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Five Best: Hotels with cinemas

If hotels could win Oscars, these would be on the short list

Rhiannon Batten
Saturday 06 November 2004 01:00 GMT
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Rival Hotel, Stockholm

Rival Hotel, Stockholm

Bang in the middle of Stockholm's hip Sodermalm district, the Rival is set in a 1930s building and is best known for its connections with Abba member Benny Andersson (who is one of its owners) and its on-site cinema. Alongside an Art-Deco-style bar, a bistro, a café and its own cosy bakery, the hotel features 99 colourful, well-designed rooms. All are as fun and as functional as you'd expect of any self-respecting Scandinavian bolthole, and dedicated movie fans will be pleased to find that all come with scenes from Swedish films above the bed (including Lasse Hallström's Abba: The Movie).

Hotel Rival, 3 Mariatorget, Stockholm (00 46 8545 789 00; www.rival.se). Doubles from Skr1,340 (£103), with breakfast

Carlyle Bay, Antigua

The Carlyle Bay's 80 suites are a subtle mix of contemporary furniture, elegant silk furnishings and sophisticated soft lighting. Set on a pristine white sand beach, the hotel also boasts two restaurants, three bars, a spa and a library. What really sets Carlyle Bay apart, however, is its private screening room.

Carlyle Bay, Old Road, St. Mary's, Antigua (00 1 268 484 0000). Doubles from $595 (£350) with breakfast

Westin Excelsior, Rome

Occupying a rather grand slot on Rome's exclusive Via Veneto, the Westin Excelsior was refurbished a couple of years ago - fortunately without losing any of its glittering turn-of-the-century pizzazz. All the rooms boast opulent furnishings, crystal chandeliers and hand-decorated ceilings. If you're feeling especially flush you can book into what is billed as Europe's largest suite, the Villa La Cupola, which is roughly twice the size of your average family home and occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the hotel. Here you can invite 20 of your friends to enjoy a night of celluloid in the private cinema - a screening of La Dolce Vita is of course obligatory.

Westin Excelsior, 125 Via Vittorio Veneto, Rome (00 39 06 47081; www.starwood.com). Standard doubles start from €300 (£214) and the Villa La Cupola from €17,000 (£12,143) per night, both without breakfast

The Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh

The Scotsman is arguably the best hotel in the Scottish capital and sits in the centre of the Old Town. It is also just a five-minute hop from the Georgian New Town and has a luxurious but unstuffy atmosphere most other hotels can only try to emulate, along with estate tweed furnishings that stop just short of being twee. What more could you ask for? A cinema perhaps? But then of course, it's got that too. Guests can curl up in the screening room's leather seats on Sunday evenings, where they are treated to a regular rota of classic movies.

The Scotsman Hotel, 20 North Bridge, Edinburgh (0131-556 5565; www.thescotsmanhotel.co.uk). Doubles start at £160 per night, without breakfast

Courthouse Hotel, London

Set to open at the beginning of December in a former magistrates' court in the West End, the sleek new Courthouse Hotel promises 116 sybaritic rooms, a breezy roof terrace, an on-site spa and the all-important private cinema. The building may once have hosted cases involving such well-known defendants as Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Oscar Wilde, but these days the aim is to make both celebrities and the not-so-famous a bit more welcome. The hotel's bar is hewn from the court's old cells and the restaurant is centred around a judge's bench and a witness stand.

The Courthouse Hotel, 19-21 Great Marlborough Street, London (020-7297 5555). Doubles from £250 per night, without breakfast

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