Hotels Rita Hayworth Has Stayed At

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.

From Aduana, its seventh-floor restaurant, Gran Meliá Fénix looks out over Madrid’s Salamanca district—a useful introduction to the neighborhood around it. Calle Serrano’s shops and the Paseo de la Castellana are close by, with the National Archaeological Museum among the nearby cultural stops. Inside, neoclassical rooms establish the hotel’s formal character, while Balmoral carries that mood into a bar serving cocktails, traditional tapas, and Mediterranean dishes. Dining is a particular draw: Zuma adds contemporary Japanese cooking, a robata grill, and a sushi bar. For a more private view of the city, select RedLevel accommodations have terraces with outdoor whirlpools.

Palm Court’s crystal canopy sets the tone at Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, a Belle Époque palace where the dining rooms are as much a draw as the address. Beneath it, the all-day restaurant serves contemporary interpretations of Ritz classics under chef Quique Dacosta’s direction. His two-Michelin-starred Deessa occupies the Alfonso XIII room, with a terrace overlooking the Ritz Garden. The hotel sits between the Prado Museum and Retiro Park, placing art and open space close at hand. Upstairs, accommodations range from courtyard-facing rooms to suites overlooking the Prado and Plaza de la Lealtad, with marble bathrooms and a classic approach to interiors that carries the palace’s character into the private spaces.

A stained-glass dome made from 1,875 individual panes gives The Palace its architectural centerpiece, with a palm-shaped chandelier suspended beneath it. Each pane was dismantled, cataloged and restored as part of the renovation that brought this 1912 hotel into The Luxury Collection in 2025. Designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán’s interiors draw on the Belle Époque and Roaring Twenties, alongside preserved marble, historic tapestries and original architectural details. Beneath the dome, La Cúpula serves contemporary Spanish cooking and afternoon tea. Outside, the hotel’s Plaza de las Cortes address places Madrid’s museums within walking distance; selected rooms overlook the Neptune Fountain or the Spanish Parliament, giving the city a presence well beyond the public rooms.

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.

Le Bristol Paris has a yacht above its rooftops: naval architect Cäsar Pinnau designed its sixth-floor indoor pool with teak decking and a trompe-l’oeil stern, with views toward the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur. That playful space adds a distinctive chapter to this grand hotel on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, whose rooms and suites follow an elegant Parisian style. A 13,000-square-foot courtyard garden gives guests room to linger, while the kitchens reveal how much is made here: the hotel mills its own flour, bakes its bread, and produces chocolates in-house. Three-Michelin-starred Epicure anchors a stay in which French cooking deserves as much attention as the address.