Hotels Marlene Dietrich Has Stayed At

English gardens provide the design thread at The Dorchester: their colors and motifs shape the rooms and suites, while an extensive art collection explores the British landscape tradition. Outside, Hyde Park stretches across from the hotel’s Park Lane address in Mayfair, with Bond Street’s boutiques nearby. That connection to its surroundings gives this grand London hotel a character beyond its dining credentials, which include contemporary French cuisine at the three-Michelin-starred Alain Ducasse restaurant. The Promenade supplies a more everyday rhythm, serving breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner with live music. Together, these spaces make the hotel as much a place to spend an afternoon or evening as a base for exploring London.

Edwardian rooms in gray and tangerine and Art Deco rooms in gold and caramel give The Savoy two distinct visual identities, reflecting the eras that shaped it. The theatrical connection runs deeper than the decor: the hotel was built to accommodate travelers coming to see Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy Theatre. Today, its private approach off the Strand puts Covent Garden and the West End within a short walk, while river-facing rooms look across the Thames. Inside, floral sculptures rise above the lobby’s black-and-white marble floor, afternoon tea unfolds beneath Gallery’s glass dome with live piano, and the American Bar makes cocktails part of the hotel’s enduring social life.

Afternoon tea beneath The Palm Court’s soaring stained-glass dome gives The Plaza Hotel its clearest expression: formal, theatrical, and deeply attached to New York tradition. Architect Thierry Despont’s renovation drew on nearby Central Park, bringing ceiling-high palms, trellis details, and cane-accented furnishings into a room that has been part of the hotel since 1907. Outside, Fifth Avenue meets Central Park South; inside, restored reception rooms and elaborate guest-room finishes sustain the sense of occasion. The 282 rooms and suites include guest rooms with sitting areas, mosaic bathroom floors, and gold-plated Sherle Wagner fixtures, while the Legacy Suites introduce commissioned art and a more contemporary residential style. It’s a hotel whose public spaces deserve as much attention as its bedrooms.

Maxfield Parrish’s Old King Cole mural has presided over drinks at The St. Regis New York since 1932, giving its namesake bar a place in the hotel’s story as memorable as its Fifth Avenue address. That sense of continuity runs through this hotel founded by John Jacob Astor IV: butlers still unpack luggage and deliver morning coffee, while La Maisonette takes its design cues from the original 1910s breakfast room. Guest rooms bring jewel-toned textiles, polished brass and marble into the residential interiors. At Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, near MoMA and Central Park, the hotel makes a distinctive base for Manhattan, with afternoon tea and a Red Snapper at the King Cole Bar providing reasons to linger indoors.

The 1893 World’s Fair clock is back at the center of the Waldorf Astoria New York’s lobby, a fitting anchor for a hotel whose recent restoration makes its architectural heritage central to the stay. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon restored its exterior and interior spaces, preserving the scale of the Art Deco architecture. Upstairs are 375 redesigned rooms and suites; the King Room includes a seating area, writing desk, and deep soaking tub. Downstairs, Peacock Alley returns alongside Lex Yard, chef Michael Anthony’s brasserie. The Park Avenue address places guests in Midtown, near Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center, and Fifth Avenue’s shops.

Three restaurants sharing six Michelin stars make dining central to the identity of Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris. Christian Le Squer’s modern French cooking at Le Cinq anchors the lineup, while Le George takes an Italian-Mediterranean direction and L’Orangerie serves seasonal menus beneath a glass canopy overlooking the marble courtyard. The setting carries equal weight: a 1928 Art Deco landmark in the Golden Triangle, just off the Champs-Élysées. Inside, La Galerie’s collection of 19th-century art and the Parisian Suites’ classical or Empire-style works give the hotel a distinctly formal character. Some suites open onto terraces with Eiffel Tower views, adding a broader Paris panorama to a stay centered on art and the table.

Seventeenth-century furniture and artworks collected by hotelier Emile Wolf still shape Hotel Lancaster’s character today. Housed in an 1889 private mansion on rue de Berri, steps from the Champs-Élysées, the hotel retains the residential spirit of the house Wolf converted in 1925. Antiques sit alongside contemporary pieces by Studio Jean Philippe Nuel, with individually decorated rooms extending that eclectic approach upstairs. Downstairs, Monsieur Lancaster serves neo-bistro cooking built around ingredients from small local producers, with dishes designed for sharing. CopperBay brings its cocktail-making expertise to the bar. Together, these spaces give the Lancaster a character rooted as much in the pleasures of a Parisian household as in its century of hotelkeeping.

A courtyard decorated with thousands of mosaics gives Prince de Galles a distinctive heart: Le Patio, a garden setting for lunch, dinner or cocktails just off Avenue George V. Opened in 1929, the hotel carries its Art Deco identity through a lobby of marble floors and gold-leaf chandeliers into rooms and suites inspired by the era. The Suite Saphir extends that vocabulary in beige and blue, with two terraces overlooking the avenue. Dining adds another reason to linger: Restaurant & Bar 19.20 takes its cue from 1920s Paris, while Akira Back serves modern Japanese cooking with Korean and international influences. Beyond the hotel, the Champs-Élysées is steps away.

Royal blue in the lobby, a grand staircase and rooms furnished with silks and antique art give the Ritz Paris its richly layered character. César Ritz chose a private mansion on Place Vendôme for the hotel he opened in 1898; he and his wife, Marie-Louise, approached it as a vast private home, mixing periods and French decorative traditions. That residential idea still gives shape to a stay, from individually styled accommodations to the wood-paneled Salon Proust, where books and armchairs frame afternoon tea. Outside, the Grand Jardin extends the hotel’s sequence of salons into greenery, with magnolias, a fountain and wooden alcoves along a trellis gallery.