Hotel Van Cleef

Hotel Van Cleef

In the Green Salon at Hotel Van Cleef, breakfast is served at the table under a run of contemporary art, and when the weather holds it moves out to the terrace that runs alongside the canal. The house itself dates back more than 700 years, once home to counts of the Van Cleef line who advised the Dukes of Burgundy, and its 18th-century bones are still visible under decorator Pascale Vanhaecke-Marcantuoni's mix of antique, vintage and modern furniture, a project she worked on with her son Arnaud. Sixteen rooms sit inside, dressed in Missoni or Hermès fabric and finished with marble bathrooms, whirlpools and laptop safes, a short walk from Bruges Town Hall, the Burg and the Lamp Museum. What sets it apart from the rest of the city center's boutique hotels is that Van Cleef runs as a private residence: only registered guests get past the door, so there is no passing foot traffic through the bar or the Green Salon, and the daily afternoon tea, with scones and finger sandwiches made by the chef, stays a house occasion rather than a public draw. That privacy, plus a golf course three kilometres out and a playroom for the smaller guests, suits couples and families who want the center of Bruges without sharing the lobby with it. It will not suit anyone chasing a big hotel's anonymity or a lively public bar scene; this one is reserved for guests only. Staff speak English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and the Michelin Guide currently ranks it the best hotel in Belgium, a claim the quiet of the place does nothing to contradict. A 700-year-old house in central Bruges turned into a boutique hotel that only its own guests can enter, with Missoni-dressed rooms, canal-side breakfasts and afternoon tea made in-house. Michelin currently ranks it Belgium's best hotel and the sixteen rooms mean it never feels like one.