5 stays worth the flight

This week's newsletter is a short one.

Just five hotels in Europe that I have not stayed at yet and really want to.

I study places like these all the time, because each one teaches something about what makes a stay unique.

​Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, Matera, Italy​
A hotel inside ancient caves in one of the oldest cities in Italy. The rooms are carved into the rock, lit mostly by candles, with stone floors and almost no decoration. The restaurant is right in a former cave church.

​Provocateur, Berlin​
This one is not subtle. Red velvet, dark corners, and a vintage elevator that looks like it belongs in a 1920s Paris cabaret. It is a hotel that knows exactly who it is for, and it does not apologize for it.

​Minos Beach Art Hotel, Crete​
White bungalows right on the water in Agios Nikolaos, with sculptures all over the garden, some tucked between olive trees, some standing by the sea. From the photos, it looks like a small museum that happens to have a beach.

​ION Adventure Hotel, Iceland​
A concrete box on stilts in the middle of a lava field, about an hour from Reykjavik. It sounds strange, and it is. But there is a geothermal pool outside and a bar with glass walls built for watching the northern lights, and that is all I need to know.

​Kruisherenhotel, Maastricht​
A 15th-century monastery turned hotel. Guests enter through a copper tunnel and eat breakfast inside the church, on a platform floating in the middle of the nave.

What I notice every time: none of these places tries to please everyone.

Each one picked a single idea and went all the way with it.

Till next week, dear readers.

Anastasia