Parkhotel Engelsburg, BW Premier Collection

Quiet and central in Recklinghausen, the Parkhotel Engelsburg, BW Premier Collection, Recklinghausen, Germany, fills a mansion with three hundred years of history, with elegantly furnished rooms set around a garden and courtyard, free Wi-Fi, cherry-wood interiors, a Finnish sauna and steam bath, a modern gym, and free spa access. The old town and its squares lie close by, with the parks and theatres of Recklinghausen within easy reach. The wider Ruhr region spreads out all around. Recklinghausen sits on the green northern edge of the Ruhr, a former mining region reinvented around culture and parkland. Each spring the Ruhrfestspiele theatre festival fills the town's stages with companies from around the world, the old town gathers around its market church and squares, and the industrial-heritage trails and museums of the Ruhr lie a short drive south. Lakes and woodland ring the edge of town, and the striking old gasometers and pithead towers of the Ruhr are within easy reach.