$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.
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.