Les Meilleurs Hôtels de Luxe à Milan

Giorgio Armani's personal vision of a hotel occupies the upper floors of his flagship store on Via Manzoni with rooms that express the Armani aesthetic — greige, seamless, minimal, and quietly extraordinary. The spa, the rooftop terrace, and the restaurant are all executed at the highest level, and the sense of being inside one of fashion's greatest brains makes every moment feel considered.

• Armani design
• Fashion district
• Rooftop terrace

The most elegant luxury hotel in the Brera district, the Mandarin Oriental occupies five interconnected 18th-century townhouses with rooms that combine Milanese palazzo grandeur with the group's signature Asian serenity. The spa is the best in the city centre, and the Mandarin Bar is a masterclass in Italian craft cocktail culture.

• Brera luxury
• Best city spa
• Palazzo rooms

On a private courtyard garden behind Bulgari's Via Montenapoleone boutique, this ultra-exclusive hotel has one of the most enviable secret locations in Milan — a walled garden of 4,000 square metres of English-style lawn just steps from the Duomo. The gold-mosaic spa pool and the amber-lit bar are Milan at its most seductively magnificent.

• Secret garden
• Ultimate luxury
• Gold spa pool

A lake-edge resort combining Milanese style with the natural drama of the northern Italian lakes, 7Pines has spacious lake-view suites, an infinity pool that seems to pour into the water, and a restaurant sourcing from Piedmontese and Lombard producers. The 40-minute drive from the city centre is quickly forgotten on arrival.

• Lake retreat
• Infinity pool
• Lombardy escape

The most architecturally striking hotel in Milan, nhow was designed by Karim Rashid as a pink-and-silver futurist manifesto in the creative Tortona district. The music and design theme — recording studios on-site, instruments in rooms, and a staff who can arrange artist talks — makes it the natural home for the Salone del Mobile crowd.

• Karim Rashid design
• Tortona district
• Music & art

A boutique hotel steps from the Duomo with rooms individually designed to showcase a different Italian designer each year — making repeat visits always worth it. The art collection in the corridors is genuinely excellent, the breakfast is served in a vaulted space hung with contemporary works, and the rooftop view of the cathedral is one of Milan's best.

• Art collection
• Duomo steps
• Design rooms

A classic grand hotel on Piazza Fontana with reliable five-star service, a well-regarded restaurant, and the Starhotels group's trademark Italian hospitality. The recently renovated rooms and the proximity to both the Duomo and the financial district make it equally popular with fashion tourists and business travelers.

• Grand hotel
• Central
• Italian service

A design-hotel icon since its Vincenzo de Cotiis renovation in 2003, Straf continues to attract a coolly discerning crowd to its raw-material rooms of industrial steel, burnished brass, and cement. The bar at street level is a permanent fashion-week fixture, and the Duomo is literally across the road.

• Design icon
• Duomo opposite
• Fashion week crowd

The most romantic boutique on the Navigli canals, Maison Borella occupies a beautifully converted 19th-century palazzo directly on the Naviglio Grande with rooms overlooking the water and the lively canal-side aperitivo scene below. Ten individually designed rooms, exceptional breakfasts, and the most evocative canal views in the city.

• Navigli canal views
• Romantic
• Aperitivo access