Hotel Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

Set behind a stately looking late-19th-century brick facade whose style is defined by art historians as "Franco-Flemish," this is one of London's most appealing and historic hotels. It was built in 1889 as a private men's club, then converted into a hotel in 1902. In May 2000, the hotel reopened after a £50 million ($93 million) restoration by its owners, Mandarin Oriental. Today, the hotel occupies an enviable niche, wherein Edwardian grandeur and Asian postmodern chic manage to comfortably coexist. The recent restoration brought lavish amounts of brass, marble, mahogany, and stained glass back to its original turn-of-the-20th-century gloss, and added state-of-the-art infrastructures (many of them invisible) that will help carry this outstanding property deep into the 21st century. The lobby maintains a perpetually tasteful allegiance to pomp and circumstance, complete with a multimillion pound collection of paintings on long-term loan from the National Maritime Museum. Bedrooms are opulent, decorated with pale colors, countless yards of silk and satin, some of the meticulously restored antiques that have been in the hotel since its earliest years, and state-of-the-art tiled bathrooms with tubs big enough for several Sir Winstons at a time.

	Hotel Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park