A former ice rink now serves as Grosvenor House’s Great Room, a ballroom large enough to seat 2,000 for dinner—a telling detail at this Park Lane hotel, where entertaining happens on a considerable scale. An Art Deco–inspired ballroom adds to that character, while the Park Room offers a more intimate introduction through afternoon tea, live piano and views of Hyde Park across the road. Today part of JW Marriott, the Mayfair hotel pairs rooms with marble bathrooms and pillowtop beds with a distinctly American dining thread: USDA beef at JW Steakhouse and more than 500 bourbons at the Bourbon Bar. The park provides an appealing starting point for exploring beyond the hotel.
Acoustic guitars in the guest rooms give an early clue to Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris’s artistic temperament. Philippe Starck’s reworking of the hotel carries that spirit through interiors filled with contemporary art, while suites draw on the lines and colors of the 1940s and ’50s, with books and messages scrawled on lampshades adding personal touches. The collection extends beyond the bedrooms: more than 300 works, a contemporary gallery and the 99-seat Katara Cinema make culture part of a stay. On Avenue Hoche, near the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, this hotel has welcomed artists and writers since 1928; its present-day character gives that history a tangible expression.
