AMERON Frankfurt Neckarvillen Boutique

In contrast with its modern surroundings in Frankfurt’s city-center financial district, the Ameron Neckarvillen Boutique inhabits a block of ornate century-old villas, joined together to create a thoroughly modern (and boutique-influenced) 133-room luxury hotel. The interiors, interestingly, are neither Belle Époque nor purely 21st-century, but a version of Fifties-style modernism viewed through a contemporary lens; like so much else about the Neckarvillen, it’s more carefully considered than it strictly needs to be — which is more or less all we ask of a hotel, come to think of it.

The rooms and suites, by designer Luigi Fragola, are elegant without feeling formal, and vibrant without feeling busy; even the single rooms come with luxe comforts like Treca Paris mattresses, Mühldorfer linens, and Leysieffer coffee machines. The tiled bathrooms are not just lovely but eminently functional, and the spaces, as you ascend the range, are quite generous.

An extremely well-equipped “Boutique Sauna Retreat & Private Gym” is exactly what it says it is, and it’s complemented by a restaurant and a bar that are, again, rather above and beyond: Le Petit Royal is a swanky and substantial restaurant by the creators of Berlin’s famous Grill Royal, and the French Bento Bar is, as the name implies, a French/Japanese hybrid with an extensive (and inventive) bar-food menu.