The 12 Best Places in Strasbourg

France's former royal stables, once home to horses, now house a Michelin Key design hotel a short walk from Strasbourg's old city. Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku kept the exposed timber bones and layered in Seventies palette and futuristic touches, so the rooms feel both ancient and quietly sci-fi. The spa runs to a hammam, sauna, and a long pool. Guests who never open a map tend not to mind.

A 16th-century coaching inn that has been folded into Accor's MGallery boutique line without losing the bones that made it worth preserving. The rooms mix original architectural features with proper modern bathrooms and plush mattresses, and the suites have genuine character beyond the added square footage. Ask for a courtyard-facing room and the double-glazed windows put central Strasbourg at an arm's length, which is exactly where you want it at midnight.

Twelve rooms in a Belle Époque townhouse, each one a different argument for velvet and low lighting. Madame C is a four-star boutique hotel that keeps its address quiet and its atmosphere closer to a private salon than a lobby scene. The cocktail bar downstairs has developed its own following independent of the rooms above. Strasbourg is full of this kind of architecture; not all of it makes you want to linger quite this long.

The Art Deco bones here are the real draw, a grand old hotel on one of Strasbourg's most storied streets where some rooms look straight up at the cathedral spire. The 131 rooms blend period character with contemporary detail, and the Salons Mistinguett lean hard into 1920s glamour without apology. A spa keeps things calm when the city gets to be too much, and the restaurant handles French classics dutifully downstairs.

The neoclassical facade on Rue de la Nuée-Bleue gives nothing away; inside, designer Jean-Philippe Nuel has filled this 116-room luxury boutique hotel with sharp contemporary art and furniture that cost more than your car. Rooms are quieter but still considered, with full-length windows over Strasbourg. Downstairs, a single space does triple duty as bar, patisserie, and restaurant, which is either admirably efficient or a little indecisive, depending on your mood.

The cast-iron wheels and machinery from a 17th-century ice mill are still on display in the lobby, which tells you something about the bones of this canal-side hotel in Petite France. Seventy-five rooms, each a little different, some with balconies hanging over the water or facing the Covered Bridges. A spa, riverside terraces, and the kind of heavy stone atmosphere that makes you feel like you've actually arrived somewhere.

A hotel where local artists were handed the keys and told to go for it, which means no two of the 38 rooms look remotely alike. Some go graffiti, some go full steampunk, others disappear into forest or Op Art geometry. The all-day Graffateria handles food whenever you need it, and bikes are available since Strasbourg apparently takes cycling more seriously than most French cities. Pack accordingly.

The old sandstone vaults beneath this MGallery hotel in Barr have been turned into a spa with indoor pools framed by stone archways, which feels like a reasonable use of a 16th-century building that was once a brewery. Rooms keep the exposed beams and angled ceilings but get velvet and leather to go with them. The Alsace Wine Trail runs right outside, and the terrace faces the vineyards, so the setting does a lot of the work.