Hamburg is one of the coolest cities in Europe, if not the world.
Its attractions include: the achingly cool neighbourhood of St Pauli, the starkly beautiful docks, the largest model railway in the world, the Beatles, an inner lake, an outer lake, more fish sandwiches than you can ever eat (trust me), the chaotic hedonism of Reeperbahn, some stonking architecture and plenty of great bars and restaurants.
What Hamburg also possesses is a range of very desirable hotels – with another arriving last year. Conrad Hamburg has already picked up several awards, including Best New Opening from Germany's 101 Best Hotels. The flagship luxury brand of the Hilton Group, named after its founder Conrad Hilton – or “Connie” if you’ve ever watched Mad Men – the Hamburg outpost is the first Conrad to open in Germany.
The lobby
The hotel is housed in the Levantehaus, a very beautiful building constructed in 1912 as a shipping company headquarters, now home to luxury boutiques and restaurants. (And one hotel, obviously.) You can enter via the shopping centre from the main road – the Mönckebergstraße – or head round to the official entrance round the back.
The location is fantastic: five minutes from the train station in one direction, five from the centre of Hamburg in the other. You’ll be down at the docks in 20 minutes, while the buzzy neighbourhood of St Pauli can be reached via bus or Lime Bike. (Or 40 minutes on foot.) It’s a great spot to explore both the city and the surrounding region.
The rooms
A deluxe room
There are 283 guest rooms and suites in total, including 28 studios with convenient kitchenettes should you wish to do a bit of home cooking. I’ll be honest, I didn’t visit all of them but I can attest my room was very nice indeed.
It was bloody big for starters, one of those hotel rooms that would fetch a decent price if you sold it as a flat. Naturally there was a massive plump bed, a sizeable bath and a coffee machine, among many other amenities.
However the highlight was unquestionably the balcony. It overlooked the Mönckebergstraße and the surrounding streets, making it a wonderful spot to sit with a coffee or a glass of wine and watch the city drift by.
The restaurant
Greta Ora terrace
I enjoyed one of my favourite solo dining experiences at Greta Ora. Sat outside on the terrace on a balmy May evening with a good book and even better food? Bliss.
The restaurant specialises in South American cuisine, which is a welcome change if you’ve been living off fish sandwiches all trip. Nonetheless I kept it fishy for the starters, unable to resist the lobster tacos with tangy fruit salad. Three tacos, plenty of lobster on each – bosh.
For the main course, I agonised between short rib and whole octopus, opting for the former as apparently it’s the most popular dish. Sometimes you should trust the wisdom of crowds: this is pretty spectacular. The rib is cooked for 16 hours and removed from the bone tableside. It’s served with miniature tortillas, a bean salad, onions and habanero sauce. Not merely delicious but really fun to consume.
Greta Ora
The lime pie paired with a German sweet wine was a lovely way to finish off the evening. All told, I was there nearly three hours – not a critique but a testament on how much I enjoyed the whole experience. I could’ve ordered the same dishes and departed in half the time but why hurry?
I returned the next morning to tuck into the breakfast buffet. There’s a whole station dedicated to breads and pastries, another for fruit and cold fish, a third for warm items such as bacon (obviously) and miso eggplant (less obvious but really quite good).
The gym and spa
The gym
The spa is a real highlight of the Conrad. It’s down in the basement, a subterranean pocket of peace and calm beneath the hubbub of the city above. There are two types of sauna, Swedish and bio, and two different steam rooms. Both are adjacent to the biggest indoor swimming pool in the city.
Relaxation and fitness rooms are also present – I confess to spending more time in the former than the latter – and treatments can be booked. I spent a very therapeutic afternoon there, recovering from watching the Champions League final at nearby Paddy’s Bar the day before.
The city
View from the balcony
Hamburg takes its fish sandwiches seriously. I certainly did. Over several days, I ate little else, hopping between harbourside kiosks and local favourites in pursuit of the perfect Fischbrötchen. My shortlist: Fisch & Co, Brücke 10 and Kleine Haie Grosse Fische in St Pauli. The first two are an easy stroll from the hotel; the latter is easily reached by Lime Bike, which may as well be Hamburg’s official mode of transport.
One attraction is a must. Miniatur Wunderland is a vast miniature world spread across painstakingly detailed recreations of European cities and landscapes, and it is every bit as impressive as its reputation suggests. Within minutes I was transfixed by tiny Formula One cars hurtling around a miniature Monaco, peering into scenes so intricately assembled they felt almost alive. I’d optimistically set aside two hours for the visit. I needed twice that time at minimum.
If you can't tell, I fell in love with Hamburg on my first visit. It surely won't be my last. This is an exceptional city and Conrad Hamburg is an exceptional place to discover it.
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Bugenhagenstraße 8, 20095 Hamburg, Germany; Conrad Hamburg
