Check In: Berge
Bavaria, Germany
A few years ago German furniture designer Nils Holger Moorman bought some land in the mountains (which happened to come with a nondescript old Bavarian building) to build a new warehouse for his namesake furniture company. Then a neighbor filed a complaint and he was forced to come up with another idea. Enter the Grand Hotel Futile, the original, tongue-in-cheek name of the 13-guest room project that he rehabbed and decked out in his signature, pared-down contemporary aesthetic. Once the hotel idea settled, Nils totally embraced it, renamed it Berge, which means mountains, and moved forward with meticulous detail–from wide alpine-slat floors and custom furniture to getting door handles crafted by a local blacksmith and bowls made by a local woodworker. “There are so many little details that together form a language,” says Nils.
The difference between Berge and a fancy design hotel is by design: self-catering apartments let guests explore and create their own experience. “The guests arrive here and they feel the place,” attests Nils. “You have to give a piece of yourself, you can’t just sit down and ask, ‘Where’s the lobster bisque?’”
The Details
Prices start at $160. There’s a big, spare kitchen to share (where you can line up cooking classes), bikes and more than 1,000 books to choose from in the TV-free space. Rent a room at Welcome Beyond.
[Photos and info via Welcome Beyond.]
