Niche travel

If your love of travel is matched by an appreciation of art, check out the Arte Luise Arthotel in Berlin Mitte, the historic central part of the former East Berlin.

The hotel is housed in a carefully restored, neoclassical building dating from 1825, overlooking the Reichstag Building and the Spree River, just a few minutes’ walk from Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate.

Guests can choose one of 50 rooms – from plush suites to garrets with shared baths – each designed by one of 50 artists.

The hotel describes itself as “a gallery where you can spend the night”. In fact, once you’re in your room, it’s more like having climbed into a painting.

With sculptures and installations in the lobby and philosophical passages on the stairwell, it’s perfect for getting you into the right frame of mind for one of the city’s many museums.

Most creative of all, however, is the way the building, formerly a dilapidated pile bound by the “death strip” of the Berlin Wall, has been reclaimed.

In 1994 it was leased out on a peppercorn rent as an artists’ studio and living quarters, with a hotel for artists upstairs.

Thanks to a creative investor, it subsequently morphed into a fully commercial hotel, helped by the development of the district into a government and media hub.

But the “art instead of grandeur, poetry instead of room service” concept remains. Rooms are re-commissioned every two to five years by invitation, with the artist receiving a royalty of five per cent of the revenues from “their” room. Doubles cost from €89 a night.

luise-berlin.com