Hotel Missoni Edinburgh

Class: Deluxe

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 136

No sooner had Hotel Missoni opened in Edinburgh last June than Lady Gaga and Snow Patrol moved in. Designed by the famous Italian fashion label, the hotel is a real coup for Edinburgh and other Missoni hotels will follow in Kuwait, Oman, Cape Town and Rio. 'Fashionable. Bold. Passionate', is how the hotel describes itself on its website. 'Quirky' springs to mind upon entering the rather stern sandstone building: a pair of giant mosaic vases where you'd expect a concierge; the lobby turned into an XXL sparkling bar. Reception is a shiny Star Trek-style workstation, the computer terminal wrapped around a Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair. Missoni has designed the 136 bedrooms in purple, plum, orange and turquoise, emerald and azure blue, patterned in wavy bands, zig-zags, stripes and stylised florals. You'd expect such vibrancy to be anything but restful, and yet it is. Fortunately, this unconventional approach in no way affects the efficient and friendly service. La Cucina is one of the best Italian restaurants in Scotland, and dishes such as linguine with lobster, and polenta with black truffles and soft local cheeses, introduce fresh Scottish produce to the classic Italian cuisine. Included in the room rate is breakfast, two items of laundry, Wi-Fi, on-demand movies, iPod hook ups and a minibar stocked with beer, fruit juice and water.