by Harrods in London.

Berlin Gay Hostel is  a property that’s only for male guests, and offers range of single, double and dorm rooms complete with flat screen TV from $29 a night.

Heart of Gold

One of the most historical and culturally vibrant areas in all of Berlin, Mitte is the heart and soul of this global city.

For those seeking a creatively stylish travel experience, you cannot beat a stay in the Heart of Gold, which is inspired by The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. While it may look rather like a spaceship, this sci-fi-style accommodation offers some of the best value for money in Berlin, with quality dorm rooms available from $13 a night and singles from about $21 a night.

While staying in the Mitte district, don’t miss a day trip to the heritage listed Museum Island, which plays home to five internationally renowned buildings –– the Old Museum, New Museum, Old National Gallery, Bode Museum and Pergamon Museum.

I hear him — but I have to note that I have felt the same about a truly great hotel.  So, what happens when you marry fine wine with exquisite digs?  Imagine a hotel — that would be the Rathaus — that celebrates wine to the extent that even the individual bedrooms are sponsored by local wineries, the doors to each modern suite being an enlarged, pleasingly rendered reproduction of a wine label from that vineyard.

Within, photos of the very grapes, the winemaking family, and its estates bedeck the walls, and a mini fridge offers up vintages sent by that particular vineyard.Rooms are referred to less by number, and more by winery.   (“Yes, Mary,  I am in the Preisinger Chardonnay room, just down the hall from the Schloss Gobelsburg label.  You can’t miss me”).

Choosing rooms here means eschewing the standard request for a room with a view, and opting for your suite based on wine preference .(“Fraulein, do you prefer the reds from the Burgenland or Gruener Veiltliner from the Donau?”)   Even the hotel manager is a sommelier, known to lead wine tastings for guests, plan rendezvous to the vineyards of Austria, and mailing wines home to wherever our own cellars may await.

Located near the renowned Museum Quarter, just minutes from the Town Hall, vastly different from traditional Vienna, this modern boutique hotel evokes the chic and symbolizes what I think of as the Viennese penchant for being artistically avante garde at all times.

photos courtesy Hotel Rathaus

A yellow Neo-Classical, typically turn-of-the-century building on the outside, the Hotel Rathaus triumphs indoors. Everything is sleek, almost post modern and wholly efficient, with bits of Baroque in a chandelier here, an antique elevator there, and a fabulously ornate sofa there, all combining to contrast and complement the contemporary feast designed by famed Austrian architect Manfred Katzlinger.

An ode to minimalism, the guestrooms boast splendid apricot curtains, shiny wood floors, enchanting photographs of the wine people, and commodious beds with canopies that seem to hover over them in startling straight lines.

A haven for architecture buffs— the home of countless Baroque masterpieces mingled with the wonders of the Jugendstil, the Austrian rendition of Art Nouveau — Vienna embraces the ornate and the decorative, setting the stage for structures as idiosyncratic and aesthetically pleasing as Hotel Rathaus Wein & Design. A great base for sightseeing in Vienna, this amusing, efficient, and inspired hotel thrills the wine lover — and the design aficionado — in all of us.

One good book: Austrian Wine: Wine Regions of Austria, Wineries of Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, Lower Austria, Wachau, Styria