Relais & Châteaux Weeshuis Gouda

Relais & Châteaux Weeshuis Gouda

Weeshuis Gouda occupies a former orphanage in the center of Gouda, a four-floor building with just 25 rooms that Relais & Chateaux has turned into a boutique hotel without erasing the monumental fabric of the original structure. Interior designer Judith van Mourik decorated each room around Gouds Plateel, the ceramic ware made in the city around 1900, so a Classic Room or a Junior King Suite reads more like a collected interior than a hotel template. St Janskerk is an easy walk from the door, with Museum Gouda, Catharina Gasthuis, the Stadhuis and Beurs World Trade Center all within reach on foot. What separates this address from other boutique stays in the region is restaurant LIZZ*, run by chef Remco Kuijpers, which holds a Michelin star and a place in the Toques d'Or guide, a distinction shared in the Netherlands only with De Librije and De Swaen. A coffee, cocktail and champagne bar called COCO and a fireplace in the lobby extend the evening once the kitchen closes. Couples marking an anniversary, or travelers who plan a stay around one serious dinner, will find the fit obvious. Families with young children have fewer options here, since only some of the 25 rooms are built for extra beds, and anyone wanting a pool or a full business floor should look elsewhere, though there is a small conference room. Pets are welcome for a fee, bikes can be rented at the desk, and the hotel is wheelchair accessible throughout, including the restaurant. Parking nearby costs extra and check-in runs from 3pm. The building raised Gouda's orphaned children for generations. Now its kitchen holds a Michelin star. A former Gouda orphanage turned 25-room boutique hotel, its interiors patterned on 1900s Gouda pottery. Restaurant LIZZ*, under chef Remco Kuijpers, holds a Michelin star and a Toques d'Or listing shared with only two other Dutch restaurants. Pets and wheelchairs are welcome; a pool is not.