Looking to visit the most picturesque places in Europe? Want to discover the most beautiful bedrooms for your next foodie trip? Take a tip from the #olivetravels experts and read on for the most beautiful hotels to post from in Europe.

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All hotels have been chosen and reviewed independently by our editorial team. This page contains affiliate links and we may receive a small commission for purchases made, but this comes at no extra cost to you and helps us to continue providing top-quality content for our loyal readers.


Rosa et Al Townhouse, Porto, Portugal

This six-room hotel is a lesson in boutique design. Rooms blessed with original wooden floorboards, cornicing and sash windows that lead to balconies are made even more beautiful with clawfoot baths, contemporary furniture and local art. If you’ve already sorted your accommodation, it’s worth soaking up Rosa et Al’s chic and cosy vibe over brunch. 50 jars of tea (some made with herbs from the garden) cover a large serving table; you can choose your own Portuguese tinned cod or sardines; and there’s a dinky walled garden out back where you can sit around tiled tables, eating eggs with spruced-up sides and drinking freshly squeezed orange juice in the sunshine.

Doubles from £119, check availability at expedia.co.uk


Fireflies and Figs, Abruzzo, Italy

Fern and Jono plot a celebration of Italian produce from dawn until dusk at Fireflies and Figs. Here, you can indulge in fresh and honest food with a hyper-local focus. Try handmade gnudi or sweet cherry ice cream laced with cherries plucked from the surrounding trees. Picturesque yurts overlook rolling fields and olive groves, and breakfast is served in colourful crockery with breathtaking views of the Abruzzi mountains. Be sure to spend your days exploring every direction. You’ll find bustling market stalls, quiet beaches and idyllic forests to photograph.

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Doubles from £130, check availability at canopyandstars.co.uk


Club Marvy, Aegean Coast, Turkey

This boho chic resort stretches across 16 hectares of hillside and sandy beach on Turkey’s Aegean coast. There are plenty of little alcoves to explore: palm trees rock gently in the breeze beside olive trees, sandy coves are home to private beaches and neat beds of cacti and exotic plants frame wooden decks and a glistening infinity pool. Rooms continue the stylish, boho theme with muted greys and taupe palettes, Turkish throws on the beds and brushed concrete walls.

Order an Aegean herb-infused cocktail to sip on with a backdrop of blue skies and turquoise sea – Aperol spritz is garnished with a vine leaf and dried orange, while G&Ts are laced with sharp little pomegranate seeds. The adults-only Değirmen restaurant, named after Club Marvy’s farm, offers an intimate atmosphere. Perched on top of a cliff, it enjoys sensational sunset views – tuck into an à la carte menu of artichoke salad, lamb shish kebab, and deconstructed pavlova while the sun paints the sky blood orange as it disappears behind the mountains.

Doubles from £126 all-inclusive, check availability at booking.com


Mother Goose, Utrecht, Netherlands

Book a stay at this boutique hotel in the pretty canal-lined town half an hour from Amsterdam. The building revealed itself as a city castle after a fire in 1989, when its original features were uncovered, including a wooden spiral staircase that disappears into corners (pictured below). 23 rooms are spread across four storeys, each with a different colour theme – white, grey, brown and black, all decorated in earthy, muted tones with cosy throws, brushed wooden headboards, oak side tables and monochrome art.

Sip coffee in bed from one of the bespoke cups illustrated with the iconic Dom Tower while spying the real thing through your window, or potter over the road for breakfast at trendy café and concept store Daen’s.

Doubles from £99, check availability on booking.com


Les Jardins des Douars, Essaouira, Morocco

There’s a laid-back, mellow feel at this tranquil hideaway in the hills above Essaouira, with an air of French chicness weaving through traditional Moroccan features – secret courtyards hide fountains decorated with classic zellige tiles, palms brush against walls lined with African art, and Berber rugs warm up earthy tiled floors. Behind heavy wooden doors are luxurious rooms that stick to a traditional Moroccan style – squishy beds are covered with colourful throws, French doors with intricate carvings open out onto private patios and antique furniture fills up atmospheric alcoves.

Mint tea comes free-flowing from intricate tisanes and colourful dishes are served in traditional terracotta tagines. Try citrusy, creamy Beldi chicken tagine; slow-cooked chicken soaked in an intensely zesty and sweet orange reduction, with freshly picked olives and a hint of saffron. At breakfast, tonnes of little bowls filled with dried fruits and nuts, and fresh fruit salads, span two large wooden tables in an instagrammable feast.

Doubles from £110, check availability at booking.com


Ett Hem, Stockholm, Sweden

Snuggle under blankets with a warm glass of glögg (mulled wine) in the lantern-lit courtyard of this stylish townhouse hotel. Or make yourself at home in its farmhouse-style kitchen, then order from a three-course menu to eat in front of the open fire – guinea fowl with chanterelles, perhaps, or steamed cod with roast cauliflower. Hygge vibes in every corner for your Instagram feed...

Doubles from £315, check availability at mrsandmrssmith.com


Artist Residence, Brighton, UK

Secure a sea-facing room at this converted townhouse and you’ll have one of the best views in town, looking out over the old pier that rises from the sea like a sculpture. Look out for the pink neon sign on Regency Square to find this quirky boutique hotel. There are 23 bedrooms, each individually decorated with bespoke artwork and decked out with Roberts radios, mini Smeg fridges and Tunnock’s caramel bars for nostalgic snacking. Larger rooms have free-standing baths to relax in while you enjoy that view.

Colourful art, sackcloth cushions and a large breakfast bar liven up brunch at onsite restaurant The Set, as do the spicy bloody marys. Watch chefs prepare seasonal dishes in the open kitchen – heritage tomatoes with salty seaweed pesto, super-crisp pork on squidgy potato waffles, and Instagrammable eggs slathered in Marmite hollandaise. Or, enjoy a brew in bed with a view of the West Pier.

Doubles from £90, check availability at booking.com


Don Totu, Puglia, Italy

In the rural town of San Cassiano large wooden doors along an unassuming backstreet open into a mini palazzo, gracefully decorated in muted tones. Instagrammable nooks include a pergola adorned with white roses, a contemporary pool room complete with Art deco chandeliers and a tiny vaulted plunge pool. The owners make the most of the building’s quirks (vaulted stone ceilings, quiet alcoves, narrow staircases leading to terracotta terraces) and have gathered a collection of furniture from across the region to add contemporary touches (illustrations of spiralling shells, white porcelain lamps in the shape of horses, and pale wooden chests of drawers in quirky shapes).

Enjoy a delightful breakfast spread of fresh fruit and baked goods in an idyllic courtyard among stone arches, olive trees and an ancient stone well – crostata cake with jam, the local delicacy of pasticiotto filled with smooth cream and chipolata bread with zucchini baked in the town’s ancient shared oven. Come evening, relish a traditional Italian aperitivo with a refreshing aperol spritz in colourful glasses along with Puglia’s pretty tarallini (crunchy, savoury biscuits).

Doubles from £159, check availability at booking.com


Central Hotel Og Cafe, Copenhagen, Denmark

If ever proof was needed that good things come in small packages, Hotel Central is it. Ex-set designer Leif Thingtved’s bijou bolthole, in Copenhagen’s lively and eclectic Vesterbro district, is a one-room gem above his pint-sized café. All warm varnished wood and retro wallpaper, it has an old-fashioned feel, with sleek Tromborg toiletries, a carefully curated minibar and gorgeous Geismars bed linen, woven in a local mill. Off-beat touches include a foldaway table and chairs, and there are two bicycles to borrow. You can have breakfast delivered to your room from the café – or opt to wander down the road to Thingtved’s larger café, the appropriately named Granola, and tuck into French toast with orange and berries, or oatmeal with apple, banana, cinnamon sugar, hazelnuts and coconut.

Doubles from £245, check availability at centralhotelogcafe.dk


Only YOU Atocha, Madrid, Spain

Usefully positioned opposite Puerta de Atocha railway station, Only YOU Hotel Atocha impresses with its buzzy industrial-chic lobby (complete with barber, patisserie and restaurant) and complimentary glass of fizz on arrival. Spacious rooms have a sleek mid-century feel, and the hotel’s rooftop Sép7ima bar (with panoramic views of the city) puts on a lavish buffet every morning that includes pastries and churros, charcuterie and cheeses, fresh juice, fruit and cooked breakfasts.

Doubles from £198, check availability at booking.com


Bastide de Gordes, Provence, France

A revamped five-star hotel built into the ancient ramparts of Gordes, a picturesque town perched on a rocky hill in Provence, in the south of France. Go in the autumn to enjoy panoramic views of vineyards in the valley below it, turning from green to orange as the harvest approaches. Elegant French couples sprawl under white parasols next to the slick, tree-lined pool. Families in their Sunday best clink champagne glasses beneath an awning of pale green leaves on the Orangery’s terrace, and wedding parties take photographs against the backdrop of Gordes’ stone houses.

On Sundays, an epic brunch is served on Orangery’s pretty terrace, dressed for the occasion with white linen tablecloths and fringed by glistening orange trees in huge terracotta pots. The buffet includes gigantic grilled prawns, marinated vegetables and all shapes and sizes of bread. There’s a dedicated dessert area split between three tables – peruse the homemade tarts (lemon meringue, crust-topped apple, perfectly pretty strawberry), stock up on hearty puds, or pick from the silver tiered pastry stand brimming with mini viennoiserie.

Doubles from £210, check availability at booking.com


Lådfrabriken, Orust, Sweden

Drive to the very Western peninsula of Orust island and you’ll find this dollshouse-like former fish crate factory. Sunshine bounces around the open space, which owners Johan and Marcel have kitted out with quirky furnishings ­– giant letters in playschool hues strung up on one wall, colourful sofas covered with even brighter throws, and cabinets bursting with knick-knacks and 50’s crockery. Each white-paneled room is unique (a chest of drawers covered in funky blue tuna tin packaging here, a turquoise chair with arms that curl up into a wave there), and given the couple’s trademark idiosyncratic stamp.

Dishes are served family-style at a communal table covered with a retro tablecloth – tuck in to huge cod fillets on a bed of leeks and mushrooms in a buttery cheese sauce and cut a slice of caramelised rhubarb tarte tatin topped with cream. Breakfast is a similarly homely affair, seeing the table laden with Priest cheese, Swedish emmental, Leksand crackers and an array of homemade preserves – rosehip marmalade, cowberry, lingonberry and more.

During the day, take a kayak out on the crystal-clear water, go wild swimming in the archipelago, kick back with a tea on a deckchair in the rocky garden, or clamber over rocks following blue dots to the picture-postcard Swedish hamlet of Edultshall. Here, among red and white clapboard houses, families gather around barbecues on little jetties outside their boathouses.

Doubles from £147, check availability at booking.com


Pilgrm, London, UK

Ingeniously styled to respect both the building’s Victorian roots and the needs of the modern traveller, the warren-like Pilgrm turns conventional hoteliery on its head. Reception desk? Nope. Bathrobes and mini-bars? Neither. Such fripperies are stripped out to leave space for the things that matter: marshmallow-soft beds and utilitarian-chic black-and-white bathrooms; design features including the building’s original mahogany spiral staircase, upcycled radiators and parquet floors; and an art-hung drawing-room-style lounge serving simple mainly vegetarian food. It’s so relaxed and un-corporate, it feels more like a luxurious home than a London hotel, and is priced accordingly.

Meals are enjoyed in the vintage-chic first-floor lounge, dotted with small round marble tables and dainty reclaimed cocktail chairs that the hotel’s design team, 93ft. have re-upholstered in green, pink and grey velvets. The top seller at breakfast is the Insta-famous smashed avocado on toast with crumbled feta, which comes with the unexpected addition of a tomato and olive salsa. Later on, pick from the roster of quirky-shaped glass bottles that hold pre-mixed cocktails from the world’s best bars (The Clumsies in Athens, Bar Trench in Tokyo and London's own negroni spot Bar Termini).

Doubles from £119, check availability at booking.com


Levendis Estate, Stavros, Greece

Run with great care by an Aussie-Greek family, this collection of four cottages plus swimming pool, is set on Spero’s family homestead, overlooking a bay in the north of the island. Cottage kitchens are pre-stocked with delicious Greek wine, olives and pistachios for that first holiday sundowner; plus peach juice, bread, tea, coffee, homemade jams, local thyme honey, freshly laid eggs and own-recipe muesli for the first morning’s breakfast.

In the summer the Levendis kitchen garden ripens with tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and vlita while in winter lettuces, cauliflowers, cabbages, chard, pumpkins and more are grown. For a picture-perfect picnic, stock up on Levendis’ homegrown olives or local bread and amble down to one of two little coves around 10-20 minutes’ walk away, the routes thrumming with butterflies, and the sound of goat bells, as you wend your way past olive and cypress trees.

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Doubles from £320, check availability at i-escape.com

Authors

Alex Crossley Portrait
Alex CrossleyDigital Editor

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