If you’re looking for a city break that’s more home than a hotel, but still has a touch of luxury, these family-run B&Bs offer everything from in-room massages and airport transfers to private city tours and opera tickets.
From amazing interiors to a great tour of Rome
Interior designer Alessandra Taravacci runs a two-bedroom B&B from her beautiful Rome studio. “We let the guests browse around the workshop and maybe get some inspiration,” says husband Massimo.
Her design aTA Experience B&B offers more inspiration in the contemporary rooms, one based on the Grand Tour Victorian tradition, with atlas wallpaper, antique prints and large tapestries, the other in soothing shades of green.
Both have parquet floors, a welcome pack with fruit, mineral water, coffee and tea, a safe and a hairdryer.
Fashionable: in Alessandra and Massimo Taravacci’s stylish B&B in Rome
At breakfast in the workshop, which regularly hosts art exhibitions, Massimo regales guests with stories that can tell the story of cappuccino or the pastries he picks up fresh from a local bakery.
He says: “We give guests ideas for free itineraries, and we are also affiliated with important organizations so, for example, we can arrange for guests to join archaeologists on underground tours of Rome.”
Guests can book anything from a night tour of Rome in a Fiat 500 to a pasta making session to help prepare dinner.
Massimo adds: “We loved staying in B&Bs to experience the cultural aspects of a country, and now we want to travel through the eyes of our guests.”
B&B prices start from around £110 per night (www.design-ata.com/en-GB).
Also in the Residenza B it feels like flipping through the pages of a furniture magazine. Camillo and Veronica Barluzzi’s four-bedroom B&B is less than ten minutes from the Trevi Fountain and close to the Quirinale Palace, home of the Italian president.
The building was renovated by the architect Stefano Dorata along with custom furniture. Rooms have a chic, boutique feel in muted colours, with travertine floors, underfloor heating and air conditioning.
Breakfast is served until 10:30, airport and driver transfers can be arranged, private tour guides can be sought and restaurant reservations can be made. “Since we only have four rooms, we have a lot of direct contact with our guests,” says Camillo.
One of the rooms at B&B Taravacci is painted in “soothing shades of green”.
Above is the four-bedroom B&B at Residenza B. Camillo and Veronica Barluzzi, less than ten minutes from Rome’s Trevi Fountain
B&B prices start from around £175 per night (residenzab.com).
Get inspired by an artist in Lisbon
Art is omnipresent in Carlos Nen’s home in Lisbon, which he opens to guests under the name Anything Art Bed and Breakfast. You can even get a private tour of his own studio as part of the highly personalized service he offers.
Fancy a massage or reflexology? Carlos can book it for you in your room. Feel like wine and tapas? He can also organize it.
“If people ask for dinner, I can do it on the garden terrace,” he says. “I try to calm people down and help them.” This means making restaurant reservations, creating brilliant sightseeing itineraries and being available on WhatsApp if guests need help.
Rooms at Carlos Nen’s Anything Art Bed and Breakfast in Lisbon start from £75 per night
Guests of Anything Art Bed and Breakfast can sign up for a sightseeing tour of Lisbon. Pictured is one of the city’s cable railways
Although his house is a bit outside the city center, it is a 20-minute walk from the airport and a two-minute walk from the subway.
If you want a private bathroom, you can choose room number 6 which overlooks the garden and terrace. Otherwise, the other two rooms currently available share a bathroom.
Carlos stopped cooking his famous breakfast during the pandemic and now offers light offerings throughout the day, including muffins, juice, coffee and tea. Soon his wife will open a restaurant next door.
Room 6 costs from around £130 per night, other rooms from around £75 per night (whateverabb.com).
Work hard in the Berlin office, relax in the private pool
Everything you need for a business trip is included in one of the two guest rooms in Olaf Kellerhoff’s house in Berlin in the southwest of the city.
The Work & Wellness area has a fully equipped office with a webcam, monitor, printer, laminator and everything you need from pens and paper to a shredder and cutter. There’s also a microwave, fridge and kettle, so it’s no wonder there’s only room for a single bed – the bathroom is shared.
The Free & Relaxed room is on the top floor in Olaf Kellerhoff’s B&B in Berlin
His other room, Free & Relaxed, is more suited to relaxation, with hand-carved wooden furniture, a free-standing bath and separate shower, and an en-suite toilet.
Olaf, who has lived and traveled in Asia for many years, welcomes guests with fragrant hot or cold towels depending on the season. “I traveled a lot,” he says. “Instead of traveling the world, the world is now my guest.” And what luck: you can use the small pool and gym, laundry room and bicycles at no extra cost. The house is 25 minutes by car from the airport and about 30 minutes by train from the center of Berlin.
A single room costs from around 53 euros per night, a double room from around 60 euros, with your choice of breakfast (berlin-entspannt-geniessen.com).
A pro from Paris with the best tickets in town
Tasteful: Jean Etienne Rousseau’s B&B in the 9th arrondissement of Paris
A stay at Jean Etienne’s B&B includes a rich continental breakfast
Culture lovers return year after year to Jean Etienne Rousseau’s B&B in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.
Passionate about art, theatre, music and travel, he spent ten years in the luxury hotel industry, followed by a decade at the Paris Tourist Office, meaning he knows what he’s talking about and has the contacts to make your trip a breeze and a dime is about getting the best tickets.
His home opposite the Le Grand Rex cinema is the epitome of Parisian chic, and while breakfast is continental, don’t just imagine croissants and pastries – Jean Etienne offers platters of cheese, meats, fresh fruit, yogurt and more.
B&B prices start at around £160 per night (my-home-for-you.paris).
The fortress in Amsterdam that is right on trend
Villa Nicola Amsterdam is a canal house from 1895 owned by Werner Nijenhuis
Rooms at Villa Nicola Amsterdam start from around £295 per night
It’s no surprise that Dutch Vogue and other magazines used Werner Nijenhuis’ 1895 canal house in Amsterdam for fashion shoots — it’s beautiful.
But Werner strives to make guests feel comfortable amidst the elegance. “I want everyone to feel comfortable here, at home and familiar,” he says. “I have a Springer Spaniel and she also likes to have guests. I think they come more for her than for me.”
There are only two suites, one in vintage 1960s style, the other mixing historical pieces, art and modernity.
B&B prices start at around £295 per night (villanicolaamsterdam.com).
Home away from home in every corner of Britain
Book the Lower Studio in Vicky and Edmund Sixsmith’s wisteria-covered home in Hammersmith, West London, and it has its own entrance and kitchen. “You can have a cocktail party and we’ll lend you the wine glasses – provided you invite us,” says Edmund, who buys fresh croissants from a local bakery every morning as part of the breakfast menu.
The four-storey 1870s house at 31 Rowan Road also has an upstairs studio with kitchenette that occupies the entire top floor and a separate comfortable room.
You can pay £20 a day to park there, but as Hammersmith is so close to good transport links it seems better to rely on the tube.
The downstairs studio at Vicky and Edmund Sixsmith’s home in Hammersmith, West London
B&B prices start from £100 a night, studios from £125 to £145 (abetterwaytostay.co.uk).
At 23 Mayfield in Edinburgh, they take breakfast seriously. Expect everything from haggis, clootie dumplings and tattie scones to slow-cooked porridge, kippers or Loch Fyne smoked salmon. In winter, eat it by candlelight by the fire in the elegant dining room.
Ross and Kathleen Birnie have been running the B&B for 20 years in their Victorian home. The seven elegant rooms are quite chic, some with four-poster beds. It is a 20 minute walk from the city centre.
23 Mayfield in Edinburgh is a seven-room B&B run by Ross and Kathleen Birnie
B&B prices start from £145 per night (23mayfield.co.uk).
Number One Hundred in Cardiff has seven spacious, modern rooms just outside the city centre. The owners Charlie and Abi Prothero do not live on site but are there daily to prepare the continental breakfast.
“We keep it pretty simple,” says Charlie. “But people come to me for restaurant recommendations and things like that.” B&B prices start from £58 per night (icardiff.co.uk).
Source link
James is an author and travel journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a love for exploring new cultures and discovering unique destinations, James brings his readers on a journey with him through his articles.
