Buddha Bar Hotel

Buddha Bar Hotel Review

With so many luxurious Prague hotels incorporating Czech design and history, it's hard to see the appeal of the more conceptually muddled Buddha Bar Hotel—especially when it comes at a premium price. (The concept is Chinoiserie-meets-art nouveau, as best we can tell.) The excessive qualities of both are interwoven in a clever way, with the designs from the hotel's original 100-year-old structure meshed with Chinese script and Buddhas throughout. Traverse the dark hallways and you'll note the design announces itself even here—each room has a lighted white tile with its number on the floor, like a space-age welcome mat. In the rooms themselves you'll find more of the same: black-lacquer cabinetry, silky smooth linens, and freestanding bathtubs with a mosaic of a dragon on the exterior. This being a hotel linked with a nightclub/restaurant, you can even dial in the television to play the same tunes the DJ is spinning in the bi-level basement eatery. The spa is so small that in-room treatments are recommended (often with those famed "Buddha Bar" mixes playing in the background). At peak times the lobby hums with a motley collection of moneyed European characters chatting with the Czech staff wearing Chinese outfits. Guests get to use a separate entrance for the Buddha Bar, and breakfast is served in the more continental Siddhartha Café.