Hotel Orania.Berlin

It may seem an odd couple, but Schloss Elmau, the luxury resort and “cultural hideaway” in the Bavarian Alps, has a sister in the hip East Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg. Hotelier and designer Dietmar Mueller-Elmau is responsible for Orania.Berlin as well, which likely accounts not just for its culture connections but for its surprising stylistic character too. Like Schloss Elmau there’s more behind this classic facade than initially meets the eye — in the case of Orania the surprise is that it’s rather more luxurious than you might expect a Kreuzberg boutique hotel to be.

The rooms are eclectic, a bit bohemian in their visual style, but verge on the extravagant in their comforts. The furnishings throughout, rather than a ramshackle collection of vintage pieces, are modern classics by the likes of Patricia Urquiola and Antonio Citterio. The mattresses are handmade by Schramm, and Nespresso machines and Samsung flatscreens with Apple TV are standard.

Of course the accommodations are only a part of the story. The restaurant and bar are stylish spaces, and the Salon, with its grand piano and its extensive library of both books and musical scores, is a one-of-a-kind events space, perfectly suited to the cultural capital that is modern-day Berlin. It’s Orania.Berlin’s music series, however, that might be the hotel’s most unique feature — on any given night you’re likely to find a high-quality exemplar of classical music, world music, or jazz playing live in the hotel’s intimate space.