Ice Picks

It’s been said that restaurants with two Michelin Stars are the ones most worth looking out for. What about hotels with two Michelin Keys? We pay tribute to our parent company by picking the coolest Two Key hotels in Europe.

There’s a line of thinking that restaurants with two MICHELIN Stars are the ones to really pay attention to. That’s where you’ll find the strivers, the up-and-comers, still working to reach the mountaintop, and not yet charging Three Star prices. Or, the theory goes, they’re more likely to be the risk takers, unafraid to color outside the lines, unconcerned with accolades. How much of that is true? Not sure, but you could certainly see the logic.

As most of you probably know, Tablet was acquired by Michelin in 2018, and every once in a while we like to bend the knee and pay tribute up the proverbial pneumatic tube. This time, we thought it’d be fun to take a look through the MICHELIN Guide’s latest hospitality landmark, the MICHELIN Key, and pick out the Two Key hotels we think are the coolest. Keys are awarded to the world’s top hotels much in the same way Stars are awarded to restaurants. They’re a vast improvement on the traditional five-star hotel rating system, which tends to value sheer amount of amenities over actual quality of service or design, and certainly doesn’t account for how cool a hotel is. That’s where we come in.

Cool can mean many things. With the picks below, you’ll see it applied to everything from interior design and architecture to history, cuisine, and that rarest of combinations, the hip, interesting hotel that throws open its arms to families. We’re focused on Europe here because that’s where the MICHELIN Guide began, but it’s possible America will be next. We’ll see. America doesn’t really deserve nice things right now.

Update: the coolest Two Key hotels in the U.S.A.
 

Cap Rocat

Cala Blava, Spain

Cap Rocat is a reconstructed 19th-century fortress set on an 88-acre coastal estate overlooking Mallorca’s Bay of Palma. This isn’t some feudal outpost, but a decommissioned military base that, after extensive work from Spanish architect Antonio Obrador, is a boutique hotel with a truly unique personality. It doesn’t get much cooler than this, but we promise the list isn’t all downhill from here.

Pepe Vieira Restaurant & Hotel

Poio, Spain

The setting for Pepe Vieira is a relatively secluded one, surrounded by forest in Galicia’s coastal countryside. Its rooms make much of this immersion in nature — each one is a freestanding modern cube with a vast picture window, drawing the eye from the sober minimalist-luxe interiors to the tranquil scenes outside. They’re called “galpones,” or sheds, which is an intentional understatement.

Forestis Dolomites

Bressanone, Italy

Welcome to Forestis Dolomites, a strikingly modern luxury lodge in a densely forested region of South Tyrol. Built of stone, glass, and wood both inside and out, the hotel is beautifully integrated into the landscape. The interior design makes the most of the location; guest rooms are bathed in natural light, thanks to picture windows that open onto views of the wilderness.

Il Sereno

Torno, Italy

Forget about faux Roman columns and porticos. Lake Como’s Il Sereno is a boxy glass-encased structure built of stone, wood, bronze, and copper, with a striking pair of vertical gardens designed by the famed botanist Patrick Blanc. The views are spectacular from every vantage point, and so are the interiors, done by celebrated Milanese designer Patricia Urquiola.

Krone Regensberg

Regensberg, Switzerland

Krone Regensberg is everything you want from a boutique hotel in a Swiss medieval hilltop village, population 489, give or take a few. It’s been an inn for the better part of eight hundred years, but these days, the meticulously preserved timber exteriors betray not a hint of the luxe modern interiors that await inside.

Les Pres d’Eugenie

Eugenie les Bains, France

Les Pres d’Eugenie is a well kept secret, a 19th-century palace in Eugenie Les Bains, a spa town at the foot of the Pyrénées. Still not exactly famous overseas, it has nevertheless become a favorite of gourmets all over France, due largely to the cuisine of the late chef Michel Guérard, one of France’s finest, who married the hotel’s owner and set up shop in the hotel kitchen.

Hotel Schloss Seefels

Techelsberg, Austria

Few hotel pools are as remarkable as the one at Hotel Schloss Seefels. Accessible via a wooden dock that juts out into the turquoise lake, it’s enclosed only on the sides, and is heated in cooler weather. But it’s just one detail that makes Hotel Schloss Seefels stand out from its neighbors. Hidden inside its classical exterior is a cutting-edge art hotel.

The Fife Arms

Braemar, UK

The name Fife Arms is a remnant of this Highlands hotel’s past as a Victorian-era coaching inn, but inside it’s much more than a trip back in time. It’s the passion project of the Swiss gallerists Manuela and Iwan Wirth, and is correspondingly filled with extremely impressive artworks and rooms that seem to stand as a stark rebuke against minimalism.

Family Nature Resort Moar Gut

Grossarl, Austria

Moar Gut is an alpine resort with a spectacular panorama and a heavy emphasis on whole-family activities and accommodations. From bucolic treks through Austria’s Großarl valley to a dedicated trampoline room to a petting zoo with 16 Icelandic horses, it’s an all-inclusive, all-encompassing whirlwind. There’s even a “baby spa” — not to mention a smorgasbord of swimming options.

Les Sources de Cheverny

Cheverny, France

Surrounded by the forests and vineyards of the Loire Valley, Les Sources de Cheverny is a modern wine-country classic — a spectacular château and estate transformed by its present-day owners into a luxurious and memorable small hotel. In its rooms and suites, period architectural features and antique pieces blend seamlessly with modern furniture and contemporary design.

The Dolder Grand

Zurich, Switzerland

The century-old Dolder Grand was impressive enough as it was, but it entered a new league following a massive renovation by the British architect Norman Foster. This isn’t just a refreshed interior for an old hotel, but a complete re-design, with a bold contemporary addition wrapping around the original turreted hilltop château. Inside, it’s almost unrecognizable.

Telegraphenamt

Berlin, Germany

This neo-Baroque telegraph office was built back in 1910, in an era when even utilitarian industrial structures were expected to serve a partly ornamental purpose. Today this landmark has been put to use as Telegraphenamt Berlin, a stylish boutique hotel that freely mixes stark bare brick and exposed girders with Deco flourishes and classic modernism.

Castelfalfi

Montaione FI, Italy

Rustic little farmhouses aren’t the only way to do Tuscany. Sometimes a full-on luxury resort is precisely what’s called for, though even that label fails to do justice to Castelfalfi, which is more like a luxury village, set on a 2,700-acre estate with commanding views of the surrounding valley, complete with vineyards, olive groves, multiple restaurants and bars, and a 27-hole golf course.

Chais Monnet

Cognac, France

With the advent of the Hôtel Chais Monnet, the French town of Cognac finally has its extraordinarily luxurious hotel. In fact, to call Chais Monnet a high-end hotel is to undersell it — architect Didier Poignant has transformed what was once the Monnet Cognac distillery into a uniquely memorable hybrid of 19th-century industrial atmosphere and contemporary hospitality.

Naturhotel Waldklause

Längenfeld, Austria

Naturhotel Waldklause (“forest hut”) lives up to the promise of its name, completely integrated within the Tyrolean fir forests it calls home. Its design cues hew closely to the sylvan mountain backdrop — organic curves, elevated wooden walkways, and rustic stonework meet the eye in all directions. Rooms double down on that philosophy even more.