When you’ve had enough sightseeing, peruse the halls of famous hotels – there’s a chance you’ll hear a tale about some colourful celebrity hotel guests. Follow in the footsteps of your favourite rowdy celebrity or inspired artist by sleeping in the hotels they crashed in – before they were famous, at the peaks of fame, or for a peaceful retirement – and made (in)famous.
Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah, Istanbul – Turkey
Ride the famous lift at the Pera Palace Jumeirah
The Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah had an electric debut in 1892. As the first hotel in Istanbul to have electricity, its reputation as a leader in innovation was further confirmed when they were the first hotel to install an electric lift. With the luxurious service of a liftboy, famous guests like Josephine Baker and Greta Garbo could enjoy the thrill of riding in the floating cage up to their room. Murder mystery enthusiast Agatha Christie had a favourite room in the hotel – number 411 – which now carries her name. You can sleep in the deep red Agatha Christie Suite where she supposedly wrote Murder on the Orient Express, or dine in the equally inspired Agatha Restaurant.
Find a room at Pera Palace Hotel
Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff – Arizona, USA
Share the same room as Bing Crosby or Freddie Mercury at Hotel Monte Vista © King….
On your next trip around Arizona, take a trip to Flagstaff, only a 2-hour drive from Phoenix, to experience sleeping in the same rooms as a multitude of legends – living and dead. The Hotel Monte Vista boasts a past drenched in drama with its prohibition era cocktail bootlegging, an array of famous guests, and ghost stories. That’s right, spirits of the dead are said to haunt the halls of the 1920s hotel, an attraction that may as well overshadow legends of celebrities that resided here. Try Room 305 for size – besides being where Jon Bon Jovi stayed, the ghost of a woman seems to sit in the rocking chair as she stares out the window. Check the names on the doors to see where other famous guests stayed, like Michael J. Fox in Room 216 and Freddie Mercury in Room 403.
Find a room at Hotel Monte Vista
Relais Hotel Du Vieux Paris, Paris – France
Welcome to Relais Hotel du Vieux Paris, an authentic Beat hotel © Mbzt
The Relais Hotel du Vieux Paris knew a real boom (or beat) in the 1950s when the Beat Generation lodged in this shabby joint in Paris. If only the walls could talk, they’d recall seeing authors like Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, or Jack Kerouac rummaging for ideas and inspiration. The community of artists, poets, writers, and musicians would meet and dialogue in the dingy rooms, exchanging ideas that would become some of their greatest works.
While in the past this hotel in the Latin Quarter offered modest rooms and one shared squat toilet, today the hotel has transformed into a chic 4-star establishment. Some Beat poets have returned to the hotel since its refurbishing in 1980 and signed what is now a guestbook full of very valuable signatures, tucked away for safe-keeping. Nowadays, you, too, can do some inspiration seeking of your own here without having to share any privacy with your neighbours.
Want more info about the great things you can do in Paris? Download our FREE city guide for your iPhone via the App Store.
Find a room at Hotel du Vieux Paris
Belmond Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Is that Justin Bieber I see down on Copacabana beach?
For some quality celebrity ogling, head straight to Rio de Janeiro’s Belmond Copacabana Palace. You might be lucky enough to catch Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus sunbathing. Other celebs like Will Smith, Helen Mirren, and Francis Ford Coppola have shacked up at the Palace to enjoy the Brazilian lifestyle.
The Belmond Copacabana Palace might inspire you to do like movie director Orson Welles, throwing a desk out the window, or re-enact a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers scene from Flying Down to Rio that took place here. Either way, the location, right on the famous and exciting Copacabana beach will have you feeling like you’re some kind of star.
Want more info about the great things you can do in Rio? Download our FREE city guide for your iPhone via the App Store.
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Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans, Louisiana – USA
You’re in for a whirl with the cocktails at Hotel Monteleone
For literature fans visiting New Orleans, the Hotel Monteleone is probably already on the list of must-sees. The hotel has been mentioned in works by Tennessee Williams and Ernest Hemingway, whom were once guests in the French Quarter abode. Since 1999, the hotel is recognised as a literary landmark by the Friends of the Library Association. For everybody else, we recommend visiting the Hotel Monteleone for their bar decorated like a carousel and a lavish lobby to outshine any celebrity bling. Situated a block away from blues-bar clad Bourbon Street, there’s no excuse not to visit between two jazz jam sessions.
Find a room at Hotel Monteleone
Savoy Hotel, London – UK
Sip on a Savoy cocktail inspired by celebrity guests
While in London, trade the double-deckers on the Strand for the checkered floors in the Savoy Hotel lobby. Head to the bar and feel like Frank Sinatra or Katherine Hepburn as you sip on a 1920s inspired cocktail served in vintage glassware.
In 1901, artist-in-residence at the Savoy, Claude Monet painted the Thames from his 6th-floor window. Nowadays, artists continue to be invited to set up their studio in the lobby. If you stayed in recent years, you might have run into actor Richard Harris (aka Dumbledore), whom called Savoy home for £6,000 a week until he passed away.
Want more info about the great things you can do in London? Download our FREE city guide for your iPhone via the App Store.
Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, Montreal – Canada
Fancy a bed-in in this famous suite where John Lennon recorded Give Peace a Chance?
In 1969, in Suite 1742 of Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal, John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded the single Give Peace a Chance surrounded by flowers and photographers. The suite, now baptised the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Suite, pays homage to the late artist with black and white pictures of the couple’s recording session.
If you check in on December 8th, the anniversary of John Lennon’s death, you’ll see two dozen red and white roses sitting in front of the suite in commemoration.
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Raffles – Singapore
The service and serenity at Raffles will make you feel like a star
White colonial architectural features, elegant door attendants, and dense tropical gardens – escape Singapore‘s vertiginous cityscape at Raffles hotel. Drop off your bags and head to the Long Bar for a Singapore Sling cocktail, mixed here for the first time in 1915. Ask the resident historian, Leslie Danker – who’s been part of the staff for 40 years – to tell you about the long list of the rich and famous that have made their mark at the Raffles. He’ll probably tell you the story about how during his stay in one of the suites, Rudyard Kipling wrote the children’s classic The Jungle Book. Other famous names that have recently roamed the halls include UK Royals Kate and William on their visit to Singapore.
Find a room at Raffles Singapore
Le Meurice, Paris – France
Wine and dine in style at Le Meurice © Janine Cheung
The opulent Le Meurice is located in the throbbing heart of Paris, a stone’s throw away from iconic locations such as the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre. Featuring an aesthetic inspired by the royal apartments of Versailles, this classy establishment has played host to its fair share of legends over the years. Top amongst the long list of the gentry to have stayed here is Salvador Dalí, who used the hotel as his winter home for many years.
Such was the Spanish surrealist’s presence here – the hotel named one of its elegant restaurants after him.
Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Havana – Cuba
Take a walk (or a drive) down memory lane – Hotel Nacional has hosted legendary guests for 87 years now © Bud Ellison
Cuba’s Hotel Nacional is one of the pearls of Havana’s Vedado district, standing tall above Havana’s long promenade, El Malecón. Over the course of its 87–year history, the art deco building has welcomed many a legend into its lush confines, including French playwright, philosopher and literary extraordinaire, Jean-Paul Sartre.
Along with his partner – writer and feminist Simone De Beauvoir, Sartre interviewed Che Guevara on their visit to Cuba in 1960, during which time, they made Hotel Nacional their humble abode. Other noteworthy patrons of the hotel include Winston Churchill, Marlon Brando, Rocky Marciano and Ernest Hemingway.
Read more: Discover the best of the country with our guide to the must-visit, authentic experiences in Cuba
