nhow Milano

Class: First

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 245

If we were writing a TV ad we’d say it’s Milan Fashion Week style at Zara prices; if we were proper travel writers we’d make some kind of pun in the headline. Hopefully we would think of something better than Right Nhow. (As it is, we get to write the pun and blame someone else.) And anyway, you get the idea — this city has always had some very stylish hotel options, but they’re typically priced in the luxury bracket.

Nhow manages to be quite a bit more affordable, by making a couple of compromises. It’s more a design hotel than a lavish luxury hotel, and it’s located a bit outside the city center, in Via Tortona, a repurposed industrial park that’s newly gentrifying into a southern arts and commercial center.

With a design by Matteo Thun the good looks are pretty much effortless. The rooms are minimal, slightly retro-futuristic — much closer to Sixties swank than Renaissance opulence. There’s a stylish little restaurant, and more events space than you probably need, and that’s about it. If you’re the caviar-and-butler-service type, you probably know where else to look — but for an affordable foothold ten minutes from central Milan, book Nhow. Sorry, couldn’t help ourselves.