Hotel Louis C. Jacob

On the banks of the Elbe river, to the west of the Hamburg city center, is an old-world throwback to the Hanseatic days: the two-hundred-year-old Hotel Louis C. Jacob. It’s named for a French gardener, and after one look at the meticulous landscaping that surrounds this opulent mansion of a hotel, you’ll understand why.

The name pretty convincingly makes the point that this is a French-German hybrid — the Michelin-starred Jacobs restaurant serves upscale French-accented cuisine, and the Kleine Jacob wine bistro stocks a deep collection of vintages from both nations. An old ice cellar has been converted into the wine cellar, and does double duty as a candle-lit dining venue.

A large-scale renovation and some modern additions have brought the Louis C. Jacob functionally into the twenty-first century, but the style remains charmingly in the nineteenth. Rooms and suites are generously sized and remarkably uncluttered — the antique-style furniture and décor have been applied with a focused modern sensibility. And while there’s no spa, per se, there is what’s called a wellness suite — a sauna, whirlpool and solarium in a room in the old historic annex, with some teakwood loungers in which to while away the time.