The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi

The Biltmore is Tbilisi's skyline statement: a glass tower stacked high behind the preserved neoclassical facade of the former IMELI building, a listed 1930s landmark on Rustaveli Avenue. The pairing is bold—the mirrored shaft is visible from across the city—and it gives the hotel a split personality that works surprisingly well: grand marble halls and period detail at street level, and the highest guest rooms in the Caucasus above.

Those rooms are the selling point. Even entry categories start well above the rooftops, with floor-to-ceiling windows over the old town's tiled domes, the Mtkvari river and the mountains that hem the city; corner suites are among Tbilisi's most spectacular perches. Decor is plush international-contemporary, with marble bathrooms and deep beds, and the upper-floor restaurant and bar make the panorama part of every meal.

Facilities run deep for the city—an indoor pool, hammam-equipped spa and serious gym—and Rustaveli's museums, opera house and government quarter are immediately outside. The flavour is more global than Georgian, and the contrast with Tbilisi's crooked old lanes could not be greater; that is precisely why its guests choose it. For altitude, space and five-star systems on the city's premier avenue, the Biltmore delivers.