The Place
If we awarded stars, the Laudensacks Parkhotel would win the lot: Hermann and Susanne Laudensack are charming hosts, the hotel is small and exquisite, and, reported our inspector, the food in the Michelin-starred restaurant is superb. And that seems strange, because this is a Kurhotel – a kind of health farm with a third-floor fitness room, sauna, steam room, solarium, and spaces for beauty treatment, massage from reflex-zone to shiatsu qigong, and hot stone and a host of other therapies (check the website). You can try them out on a Health Weekend. There is no pressure to diet, but for calorie-watching guests, Chef Joechim Raeder rustles up dishes that are healthy, delicious and filling.
The Parkhotel is a Jugendstil villa, built at the turn of the 19th century. The Laudensacks remodelled the interior, but have retained many of the original features, and there are delicate Art Nouveau lamps, textiles and other details wherever you look. It is a town hotel, but the windows look out over the park to which the name refers, and it is silent. This is definitely not a family hotel – regulars leave the kids behind and come here for a rest cure.