A Trip to Hamburg with Kids at Barceló Hotel

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City Days and Quiet Evenings
*Our Family Story at Barceló Hamburg

written AMANDA MORTENSON

We arrived in Hamburg on a Monday morning, the air cool and a little damp, the streets wrapped in that early-week calm that cities only have when the weekend rush has passed.

The train slid into the main station, and within minutes we stood at the entrance of Barceló Hotel Hamburg, our suitcases rolling over cobblestones, the children half-awake but already pointing at the boats drifting on the Binnenalster. The hotel’s glass façade caught the light in a quiet way, and stepping inside felt like exhaling — warm air, soft colors, an easy welcome.

Our Family Junior Suite became home almost immediately. A long window stretched across the room, framing the city like a slow-moving film. The children ran from bed to sofa, testing every corner, while we unpacked and made coffee, grateful for the stillness that comes after travel. The room carried an understated elegance — wooden floors, neutral tones, thoughtful details that made sense for families: enough space for toys and jackets, a large table that turned into a drawing station, a bathroom big enough for the entire bedtime routine without chaos.

Barceló Hotel, Hamburg
Exterior

Barceló Hotel, Hamburg
Family Junior Suite

By midday we were already out, walking toward the Binnenalster, the lake only a few minutes away. The children watched boats pass under the bridges, and stopped at every kiosk that sold roasted nuts. The hotel’s location placed us exactly where the city opened in all directions — toward the shopping streets, the old arcades, the parks, and the harbor. Everything was reachable on foot or by a short U-Bahn ride, which quickly became part of the adventure.

That first day set the tone. Each morning began in the hotel restaurant, where the buffet became an event of its own — pancakes, fruit, small pastries, and the quiet hum of travelers starting their day. The children discovered that the orange juice machine could be operated without help, a small victory that defined their mornings. After breakfast we planned loosely, letting the weather decide: a visit to the Miniatur Wunderland, hours spent watching tiny trains cross landscapes; an afternoon at the Planten un Blomen Park, where autumn leaves turned the ground into a soft mosaic; short stops for coffee and cocoa in between, always ending with a slow walk back to the hotel.

Evenings carried their own rhythm and sometimes we ate at the B-Lounge, the hotel’s restaurant with its open design and calm lighting, where the children shared pasta while we tried local fish and a glass of Riesling. Other nights we brought back sandwiches from a bakery nearby and turned the suite into a small picnic, the city lights glowing through the window. The sense of ease came from the balance the hotel created — close enough to everything, yet quiet enough to feel completely private.

Halfway through the week the weather changed, rain sweeping across the city, but even that felt part of the experience. We spent that afternoon inside, the children building Lego cities on the carpet while we watched the clouds shift over Hamburg. The large window turned into a screen of light and sound, the rain rhythmic, the city still visible through it.

Barceló Hotel, Hamburg
B Lounge

Barceló Hotel, Hamburg
B Lounge

By day three the children already called the hotel “our house.” They knew every corridor, every shortcut to the elevator, and where to find the best spot in the lobby for people-watching. On Thursday morning, before leaving, we walked once more around the Alster. The air felt crisp, the trees golden, and the city moved at a slow pace that matched our own.

Back in the suite, we packed slowly, looking out at Hamburg’s skyline one last time. The stay had unfolded without hurry — days filled with small discoveries, moments of calm, and the comfort of a place that understood families without turning family travel into routine. Barceló Hamburg held all of it, the light of the city, the rhythm of daily life, and a quiet sense of belonging that stayed even after we left. Thanks for having us!

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The Charles Hotel - A Munich Story

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THE CHARLES HOTEL
*Rooms of Art, Gardens of Light

written ALBAN E. SMAJLI

Munich in late light, the park leaning against the city like a velvet cushion, and in the middle of that green hush stands The Charles Hotel, big shouldered yet strangely gentle, all windows and reflections, with rooms that look across trees that refuse to bow to glass and steel.

You arrive, and it feels less like checking into a hotel and more like slipping into a frame already painted, the old botanical garden at your feet, the towers of the city humming somewhere behind, the soundtrack softened by leaves. The thing about staying here is that you start walking and suddenly the city is yours. Five minutes to Königsplatz, a drift down to Marienplatz, a shortcut into museums and markets, all by foot, as if Munich has been tailored to your pace. Yet when you turn back, when you push open the doors again, you’re greeted by the stillness of a park. It’s an odd and satisfying trick—the ability to hold pulse and pause in the same space.

Rocco Forte Hotels
The Charles Hotel, Monforte Royal Suite

Rocco Forte Hotels
The Charles Hotel, Monforte Royal Suite

Inside, it unravels in layers. The spa first, an entire floor given over to water and steam and that pool—long, luminous, unapologetically generous. Munich rarely gives you this. You float, and the ceiling seems to rise with every stroke, a cathedral of chlorinated air. Saunas, treatments, therapists who seem to know where the tension hides before you’ve even said a word. It is a sanctuary disguised as a hotel amenity.

Then the interiors you notice them before you even try. Furniture that insists on being touched, wood that looks like it could still whisper, velvet that soaks up the light, patterns that converse. Someone here has a hand for colour and a memory for detail. Olga Polizzi’s design eye, precise and idiosyncratic, lives in the upholstery, in the rhythm of the corridors, in the way each suite is its own little manifesto.

And then the art, everywhere, quietly, loudly, unashamedly: paintings, photographs, sculptures, even prints tucked into the suites, waiting on side tables like letters from someone you admire. It feels curated not in the stiff museum way but in the sense of a friend with impeccable taste who fills their home with things you secretly wish were yours. Contemporary, bold, and varied. A hotel that collects art not to live with it.

The Charles opened in 2007, a child of Berlin architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht, a modern gesture standing by nineteenth-century gardens. The building has already won its share of awards for stone and form, but what lingers is atmosphere. One hundred and sixty rooms, suites that open to balconies and light, bathrooms with heated floors and long baths that want you to linger until you prune. At the very top, the Monforte Royal Suite, a sundeck lifted above Munich, a stage for morning espresso or midnight wine.

Rocco Forte Hotels
The Charles Hotel, Lobby

Rocco Forte Hotels
The Charles Hotel, Monforte Royal Suite

None of this stands alone. The Charles is part of the Rocco Forte constellation, a family of hotels scattered across Europe—Sicily, London, Rome, Palermo, Florence, Brussels, Edinburgh—each one stitched into its city with personality, each one guided by the same family hand. Founded in 1996 by Sir Rocco Forte and his sister Olga Polizzi, the group has built a reputation less on empire and more on intimacy, places that feel designed not produced, hotels that wear their locations like bespoke suits. The Charles carries that ethos in Munich, central yet calm, crafted yet lived-in, a hotel that belongs here. Enjoy yourself!

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