Hotel Amigo

Hotel Amigo occupies one of the best positions in Brussels, on a cobbled lane literally around the corner from the Grand Place, whose gilded guildhalls are visible from the upper suites. The site's history is long and slightly mischievous—a city prison stood here in the sixteenth century, and the name 'Amigo' is said to derive from a Spanish-era mistranslation—which suits a hotel that refuses to take grandeur too solemnly.

Under Rocco Forte ownership, Olga Polizzi's interiors mix Flemish stone and old-master-style art with witty Belgian touches: Magritte prints, Tintin figures in the marble bathrooms, bold fabrics against parquet. Rooms are calm and generously sized for the city, with the Grand Place-view suites among the most coveted bedrooms in Belgium. Service has the unstuffy warmth that distinguishes the family's hotels.

Bocconi, the in-house Italian restaurant, is a reliable pleasure, though half the joy of the Amigo is stepping out: Brussels' best chocolatiers, beer cafés and the Galeries Royales are all within five minutes on foot, with the Sablon antiques quarter slightly beyond. For first-time visitors and EU-circuit regulars alike, it is the city's most likeable luxury base.