Set within the former Bavarian State Bank just steps from Munich’s historic old town, Rosewood Munich is a study in quiet luxury – elegant enough to rival the city around it and serene enough to retreat into. Zaneta Cheng savours every moment of her stay
To visit munich is to be immersed in a city shaped by Bavarian royalty – a land of fairytale castles and a capital with an old town that’s retained much of the architectural grandeur shaped by the Wittelsbach family that ruled the southern German kingdom from 1180 to 1918. The city’s history lends it a certain kind of confidence. There’s nothing loud about its grandeur. No chest beating, no desperate attempts to impress. It’s a city where royal mansions are a coin’s toss from a beer hall and sausage stands – wealthy, cultured, deeply comfortable with its traditions, all organised with German precision.
Rosewood Munich slips right into this world. Occupying two historic buildings, one of which was the former headquarters of the Bavarian State Bank, it welcomes visitors via a grand stone staircase flanked by columns that leads up to an open foyer. Sun streams in from the windows that wrap the space, making for a warm welcome. Luxury here doesn’t scream. It’s as effortless as the check-in process. No theatrics, just efficient service that takes you to your room before travel fatigue sets in – even if there are now Cathay Pacific flights bringing travellers direct from Hong Kong.
The guestrooms are spread out across both sides of the foyer. Panelled hallways lead guests towards their rooms. Whatever quiet luxury is, the rooms at Rosewood Munich are the gold standard. Painted in muted Bavarian greens, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the avenues of the Altstadt, the main bedroom features buttery leathers and warm woods, while warm veined marble, brightly lit, ensconces even the weariest of voyagers in a deep sense of calm and release. The bed itself is the kind that ruins even the best of itineraries. It certainly lured yours truly backearly from a scrumptious contemporary Bavarian dinner at the hotel restaurant Brasserie Cuvilliés after a particularly big first evening of wandering Munich’s streets. Not even a spread of wiener schnitzel, Bavarian pastas and Alpine fish could keep me from sinking into the smooth linens and impossibly cosy mattress after a soak in the bathtub.
During the day, the property is open and inviting. Walking past its vast windowed corridors that lead from the hotel’s main restaurant through the Wintergarten and fireside nook, it’s not hard to imagine that this was once a place of serious money talk. Even now, the cosmopolitan set take their meetings beside the fireplace while the ladies who lunch bring their dogs with them for afternoon tea with friends. The spa is in the basement. Given Rosewood’s headquarters in Hong Kong and the group’s global portfolio of hotels, those flying over can rest assured that massages at the Munich property rival even the firmest backrubs from Bali to Thailand.
The thing is, there’s just so much to see outside the hotel. Difficult as it is to peel oneself away from the place, the greatest luxury of the Rosewood Munich is its location in the Altstadt. TheBavarian capital’s old town – where the Hofbräuhaus, the city’s most famous beer hall, sits a few steps from Marienplatz, the town square home to a daily mechanical Glockenspielballet – is all within a 10-minute walk from the hotel. Walk a little further and there’s the Viktualienmarkt, an open-air beer garden and popular daily food market for locals and tourists alike – the ideal spot for a quick lunch of sharp Bavarian cheese sandwiches grilled fresh in front of your eyes or fresh sausages with pretzels, sauerkraut and beer – before wandering into grand squares like the Odeonsplatz, home to the Theatinerkirche and the Felherrnhalle, or onwards to the Frauenkirche or the Alter Peter, both churches that open their spires to visitors for a panoramic view of the city.
The magic of Altstadt is that it’s as much a place for locals as it is for visitors. Münchners get their beers from the same beer gardens after work. They visit the same holiday markets at Marienplatz during Christmas and they come for the same festivities during Fasching and the same tented wonderland during Oktoberfest. Everyone gathers in the same Hofbräuhaus to share the lager that has been poured in the establishment for the past 200 years.
But it’s always easy to nip back to Rosewood Munich. Quietly elegant. A port in a day of walking through bustling markets and vast museums. Should the desire for something a bit more exciting emerge, there is always the hotel’s Bar Montez. Inspired by Lola Montez, a 19th-century performer and muse to King Ludwig I, the live jazz bar is a respite for local sophisticates after a day’s work. And at the end of the day, be it one of work or play, isn’t an excellent drink just what we all want?
