This book, with almost 500 magnificent photos, transports you to elegant lords' homes and extensive vineyards, offering a glimpse behind medieval walls and into baroque staterooms. Travel to historic European country estates with walls that tell stories of times when these were homes for high nobility and where guests can still feel like royalty today. Silk wallpaper and oiled wooden floorboards, heavy carpets and alabaster fittings, glittering chandeliers and inviting four-poster beds--in the most-beautiful castle hotels in Europe, you will still find the amenities enjoyed by aristocratic guests of yesteryear. Since then, these estates have been adapted to become everything from temples of fine food and wellness oases, to relaxed country retreats, to trendy city hotels. Pages include notes on accommodations, architecture, history, and gastronomy at 91 currently operating European castle hotels. Also included are visit itinerary suggestions and URLs of hotel websites that offer currently active stay booking. Features castle hotels in: - Sweden - The United Kingdom - Ireland - The Netherlands - France - Germany - Austria - Switzerland - Poland - Slovenia - Italy - Spain - Portugal - Croatia - Greece - Malta