10 Best Hotels in Prague

"Would you rather stay in the Ella Fitzgerald or the Abba room, the Dvorjak or the Beatles? Or how about the Hendrix Room—though it might be a bit loud for some. When the Czech owner of the Aria asked Versace designers Rocco Magnoli and Lorenzo Carmellini to fill his new hotel in the Mala Strana district with music back in 2003, that’s exactly what they did. A marble floor embossed with the notes of a Gregorian chant leads into the winter garden lobby where a Bosendorfer grand waits to be played. In a cubby to one side, resident music concierge Dr. Ivana Stehlikova will sort tickets for the Rudolfinum and other venues, as well as rummage through her extensive DVD and CD collection for any requests. And on the three floors above, each bedroom is named for a different composer or musician, with an angular caricature by Czech artist Joseph Blecha outside. But this is overwhelmingly a classical hotel rather than a rock-and-roll one—though more light opera than Mahler symphony. The recently refurbished bedrooms glow in a haze of soft, velvety elegance, with powder pink and blue sofas and armchairs, without slipping into chintz; while carefully edited antique pieces—an Art Deco clock, gilt-framed oil paintings—are placed here and there. The owner’s art collection also stretches to a few works by Dalí—an impressive statue of the artist, holding an egg aloft, stands in one of the dining rooms (the restaurant, Coda, has a fine line in re-interpreting Czech favorites, with lovage gnocchi, venison with croissant dumplings, and plum ravioli on the menu). Up on the rooftop is a summer terrace with wraparound views of the Castle and spire-spiked skyline; next door is a gem of a baroque garden from 1720, all parterres, yew balls, and terraces, which guests have special access to. Aria is the sort of idiosyncratic, slightly eccentric place that Prague does very well—you’d have to be tone-deaf not to love it." - Rick Jordan