Roomers Hotel Munich

We’ve been talking for years about how stylish a city Munich is, but even with that knowledge, Roomers Munich comes as something of a surprise. And while there’s a lot of loose talk about this being Germany’s most Mediterranean city, there really is something vaguely Italian in the way it combines luxe contemporary design and a touch of old-world elegance. To confound it all, its designers are Dutch, and its restaurant Japanese-Peruvian. Maybe “cosmopolitan” is the word we’re looking for.

In any case, the point is that Roomers Munich’s stylistic experimentation pays off. You just might forget that Berlin is supposed to be the hipster capital of Europe. The rooms are full of art, both serious and whimsical, and are stylish in a slightly retro way, and more than a little bit luxe. Some of the suites have unusual features like freestanding bathtubs in the bedrooms, and the lighting, often a bit of an Achilles heel in hotel rooms, is uniformly inventive and pleasant.

No less inspired are the public spaces, from Izakaya, the aforementioned Japanese-Peruvian restaurant, to the dark and dramatic Roomers Bar and the almost-secret RED, a whiskey bar that feels like a private club (without any speakeasy kitsch). The bottom line? There are “hip” hotels, and then there are hotels that are authentically hip — and it’s to the latter tendency that Roomers definitively belongs.