Three of a kind:Hotels offering free nights
Rocco Forte Hotel Amigo, Brussels, Belgium
Rue de l'Amigo, Brussels, Belgium, tel: 0032-2547 4747, hotelamigo.com
Location and style are some of the reasons the who’s who bed down here – including visiting heads of state – but the hotel is leisure-traveller friendly, too. It is currently offering three nights for the price of two.
The hotel is in the historic quarter of Brussels, surrounded by 18th-century buildings and medieval cobbled streets. It is beside the gorgeous Grand Place square, and close to antique, chocolate and lace shops and – should you be on a mission to sort out the economy – near the financial district.
Amigo was the nickname of the 16th-century prison here when Belgium was part of the Spanish Netherlands. The hotel is five-star but the feel is unstuffy luxury, with hefty materials such as heavy linens, pale leather headboards, red silk curtains and snatches of embroidered velvet.
Art work is local, from surrealist prints by Marcel Broodthaers and René Magritte to Hergé’s Tintin illustrations, including Snowy and Captain Haddock..
Rooms:each of the 154 bedrooms and 19 suites has its own style – all in muted colours with bright shots – and some have views towards the Grand Place and town hall, while others look out over the rooftops of Brussels.
Doubles from €220.
Hotel Kitzhof Mountain Design Resort, Austria
Schwarzseestrasse 8-10, 6370 Kitzbühel, Austria, 0043-5356 632 110, hotel-kitzhof.com
It is three nights for the price of two (until September 8th) at the Hotel Kitzhof Mountain Design Resort which offers a mix of traditional Tyrolean decor and food with contemporary lines and palettes. It sits in Alpine surroundings but is just a five-minute walk to the centre of Kitzbühel and panoramic windows take it all in with views of the mountains – including the Hahnenkamm ski-race run — and over Kitzbühel’s spire-rich rooftops.
That blend of nature and tradition is evident in this converted farmhouse with its rustic wooden beams, leather furniture and blossom-scented spa (which has a pool overlooking a private garden). Breakfast is served on a terrace overlooking a waterfall.
There is exuberance too, in the chandeliers and wooden lampshades in the lobby and the animal motif – of a local antelope — that appears periodically, as a trophy skull on the wall and as a sillhouette on red cushions. The reception desk was made by a local cabinetmaker.
Rooms:the theme continues in the hotel's 163 rooms and suites where contemporary pieces are combined with textured, locally sourced materials like leather. Some rooms have views of the slopes and others of the private garden. Many rooms have balconies.
Doubles from €180. Children under three stay free, aged four to 12 pay 50 per cent and up to 15 they pay 70 per cent
Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte, Italy
Piazza Puccini, 1 - 55049 Viareggio, Italy 0044-20 7380 3658, principedipiemonte.com
On the west coast of Italy, north of Pisa, is this grand dame, which began life as the Select Palace Hotel in 1925 and has played its part in films and in the lives of aristocrats, intellectuals and artists ever since.
It is running a deal offering five nights for the price of four, until December. In 1938, the hotel’s name changed to Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte and in the early 2000s, it underwent a restoration. It reopened in 2004 with five floors all in different styles that recall the hotel’s history: international, art deco, colonial, empire and modern.
There’s a rooftop pool where the view morphs from local surroundings to blue horizon. You can also gaze over the Tyrrhenian coast and sea from the restaurant and bar beside the pool.
Rooms:there are 106 rooms, including 19 suites, with views over the Apuan Alps and the sea. Doubles from €135.