Hotel De Zeevaartschool

A former maritime academy turned boutique hotel sitting right on Vlissingen's seaside promenade, with the North Sea close enough that the rooms feel like they were designed for people who couldn't stop staring at it. The building is a national monument, so the student quarters stayed compact, though the Dutch have made clever use of a loft and a steep miller's staircase in the family quad rooms. An all-day restaurant and a bar with a sea-facing terrace round it out.

One honor, in evidence: