Two European luxury hotels that stand out + three more

When our travel lodging experts recommend European luxury hotels, it’s not just because the hotel boasts 5-star status and finds its way onto lists of the world’s best hotels each year. The team prefers to be a bit more selective, sending its luxury travel experts to seek out hidden boutique gems you have perhaps never heard of, but should know about. When choosing a hotel that’s considered a standout, the team looks for superb location, thoughtful design with a sense of place, a commitment to a light footprint, cuisine that is so good you will not want go outside the hotel to eat, and a staff that makes its guests feel so at home they never want to leave. Here are two European luxury hotels that stood above the rest among all the hotels where the travel team stayed in 2016:

Killiehuntly Farmhouse – Scotland

Setting: Pristine Scottish highlands in the Cairngorms National Park.

Design: A 1603 stone farmhouse delicately refurbished with a Nordic aesthetic. Handcrafted white pine furnishings by Danish and Scottish craftsmen fill the rooms. Interiors are in dove grays and Danish blues with brass accents.

Food: Wander into the open kitchen, have a seat at the family table, and watch the cook go to work. If you’re filling nibbly, there are homemade breads, cheese plates, and whatever is picked from the vegetable patch on hand. Meals are sourced from the working farm that is part of the property, and guests dine together at the oversized oak table.

Adventure: Hike through heather fields, moorlands, and along ancient lakes on the 4,000-acre estate.

Cotton House Hotel – Barcelona, Spain

Setting: A revitalized 19th-century landmark building, once the headquarters of the Cotton Textile Foundation.

Design: Deserving of all the buzz, this Barcelona hotel is part neoclassical hideaway a la Catalan bourgeoisie, part contemporary tropical oasis. Original elements like a 1957 suspended spiral staircase and parquet floors have been seamlessly incorporated into modern interiors with airy glass walls, globe chandeliers, and touches of teal upholstery.

Food: Mediterranean cuisine made from market ingredients served in a hip, cosmopolitan bar (pictured in our opening photo).
Adventure: Experience the culture and history of Barcelona through the lens of textiles and 19th-century high society — the Spanish cotton barons. Visit haute couture ateliers still producing some of the finest fabrics in Spain, walk through life-size jewelry boxes filled with gold Art Nouveau brooches, and go behind the scenes of Circulo del Liceo—a mysterious 1847 private club that remains one of the city’s most exclusive closed-door gathering places.

Three other European luxury hotels you’ll also love

If you like Killiehuntly or the Cotton House, the Absolute Travel team is very sure you will also like: Kinloch Lodge, Scotland; The Pig near Bath, England; or Aman in Venice, Italy.