Hotel Union Øye

At the head of a Norwegian fjord, with mountains dropping directly into black water on almost every side, the Hotel Union Øye is one of the most dramatically situated hotels anywhere in Europe, the kind of setting that makes ordinary conversation feel faintly ridiculous. Kaiser Wilhelm II visited. Queen Maud of Norway was a regular guest. The hotel has barely changed since the 1890s, and the rooms are still named after their most distinguished former occupants, a small way of keeping their memory in residence. 27 rooms, and a remoteness that isn't a drawback so much as the entire point of coming.