EAST Hong Kong

Class: First

Style: Modern design

Rooms: 345

To the charge that EAST is stuck in the middle of nowhere (the Taikoo Shing district might be thought of as Slough) comes the riposte that Swire Hotels' second property in Hong Kong contains pretty much everything a visitor might desire. EAST is pitched as a business hotel, but it is sharp, modern, playful at times, and endlessly efficient. The views from the 345 rooms and suites are of the mountains or the harbour, albeit with a cement glacier of residential blocks in the foreground. In the rooms, a sepia photograph slides back to reveal the TV, the bathrooms are stacked with Elemis products, and the larger suites sport bubble chairs and limited-edition resin dinosaurs, drolly stamped 'MADE IN CHINA'. Capital letters, and wordplay, don't stop here. The restaurant is called FEAST, and the gym BEAST, though as yet there's no bakery or micro-brewery dubbed YEAST. More enticing still are the outdoor facilities: a heated pool and a rooftop bar, Sugar, whose alfresco terrace and leather-jacketed staff attract young and young-at-heart execs by the score at happy hour. Neatly completing the package, EAST's artworks range from a swarm of orange butterflies on a lobby wall to a staircase fashioned like a bird's nest. For further diversion, the Cityplaza mall (and skating rink) is on the doorstep, as is the metro.

Source: CN Traveller Hot List 2011.