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Germany's oldest seaside resort — founded in 1793, when a Mecklenburg duke decided the Baltic Sea air would do his health some good — and the gleaming white neoclassical buildings along the beach earned it the nickname “The White Town by the Sea.” The hotel hosted the G8 summit in 2007, which brought George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, and Angela Merkel under one roof and required the construction of a 12-kilometre security fence around the entire peninsula. The resort has had a chequered financial history since, but the buildings remain magnificent and the Baltic setting — empty white beaches, pine forests, bracing sea air — is unlike anything else on this list. 225 rooms.
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Erstes Seebad — 21 July 1793, the duke goes in the water
Heiligendamm — Severin's Palladian temple by the sea
Hotel-Legenden — Bathing machines, and the guests of the 1930s