Hotel Cort

It’s a pretty tempting package: a balmy Mediterranean island, a picturesque, ancient fortified city, and a century-old building transformed into a totally contemporary sixteen-room boutique hotel. But Hotel Cort, in the old city of Palma de Mallorca, is something special, over and above any description of its vital statistics — this place, to put it simply, has real personality, and as far as we’re concerned, that’s what matters.

Designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán calls himself a “style hunter” and an “urban archaeologist,” which might be good for a chuckle — except that, looking at his work, it’s obvious he’s got a point. The Cort is the kind of hotel that routinely gets described as “curated, not designed,” and to pull it off requires extraordinarily good taste. Here he takes a bit of inspiration from authentic Scandinavian maritime culture — a surprisingly good fit for seafaring Spain — and applies a keen collector’s eye to a very well-edited selection of contemporary furnishings and eclectic decorative elements.

In the end this sixteen-room boutique bears little resemblance to the bank that once occupied the building. It feels purpose-built as a house, and its idiosyncratic contours live on in its present incarnation. And the Cort proudly features a restaurant that’s no less impressive, its busy tiled floors opening onto an outdoor terrace, all serving as backdrop to some market-fresh Balearic cooking. Not a bad life.

How to get there: Hotel Cort is about a 15-minute walk from Palma Intermodal train station, or a 15-minute drive from Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI).