Christmas markets, a red light district and the world's most expensive concert hall: A winter weekend in Hamburg

Why go now?

Hamburg, that red-bricked port forever associated with ground beef sandwiches and The Beatles, is a fine prospect in winter. This time of year sees the return of the beer-fuelled Hamburger Dom funfair (on until 4 December), while the Reeperbahn’s (1) cafes and bars spark to life in the dark nights under a neon glow. On 11 January the city’s new cultural landmark, the Elbphilharmonie (2), will officially open to great fanfare as the world’s most expensive concert hall. The final bill after construction ended in October was said to total €860m.

Get your bearings

Hamburg is easy to get around. The egg-shaped centre is squeezed between the main rail lines to the east, the Alster lake (3) to the north-east, the gardens (4) that follow the line of the old city walls to the north and west, and the broad River Elbe (5) to the south. The southern part of the city comprises the old docks, magnificently reborn as HafenCity (6).

Day one

Take a hike

Begin a morning stroll when it’s quiet and the porticoed shopfronts along the Colonnaden (7) are still thick with shadows. Wander south, past the Alster lake (3), a silvery bowl popular for year-round pleasure boating, before turning right, past the boutiques and renaissance arches of Alsterarkaden (8). The city’s oldest shopping arcade, it is hung with creaky lanterns, gilded fish and tridents. Cross the Reesendamm bridge for views of the Kleine Alster basin, then follow the ghost of empire to the Hamburg Rathaus (9). Once the seat of the Hanseatic League, its classic gingerbread house facade trumps every other city hall across Germany. Outside, it’s awash in baroque splendour; inside its beehive interiors compel you to explore (11am-4pm daily, weekend hours vary; €4). 

Hamburg's photogenic city hall

From here, the Rathausmarktplatz cuts west through the Altstadt to a series of deep waterways that fan out from the Alster Canal. You’ll find more of the same as you continue south-west towards the red-brick buildings of Speicherstadt (10), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest warehouse district on earth. It’s framed by the wizard-hat spires of the St-Nikolai Memorial (11) and St Catherine’s Church (12), where Johann Sebastian Bach once pedalled away on the organ (katharinen-hamburg.de; 11am-5pm at weekends, other days vary; free).

Lunch on the run

In Berlin they swear by currywurst, but in Hamburg locals argue about where to get the crumbliest fish fingers. It’s a winning formula the closer you get to the sea, with grab-and-go sandwich counters lining the wharves from Speicherstadt’s timber-pile foundations to the St Pauli Pier (13). Dinky pitstop and local favourite Brücke 10 (bruecke-10.de; open 10am-10pm daily) serves a variety of buttery herring and salmon buns (from €3), as well as local speciality krabbenbrötchen – North Sea brown shrimps on rye, €9.50. 

Seafood sandwiches are a speciality of the city's food markets

A walk in the park

Weave through the streets of the St Pauli district from here to Planten ind Blomen (14), the green lung of the city. Its first seeds were planted in 1821 and the garden has dug in its roots to form a parkland belt that curves round the city centre’s midriff. It’s open from 7am to 8pm in winter and until 11pm in summer (plantenunblomen.hamburg.de).

An aperitif

Beat the work-day rush from the park to a 23rd-floor perch at Clouds (15) (clouds-hamburg.de; dishes from €10) atop the Dancing Towers, a pair of wonky skyscrapers designed to look like tangoing lovers. The highest bar in the city, it struts above St Pauli, and has a rooftop party deck one floor up. While nursing a biscuit-brown Krombacher wheat beer (€4.50), you’ll spy the stone-faced Otto von Bismarck monument (16) in Alterelb park below and count more bridges than you’d cross in Amsterdam and Venice combined. 

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Dine with the locals

The Gröninger Braukeller (17) (groeninger-hamburg.de; dishes from €9.30) across town clings to beer hall tradition with all the trimmings you’d expect: cellar-aged casks; gigantic copper stills; a naughty anything-goes weekend atmosphere. Besides that, on the oak-stained tables you’ll find mountainous plates of suckling pig and sausages to soak up all those thick-foamed home brew pilsners (€2.40).

Day two

Sunday morning: out to brunch

Rise early and follow the cry of gulls to the ornately-domed Fish Market on Grosse Elbstrasse (18) (fischauktionshalle.com). It’s only open on Sundays (5am to 9.30am, 6am in winter), but don’t expect it to be quiet. It’s also the time when pie-eyed stragglers from the clubs in the nearby Reeperbahn red-light district (19) find themselves sobering up in wait for the shutters to roll open for breakfast. Order a fresh fish sandwich or quarkballchen (doughy cheese bites). 

Window shopping

Locals flit between the gallerias and passages of Neuer Wall (20) and Grosse Bleichen (21), a canal-lined rectangle of streets where you can pick up the latest high street fashions cheaper than you ever could at home. 

For something more seasonal, amble along the Kunst Meile (22) (kunstmeile-hamburg.de), past the city’s most influential galleries to HafenCity (6) for one of Hamburg’s spectacular Christmas markets (until 30 December; 11am to 10pm at weekends, other days vary). Tradition seeps from the waterfront, where antique boats are festooned with lights and stalls sell bratwursts big enough to sink a ship. 

The city gets especially festive for Christmas

Cultural afternoon

At the crossroads of antiquity and modernity, the Elbphilarmonie concert hall (2) (countdown.elbphilharmonie.de) is becoming a hub for harbour regeneration. When it finally opens in January (10 times over-budget and nine years late), the gigantic crest-shaped glass wave will reimagine the dockside quarter as a cultural zone. Until then, it’s possible to listen to electro pioneer Brian Eno’s walk-through sound installation (2pm-8pm, until 4 December; €3). It also houses the Plaza, a viewing gallery from where you can breathe in the salt-tanged maritime history and watch cargo ships shuttle up and down the Elbe. 

The icing on the cake

The city has Miniatur Wunderland (23) (miniatur-wunderland.com), the world’s largest model railway, and Knust (24) (knusthamburg.de), a slaughterhouse-turned-live-music-venue. But few oddities beat the eccentricity of the nuttily-bonkers German Food Additives Museum (25) (zusatzstoffmuseum.de; open 11am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday, Thursday 2pm-8pm). Dedicated to emulsifiers, stabilisers, sweeteners, and preservatives, a trip here guarantees you’ll never look at a German cookie the same way again.

The new Elbphilharmonie is the world's most expensive concert hall (Thies Raetzke)

Getting there

You can fly to Hamburg Airport (26), 9km north of the city centre, with easyJet (from Gatwick, Luton, Manchester and Edinburgh), British Airways (from Heathrow) and Ryanair (from Stansted).  

The suburban rail link (S-Bahn line 1) runs from the airport every 10 minutes for a fare of €3.20 (hvv.de). It takes 25 minutes to reach Hamburg's vast main station, the Hauptbahnhof (27). Taxis make the same journey for between €25-35 depending on your final destination.

Staying there

The Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten (28) (fairmont.com/vier-jahreszeiten-hamburg) opened in 1897 and is a grand old dame with 156 wrinkle-free rooms and more five-star pomp than anywhere else in Hamburg. If splashing out, request a lake view and try the two Michelin-starred Haerlin Restaurant. Doubles from €225, room only. 

The Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten is Hamburg's most exclusive address

With cabins (not rooms), the 25hours Hotel Hamburg HafenCity (29) (25hours-hotels.com) has the harbour spirit in its bones. The seafaring decor is held together by vintage sailing accessories, bunk beds, and logbooks to leaf through, while there’s a handy kiosk on the ground floor selling Hamburg originals. Doubles from €124, room only. 

Superbude has two offbeat hostels in the city, including a corker in St Pauli (30) (superbude.de). It’s heavy on hipster attitude and up-cycled furniture, with doubles from €60, room only. 

More information

hamburg-travel.com

Click here to view a Christmas Market cruise of Hamburg, Amsterdam and Antwerp, with Independent Holidays.

48 hours in Wellington: Hotels, restaurants and places to visit

Why go now?

Thriving Wellington is a perfect city to escape to during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter. January features international cricket, while 6 February is Waitangi Day – which commemorates the ratification of the Waitangi Treaty, which enshrined citizenship rights for Maori people and is a de facto national day for celebrating New Zealand’s European and Pacific heritage. And until 2018 the acclaimed Gallipoli – The Scale of Our War exhibition at the Te Papa Museum (1) (tepapa.govt.nz) looks in detail at the Anzac’s role in this bloody battle in the First World War.

Te Papa Museum

Get your bearings

New Zealand’s capital is at the very southern tip of the North Island. This is a small city and practically everything in the downtown district is in a stright line between the mountains that rise to the west and the bay to the east. The suburbs spread as the bay widens out, with the airport (2) on a small flat plate of land to the south east. Ferries to Picton on South Island run from the ferry port (3) just north-east of the city centre.

Trolleybuses run in central Wellington, but the chances are you won’t need to use them much as it’s so walkable. You can get a Snapper card from newsagents (snapper.co.nz) to reduce a central bus zone ride from NZ$2 (£1.18) to NZ$1.66 (£0.98) and top it up at will.

The main tourist information centre is called i-Site (4) (wellingtonnz.com), and is located on the corner of Victoria and Wakefield Streets in the city centre. Open 8.30am-5pm daily.

Day one

Take a view

Follow the curve of the bay down to the small beach at Oriental Bay (5) and from there you’ll see Mount Victoria (6) rising above the city. If you’re feeling fit, you can yomp up to the summit; there are various bike and walking routes, including pleasant woodland strolls. 

Mount Victoria also gives its name to the neighbourhood of streets to the west of the mountain that are home to Wellington’s cool crowd, including comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, who you can still see out and about in town.

The view from Mount Victoria (Rob Suisted/New Zealand Tourism)

Take a hike

A northern arc of a stroll allows you to take in practically all of central Wellington’s main sights. After descending Mount Victoria and checking out the colonial houses on Marjoribanks Street, you can see the Art Deco Embassy Theatre (7) on the corner with Kent Terrace. Turn right on to Oriental Parade and you’ll come across the graceful heft of the Wellington City Fire Station (8). 

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Continue straight ahead to Clyde Quay Wharf (9), where you’ll find a pop-up sauna in an old shipping container with a diving board that lets you launch yourself straight into the freezing cold sea after your 15 minutes of heat.

Double back and turn right along Wellington Waterfront Walk, following it until you cross a bridge, turning left immediately afterwards and joining Harris Street. To your left are steps, which will take you to Civic Square (10), one of Wellington’s main public meeting spots. 

'The Beehive' (Shutterstock)

Exit on to Victoria Street and cut down Chews Lane to Willis Street, which, if you head right along it, becomes Custom House Quay. You’ll pass many of the city’s skyscrapers along this street. Go left at Bunny Street and you’ll see the city’s fine old railway station (11). 

Diagonally opposite is the unmistakable sight of the Parliament building (12). There’s an original colonial building connected to a dramatic 1960s extension affectionately called "the Beehive" by Wellingtonians, and designed by a Scot, Sir Basil Spence. Tours of Parliament are available daily (10am to 4pm; parliament.nz).

Lunch on the run

Various Kiwi celebs have signed the plates that hang on the wall at Monsoon Poon (13) at 12 Blair Street, though to be perfectly honest I was pushed to recognise the names of any of them. No matter, it’s an informal and fun lunch joint proferring an odd but enjoyable mix of Indian, Thai, Malaysian and Chinese food. The beef rendang is very good, likewise the butter chicken (moonsoonpoon.co.nz; open daily 11am to 10pm).

Dining at Monsoon Poon

Window shopping

Wellington Underground Market (14), under Frank Kitts Park at Jervois Quay, runs officially from 10am to 4pm every Saturday, though in practice it stays open later, so you’ll have plenty of time for an afternoon shop (undergroundmarket.co.nz). You can pick up clothes, jewellery, ornaments and food – and there are live tunes.

Wellington Underground Market

An aperitif

Kiwis are crackers for craft beers, and the hottest name on everyone’s lips right now is The Garage Project (15) at 68 Aro Street (garageproject.co.nz), where they brew everything from IPA to pilsener, and you can sip it all in a default hipster setting (found furniture, white tiles, exposed steel and wood, lots of beards). Open Friday and Saturday 10am-9pm, Sunday to 7pm, Monday 2pm-6pm, Tuesday-Thursday 12pm-8pm.

The Garage Project

Dine with the locals

Some restaurant reviews can be rather off in real life but if you don’t like the whole lamb shoulder (find some friends to share with) at The Bresolin (16) at 278 Willis Street (thebresolin.co.nz) I’ll eat my hat – or maybe just the rest of your dinner. Cooked for 12 hours by a team led by Wellington superchefs Leonardo and Lorenzo Bresolin, it’s some of the best lamb I’ve ever stuck a fork into. Book ahead for Saturday nights – and dress up. Open weekdays 7am-11pm, weekends 9am-11pm.

Day two

Sunday morning: out to brunch

Olive (17) at 170 Cuba Street (oliverestaurant.co.nz) is popular among Wellintonians for its extravagant brunches (tiramisu waffles with boysenberry compote, vanilla mascarpone and coffee syrup) and sophisticated air.

A walk in the park

A cross betweena a zoo and a park, Zealandia’s (18) aim is to preserve the landscape of Wellington in a time capsule before settlers arrived here and changed the natural set up. A beautiful place for a walk, its 225 hectares are packed with plants. You’ll find it on Waiapu Rd (visitzealandia.com).

Zealandia (Howard/Harriet Greenwood/Flickr)

Alternatively, hire a car and head out of town to the Wairarapa, a region of spectacular scenery, with vineyards, fields and walks along the river valleys. It’s all sheltered by the Rimutaka Mountains, which locals comically refer to as “the hill”. creating a warm, dry microclimate a world away from “Windy Welly”. Don’t want to drive? No problem. There’s a cycle trail running from Wellington to the Wairarapa over the Rimutaka mountains (wairarapanz.com/rimutakacycletrail).

Cultural afternoon

Wellington is famous for its films, comedy and literature. Visit the Tinakori Road home of one of the city’s most talented scribes, Katherine Mansfield (19), known for writing The Woman At The Store and Prelude (katherinemansfield.com). It was built in 1888 and has been restored to how it would have looked back in Mansfield’s day.

Katherine Mansfield House (Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society Inc)

The icing on the cake

Chances are if you’ve come all the way to New Zealand, you’re not just spending time in Wellington. The railway journey north from the city is one of the world’s greatest, packed with tunnels that plough through mountains and tracks that wend their way round cliffs and thread between valleys over huge viaducts. 

Kiwirail’s Northern Explorer service (kiwirailscenic.co.nz) runs four times a week as far as Auckland (12 hours; singles from NZ$179/£106), or you could hop off at Ohakune for the spectacular mountains, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, and return to Wellington the following day.

Travel essentials

Getting there

The writer flew with Singapore Airlines (singaporeairlines.com), which serves Wellington from Heathrow via Singapore and Canberra four times a week. It also flies from Manchester.

There are no one-stop flights from the UK to Wellington. Other carriers offering two-stop services include Air New Zealand (airnewzealand.co.uk), Qantas (qantas.com.au) and Emirates (emirates.com).

From the airport (2) a taxi takes 20 minutes into town NZ$44 (£26) – though ask for the scenic route via the bay rather than the tunnel (NZ$9/£5.30 extra and 10 mins longer) – while the Airport Flyer bus takes around 45 minutes to get to the stop on Queensgate (NZ$9/£5.30; metlink.org.nz). 

Staying there

QT Museum Wellington (20) at 90 Cable St (qthotels.com.au) is about to launch as the Aussie design-focused brand’s first overseas venture. It’s set within the old Museum Hotel building, a local landmark which was jacked up and moved 100 yards on rails from its original home when the Te Papa Museum (1) was being built. Wellington’s hippest hotel by miles. Doubles from NZ$250 (£147), room only.

QT Museum Wellington

Quest on Thorndon (21) (questonthorndon.co.nz) is a cool little hotel on Thorndon Quay, a stone’s throw from Wellington’s waterside, with a friendly vibe. Doubles from NZ$222 (£131), room only

Halswell Lodge (22) at 21 Kent Terrace (halswell.co.nz) is an affordable option in the centre of town with free wi-fi and parking. It’s within walking distance of all the major attractions. Doubles from NZ$100 (£59), room only.

Click here to view our New Zealand Tour, with Independent Holidays

48 hours in Washington DC: Hotels, restaurants and places to visit

Why go now?

A nation is many things: its people, its politics, its art, its architecture and its memories. In the US, all of these elements can be found in the nation’s small but palpably powerful capital, Washington DC.

Nowhere else in the Union are the nation’s ideals expressed so hopefully and its darkest moments remembered so poignantly than in the monuments and museums along the Mall. The latest addition, a long time in coming, is the National Museum of African American History and Culture (1), which opened in September. And now is an especially significant time to visit, as the nation prepares to swear in its 45th president.

Get your bearings

DC is a small city, just 60sq miles; a tenth the size of London. A new Circulator Bus (decirculator.com; tickets $1) loops around the main attractions along the Mall, as well as servicing upmarket Georgetown and lively Adams Morgan to the north.

The Mall, as seen from the Lincoln Memorial (Mihoko Owada)

To get further afield use the metro (wmata.com; fares from $1.75 to $5.90 depending on distance). Penn Quarter, where the main train station is located, lies to the north-east of the Mall around Pennsylvania Ave as it runs between the White House (2) and Capitol Hill (3). Surprisingly, the legislative heart of the city is a popular residential quarter and is full of good restaurants and nightlife. West, across the river, and you’re in Virginia, where you’ll find the vast Arlington National Cemetery (4) and the Pentagon (5). 

The tourist information centre (6) can be found at 506 9th St (dcchamber.org; open 9am-5pm weekdays, closed weekends).

Day one

Take a view

Climb the steps of Henry Bacon’s 1922 Lincoln Memorial (7) for the defining DC view down the Mall. It’s here that Martin Luther King Jr stood when he called down the moral authority of the great sculpted colossus and the famous words of the Gettysburg Address. In the pink light of dawn no view in the city is more lovely.

Lincoln Memorial (Kevin Labianco)

A walk in the park

America’s most famous lawn, the Mall, is just two miles from tip to toe. Start at Lincoln’s great Greek temple (7) before moving on to the contrasting Vietnam Veterans Memorial (8) and the Korean War Veterans Memorial (9) either side of the reflecting pool. While the former is pure abstraction, a deep V-shaped granite gash in the ground, the latter depicts a life-sized platoon striding across the juniper bushes. As winter hastens and snow falls on their field coats it is particularly evocative. 

Southeast, beside the Tidal Basin, is the 30ft tall memorial to Martin Luther King Jr (10). He stands side on to the aspiring 555ft obelisk that is the Washington Monument (11), the marble blocks of which were quarried by slaves in Maryland mines. Reserve a ticket in advance (recreation.gov) to ride the elevator to the top for a bird’s eye view of Capitol Hill (3) flanked on either side by the extraordinary collection of ten Smithsonian Museums.

The Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

Lunch on the run

The best lunch option on the Mall is the Mitsitam Native Foods Café (12) (mitsitamcafe.com) in the National Museum of the American Indian (corner of 4th St and Independence Ave SW), which attracts office workers and tourists alike with its cedar-planked wild salmon and Great Plains buffalo burgers. 

Otherwise, follow the Capitol crowd to 20 Pennsylvania Ave SE where you’ll find Sushi Capitol (13) (sushicapitol.com) run by Minoru Ogawa, the man previously behind the Mandarin Oriental kitchen. 

Righteous Cheese, one of the stalls at Union Market (Alex Proimos/Flickr)

More adventurous eaters should make the worthwhile trek to the sunlit warehouse of Union Market (14) (unionmarketdc.com) at 1309 5th St NE, where pop-up restaurants try out all the latest DC food trends, such as TaKorean (Korean-inspired tacos) and DC-adapted, gluten-free Indian dosas.

Cultural afternoon

The National Museum of African American History (1) (nmaahc.si.edu; 10am-5.30pm daily) opened this autumn, more than 100 years after it was first proposed by black veterans of the Civil War. The inaugural exhibition features 34,000 fascinating artefacts that move from the literal and metaphorical darkness of slavery – located 80-feet below ground level – through exhibits exploring the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement to the light-filled top floor galleries showcasing the African American contribution to the country’s music, dance and popular culture. Given high demand, visits are currently by free timed pass, issued at 9.15am everyday at the Constitution Avenue entrance. 

The striking new National Museum of African American History (Smithsonian)

An aperitif

Head to Gallery Place where you’ll find the cosy brick-lined Partisan (15) (thepartisandc.com) at 709 D St NW. As the name suggests, the men behind the bar – Jeff Faile, Brent Kroll and Greg Engert – have strong opinions on cocktails, beer and wine. Aside from dozens of sour ales there are biodynamic orange wines and Faile’s smoky rye- and mescal-based cocktails with chilli oil and chocolate twists that suit the colder weather. 

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Dine with the locals 

With its comic book wallpaper, cafeteria chairs and paper lanterns, Bantam King (16) (bantamking.com) at 501 G St NW is a fun and informal Chinatown option, dedicated to chicken ramen and Japanese fried chicken.  

Alternatively, book ahead for Jeremiah Langhorne’s mid-Atlantic focused restaurant, The Dabney (17) (thedabney.com) at 122 Blagden Alley NW. With no gas in the kitchen, Langhorne’s heritage Maryland and Virginia dishes of rock fish, pork belly, quail and sweet potato rolls are all cooked over an open fire. If you can’t get a reservation, come at 5.30pm for one of the few walk-in tables or lie in wait in the gorgeous Columbia Room bar next door.

The Dabney (The Dabney/Facebook)

Day two

Sunday Morning: Out to brunch

Join sweat-soaked joggers and Sunday cyclists for small-batch baked goods and a cup of silky smooth Stumptown coffee at Baked & Wired (18) (bakedandwired.com) at 1052 Thomas Jefferson St NW in preppy Georgetown. While the counter is lined with pretty cupcakes beneath glass cloches, the weekends are the best time to sample traditional pies stuffed with peaches, mixed berries and pecans. Sunday hours are from 8am-8pm.

Take a hike

Filled with Washington’s best Federal American and Victorian architecture, Georgetown is made for ambling, especially in late autumn when the neighbourhood is at its most atmospheric. From Baked & Wired (18) you can wander down the banks of the 19th-century C&O Canal (19), before heading north up Wisconsin Avenue NW, where JFK proposed to Jackie at Martin’s Tavern (20). Further north, at 3001 R St NW you’ll find DC’s great and good interred beneath the brooding Victorian memorials and obelisks in the historic Oak Hill Cemetery (21) (oakhillcemeterydc.org), which is open from 1-4pm on Sunday.

The C&O Canal

Take a ride 

As well as walking, Georgetown is a great cycling spot, particularly along the C&O Canal Towpath, a flat, tree-lined route that runs 185 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland. The 14-mile ride to Great Falls (22), just outside the city, is the most popular. Find trail maps at Bike Washington (bikewashington.org/canal) and hire bikes at Big Wheel Bikes (23) (bigwheelbikes.com) next to the canal at 1034 33rd St NW. The cost is $21/35 per half-/full-day.

Window shopping

Book Hill is a Parisian-style row of antique stores, art galleries and independent stores like Lynn Louisa (24) (lynnlouisa.com) at 1631 Wisconsin Ave NW. For the perfectly polished DC look, book into the homegrown beauty spa Bluemercury (25) (bluemercury.com) at 3059 M St NW; and if you’re off to a function but don’t want to lash out the cash, hire your formalwear from Rent the Runway (26) (renttherunway.com) at 3336 M St NW. 

Book Hill (Rudi Riet/Flickr)

Icing on the cake

Still one of America’s finest jazz supper clubs, Blues Alley (27) (bluesalley.com) at 1073 Wisconsin Ave NW is a venerable DC institution housed in an 18th-century, red-brick carriage house. Dine on Creole cuisine and book ahead if a big name is on the billing. 

Travel essentials

Getting there

Washington Dulles Airport (28) is served from Heathrow by British Airways (ba.com), Virgin Atlantic (virgin-atlantic.com), American Airlines (aa.com) and United Airlines (united.com).

The airport is 26 miles west of the city centre. Between 6am and 10.40pm Silver Line Express buses leave every 15 to 20 minutes for Wiehle-Reston East station (29) ($5 one way), from where you can continue your journey into the city by metro. A taxi costs between $65 and $75.

Staying there 

For budget accommodation, try HI Washington DC (30) (hiwashingtondc.org) at 1009 11th St NW, which has dorm beds starting at $32 including breakfast, and private rooms from $92. It’s staffed by friendly volunteers who organise tours, pub crawls and dance classes. 

Those in the know make a beeline for the handsome rooms at the art deco Carlyle Dupont Circle (31) (carlylehoteldc.com) at 1731 New Hampshire Ave NW. It was refurbished in 2015 when it became part of the Kimpton brand. Deluxe king rooms from $170, room only.

Kimpton Carlyle Dupont Circle

Arguably the best address in Washington DC is the Beaux Arts beauty, The Jefferson (32) (jeffersondc.com) at 1200 16th St NW. Rooms are full of antiques and Gilded Age luxury, and the on-site cocktail bar is superb. Classic rooms start at $372, room only.

More information

capitalregionusa.co.uk