On a quiet side street in central Cologne, the Hopper Hotel St. Josef, WorldHotels Crafted, Cologne, Germany, is a bold design hotel set in a handsome building from 1891, once a religious house, now filled with original artworks and fine materials. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs, breakfast buffet in the building's old chapel, with hot and cold dishes from local producers, and a terrace.
Good public transport and nearby parking make the hotel easy to reach by car, train or plane, and put the rest of the city within quick reach. The cathedral and the Rhine are only a short ride away.
The hotel sits in the Belgian Quarter, Cologne's most creative corner, a grid of leafy streets named after Belgian towns. Owner-run boutiques, galleries and coffee bars fill the ground floors, lively pubs and restaurants buzz late into the evening around the Brusseler Platz, and the great twin-spired cathedral and the Rhine promenade lie just beyond. Pavement cafes and design shops line the streets all around.