With a superb location five minutes from Old Town Square, the renovated 71-room Maximilian is all about smart design. Czech-born architect Eva Jiricna has created attractive and useful communal spacesa library, an honor bar, a small business center, and a glass-roofed breakfast roomthat stir trendy travelers out of their chambers. The rooms are pretty swell, though, with high ceilings, neo-Cubist furniture, and great lightingboth recessed and on adjustable headboard stalks for reading in bed. For a real escape, there's the Floating Centera room with a huge tub for relaxing in total silence. If you want something a bit less extreme, various Thai massages are on offer.
When to go: Winter (the rest of the year, there are simply too many tourists).
Which room to book: Low-floor doubles such as Nos. 104, 106, and 108 are not only quiet but convenient for popping into the business center or the bar (doubles, $160–$240).