The Vibe: Retro.

The Area: In the heart of the Lesser Town, the Malá Strana, the historic district of winding cobblestone streets below the Prague Castle.

The DNA: Prague is a city that, for various world-historical reasons, sat out the heyday of Fifties and Sixties modernism. So when a hotel like the Vintage Design Hotel Sax ventures down the retro-modernist road, it does so with a special vigor. A couple of present-day Czech architects have transformed this centuries-old building into a boutique-hotel fantasy, almost a movie-set world full of vivid colors, bold prints, and classics of mid-century furniture design. The riotous public spaces feature original furniture representing the period’s cutting edge designers such as Panton, Colani, Saarinen, Eames and others. It puts the minimalist design hotels to shame, and the rooms are toned down just enough to be livable. The Sax lacks a restaurant – though there’s no shortage in the neighborhood.

Suite-Me-Up: Rooms are not quite luxury-hotel material, but they are comfortable, and the attic rooms, up under the eaves, trade a little bit of headroom for views that peek out over Prague’s picturesque rooftops.

✅ free Wi-Fi • size matters: 22 rooms (13-38m2) (140-409 sq ft) • architecture & interior design: Nadi Sádovská, Jaromír Pitzinger • parking possible on-site (charged) • no pets allowed • 24-hour front desk