Mama Shelter

Bordeaux


With personalised iMacs, video booths and free movies in every room, Mama Shelter is up-to-the-minute. White rooms are small, medium or large; XL doubles have a sofa bed. The ground-floor restaurant (mains €13 to €29) sports the same signature rubber rings strung above the bar as other Philippe Starck–designed hotels. Summertime drinks and dinner are served on the sensational rooftop terrace.

Weekends usher concerts, gigs and other cultural happenings onto the small stage. Should you be wondering on earth the strange tower is protruding from the hotel building, know that Mama Shelter squats inside the city's landmark Gas Tower building, designed by Modernist architects in 1927.