Excelsior Hotel Ernst

Excelsior Hotel Ernst

Walk out of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst and the twin spires of Cologne Cathedral fill the sky, just 120 metres away, close enough that some of the hotel's 133 rooms and suites look straight onto them. The building has stood opposite the cathedral since 1863 and is still run with the attentiveness of a family house, even though it carries a distinction none of its Cologne rivals can claim: it is the city's only member of Leading Hotels of the World. That combination shows up at dinner. Guests can choose Hanse Stube for French cuisine with a Rhineland accent, or cross to TAKU for East Asian dishes cooked under a Michelin star, then finish with cocktails and live music at Charles Bar or afternoon tea in the Wintergarten. Six floors hold a spa with sauna, steam room and massage, a gym and fitness room, and twelve meeting rooms that keep the business trade coming alongside the leisure one. The main railway station is a 300 metre walk, useful for anyone arriving without a car, though parking costs 27 EUR a day if you do drive in, and pets travel for 30 EUR a night. None of this suits someone after a quiet boutique stay or a bargain; a deposit of 100 EUR a day and an 80 EUR charge for an extra bed make the position clear. What it suits is a traveller who wants the cathedral at the window, a serious kitchen downstairs, and a front desk that has been doing this since the nineteenth century and shows no sign of forgetting how. Cologne's only Leading Hotels of the World address sits 120 metres from the cathedral, pairing Michelin-starred TAKU with the French kitchen at Hanse Stube. It reads grand, not quiet or minimal. Book it for the view, the food, and service practised since 1863.