Hotel Lone

The kind of hotel that will be gracing the architecture textbooks in fifty years time, Hotel Lone is also a fine place to stay, offering the kind of smooth interior design that soothes an relaxes rather than just drawing attention to its own colour scheme. Probably the most important contribution to the Croatian hospitality industry since the 1970s, the amorphous-looking, Y-shaped Lone was designed by Zagreb architects 3LHD to suit an awkward, forested hillside site. Filled with contemporary art and design, it is very much a showcase for the Croatian creative industries, even down to the staff uniforms provided by Zagreb design team I-GLE. The hotel is full of fascinating features, with sculptor Ivana Franke’s wiry installation hovering above a multi-storey lobby linked by sweeping spiral staircase. Rooms feature solid oak desks, swanky-showroom furniture, and cheeky glass partitions where the bathroom walls should be. ‘Jazz’ rooms have jacuzzi-style dipping-pools right on the balcony. There is a fully equipped spa centre with indoor pool, and at least one of the hotel’s three restaurants, (the L restaurant) has a serious gourmet reputation. Decked out in heavy textiles, the bottom-floor nightclub looks (probably intentionally) like something from a David Lynch movie.