BERLIN: A BAUHAUS HOTEL
FOR THE FUTURE
from Travel + Leisure, November 1991
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The Grand Hotel Esplanade is Berlin’s luxury hotel for the post-reunification Nineties. It shuns the faux Rococo, faux Hohenzollern, faux Isherwood of most hotels here, in favor of the city’s two most appealing styles: the Bauhaus—and the Future.
Near the Tiergarten park, the hotel is a steel, glass and marble tribute to the Bauhaus; inside is a soaring lobby with sculptures, vast murals and dozens of black leather Corbusier club chairs. Guest rooms, sparkling and modern, have white leather, blond burled wood and lavish bathrooms. Yet the service is classic; porters wear snappy waist-to-show aprons. The elegant Harlekin restaurant provides excellent international and German fare.
The hotel has a multimillion-dollar contemporary art collection and a triangular swimming pool. But my favorite bonus: the white and turquoise bicycles lent to guests; what better recreation than to ride to the Brandenburg Gate, with no wall to stop you?
Address: 15 Lützowufer; 800-448-8355. Doubles $212-$224 (suites, with terrace, $300)
