the European hotels to book for summer 2026

Cristine Bedfor made design waves when founder Cristina Lozano opened her Menorca hotel in 2021 – a maximalist, colour-lifting property packed with proper pattern and personality. Now the brand has a third sister (a second quietly opened in Malaga in 2025) that’s slipped into Seville’s historic centre. The interiors are predictably playful: layered prints, frilly fabrics, tiled floors and antique accents that make it feel like a well-travelled residence but with the set-up service of a hotel. With only a handful of rooms wrapped around a classic Andalusian courtyard, it feels intimate and visually dreamy while, all of Seville and its flamenco-fuelled glory are outside – cathedral bells, late-night tapas and warm evenings for wandering the orange-tree tangled streets of Santa Cruz.

Norway might not be the obvious destination that springs to mind for a white-hot Euro summer – but Lilløy Lindenberg easily shifts the narrative. On a tiny island just outside Bergen, the four-room design-led retreat takes up a beautifully restored manor house surrounded by forest, sea and Nordic landscape. Interiors are pared-back and warm: timber textures, soft linens and huge windows framing the endlessly shifting light. Days revolve around being outside – cold-water swims (it’s still the North Sea, even in summer), cycling trails, long breakfasts and sunset dinners that lean into Norway’s famously long still-light evenings. It feels remote in the best possible way: totally restorative (sauna sessions daily), quietly peaceful and refreshingly different from the usual Mediterranean circuit. 

Casa Bonavita is the first hospitality project (opening May) from design duo Christopher and Suzanne Sharp, founders of much-loved British brand The Rug Company. Set within an 18th-century family home in Attard – one of Malta’s historic “Three Villages” – the couple spent five years restoring the house and its citrus-filled gardens into a 17-room retreat. Suzanne, who spent part of her childhood on the island, has layered the interiors with Murano-glass chandeliers, Sicilian marble, vintage family pieces and craft collaborations with local artisans. Outside, bougainvillaea and orange blossom keep the garden terraces smelling sweet, while Valletta and Mdina sit an easy drive away.

Technically speaking, Domaine de la Cavalerie isn’t a hotel at all – but rather an extraordinarily chic Provençal estate you can rent in its entirety. Set among olive groves in the Luberon, the 12th-century commanderie was restored by the late couturier Emanuel Ungaro as “a Venetian palazzo in the middle of Provence.” Inside, rooms are layered with treasures gathered over decades of travel – antiques, textiles and ceramics from across Europe, Asia and Africa – alongside hand-painted ceilings, marble floors and terracotta terraces. Today, Ungaro’s daughter Cosima has opened the estate to maximalist-loving guests, keeping its spirit as a deeply personal house made for long lunches. 

The team behind the beautiful La Darbia Lago d’Orta are heading south with a second act in Tuscany. This time the setting is an 11th-century hamlet on a 15-hectare Chianti hilltop estate, about 25 minutes outside Florence. Architect brothers turned hoteliers Gian Carlo and Matteo Primatesta have carefully revived the stone buildings using local materials – terracotta, travertine and pietra serena – creating bedrooms that feel thoughtfully in tune with the landscape just outside. Olive groves, lavender fields and Mediterranean woodland dot the classic Tuscan hills, while two swimming pools and a vineyard-facing restaurant give you reason to stick around. A good one to pair with a few days in the Renaissance city before total peace and quiet in the countryside. 

Bruges might be best known for medieval romance and chocolate-box canals, but Jonojé brings a far cooler design angle to the city. Created by Belgian design studio LOHO, the project transforms a former brush factory into something that sits somewhere inbetween a boutique B&B, a gallery and a creative laboratory. Six generously sized rooms act as experimental showpieces for the studio’s work – clay bathtubs sculpted from a single block, organically plastered walls and custom ceramic fixtures. The building also houses LOHO’s studio, showroom and a surprisingly large garden just outside the city centre. It’s less hotel, more immersive design stay – where you quite literally sleep inside the studio’s daily world.

Set on Rua de Cedofeita – one of Porto’s more independent, design-leaning streets – Casa Cedo takes over a restored 19th-century townhouse reworked in a beautiful way to preserve its original bones. At street level, it opens as a working flower shop, where arrangements shift with the seasons and spill into the windows. The house itself is small – just eight rooms, each named after a flower, with bespoke pieces made locally and a focus on details and objects that feel collected over time. Mornings are simple: coffee, bread and pastries sourced from nearby bakeries, taken before stepping out into Porto’s steep streets.