Mandarin Oriental Lutetia carries the artistic soul of Paris's Left Bank into a grand contemporary palace. Serge Gainsbourg treated its jazz-lit rooms as a second home, returning so often that his late-night piano sessions became part of the hotel's Saint-Germain mythology.
$235
InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut carries the glamour of the city's golden age in its sweeping staircases and Mediterranean-facing rooms. Marlon Brando was among the screen legends hosted here when the Phoenicia stood at the centre of cosmopolitan Beirut.