100 Small Romantic Hotels
Come discover 100 of the most romantic hotels, inns and places in the world.

Romantic Settings
When it comes to picking a romantic place, nothing takes our breath away more than a stunning setting. From the North Pole to Patagonia, and the Scottish Highlands to the Japanese Alps, we've discovered secluded hideaways in some of the world's most spectacular settings.

Historic Old-World Districts
We've a soft spot for romantic old-world districts with their centuries-old inns, cobbled-stoned streets, ancient cathedrals and fortified walls.

Guidelines to Getting on our Small Romantic Hotel List
Only a few years ago, it was so easy for us to pick out a romantic hotel. We favored stunning settings, good food and design, a welcoming staff, an independent and creative owner, and an authentic sense of place.

Small was beautiful.

But now some of the artistic owners are creating places that are inspiring design-wise but alas fall a bit short of attending to a guest's comforts. And some beautiful natural settings are being developed by hotel groups & developers that are a bit too focused on selling condos, villas and time-shares for our tastes.

So we've updated our guidelines, adding two new ones:

1. We're unambashedly in love with artistic, talented one-of-kind owners. Bottom line, if it is clever and unique enough, a motel-chic place could get listed here.

2. We’re drawing the line on condo-hotels & time-share properties, however. We just don’t think kitchens and all they entail — food shopping, cooking & cleaning up — belong in a romantic place.

So if your lodging includes either kitchens and/or salesmen in lobbies making pitches for condomiums or fractional ownership, it's not getting listed, sorry.