Bulgari Hotel London

When the first Bulgari Hotel opened in Milan, the mix of top-shelf luxury and faultless high-gloss style seemed so perfectly Italian. Today, however, with London looking more cosmopolitan than ever, the brand looks equally at home in Knightsbridge. Here in the heart of Victorian London is the five-star to end all five-stars, another minimalist masterpiece by the Italian designer Antonio Citterio: Bulgari Hotel London.

It’s said to be the most expensive hotel in town, which, as you can well imagine, is really saying something. But while it might stretch the definition a bit to call it a good value, there is the pervasive sense that you are at least getting what you pay for. Neither in Milan nor here in London do the Bulgari hotels cut any corners, and we can say with some certainty that you’re not likely to find many hotels that are more thoughtfully designed or more carefully constructed than this one.

Nor will you have an easy time finding more attentive service, or, for that matter, a more impressive spa, or a more monumental restaurant than the modern-Italian Sette. Old-school devotees of hotels like the Ritz or the Savoy might find themselves a bit nonplussed by the sheer Continental modernity of it all — but we’d argue that the Bulgari Hotel London’s pan-global hyper-luxe flavor is perfectly of its time and place.