Excelsior Hotel Ernst

“We’ll leave the cathedral in Cologne, because that’s where it belongs,” goes the lyric of perhaps the most famous German carnival song. But just like the cathedral, the Excelsior Hotel Ernst has been part of this metropolis since 1863. Much water has flowed down the Rhine since then, yet the Excelsior Hotel Ernst has remained the only five-star hotel in the city center all these years. No wonder, then, that it has long been regarded as a living hotel legend and that the people of Cologne love it almost as much as their Kölsch breweries—even though things are certainly a touch more elegant at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst.

Culinary Delights

At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, the guest is always the focus. This also holds true when it comes to cuisine. The hotel’s culinary offerings are open to everyone—not just overnight guests. At the multi-award-winning Hanse Stube, Executive Chef Lars Wolf infuses French haute cuisine with Rhineland accents, making every lunch and dinner a special occasion. It’s no wonder the gourmet restaurant is also known as “Cologne’s living room.” Located in the basement is the East Asian Michelin-starred restaurant taku. There, Mirko Gaul combines delicate fine dining with an uninhibited spirit of experimentation to create exciting, Asian-inspired compositions. He has been delighting the international gourmet scene for years—and has been awarded a Michelin star every year since 2011.

The Winter Garden is also particularly popular, where everything revolves around the “art of the little things,” as they like to say at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst. The exquisite pastries by Executive Pastry Chef Pavel Tanev and the “Excelsior Afternoon Tea” are served to the piano music of Steinway pianist Robin Meloy Goldsby. Long known to Cologne locals, the hotel bar is a true insider’s tip worldwide. At the Charles Bar, named after hotel owner Charles Roulet, lovers of fine cocktails, wine, or champagne gather and lose track of time for a moment. Because that’s exactly what it’s all about here: time and the opportunity to enjoy it.

Sleep Well

But at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, you can of course not only feast exquisitely, but also sleep like a dream—in a total of 134 luxuriously appointed rooms and suites featuring elegant marble bathrooms and a timelessly elegant ambiance. 
Incidentally, quite a few of them offer a view of the Domplatte directly across the street and what is likely the most famous cathedral in the world. So from the balcony, you don’t even have to miss “the view of the cathedral! La la la lalalala ...”

Photos: Excelsior Hotel Ernst