On the central Goetheplatz square, the Best Western Premier Grand Hotel Russischer Hof, Weimar, Germany, is a grand old hotel that has welcomed guests since the early 1800s, with elegant, comfortable rooms, free Wi-Fi, a restaurant and a bar, blending its long history with up-to-date comfort.
Since its early days the house has gathered famous names at its tables, among them the writers and composers Goethe, Liszt and Wagner, who shaped the town's golden age. Right outside, the theatres, parks and museums of the old town are an easy walk away.
Weimar is the small Thuringian city where German art and ideas came of age, home to the poets Goethe and Schiller and later to the Bauhaus design school. Their houses and gardens are open to visitors, the National Theatre still stages classic drama, and leafy parks trace the gentle River Ilm through town. A short ride away rise the wooded Ettersberg hills.