SIDE Design Hotel Hamburg

SIDE sits on Drehbahn in Hamburg’s Neustadt, a mainstream design hotel close enough to Gänsemarkt and the State Opera for a casual stroll. The property is listed as gay-friendly, though the nearby action is elsewhere. The building wears a glass facade that looks as cold as the minimalist rooms inside. You get a spa with an indoor pool and a gym if you want to sweat out the jet lag. Google reviews number more than 2,200, averaging 4.5 stars. It’s a solid base for the city centre, the Binnenalster, and the theatres. But don’t expect the gay scene to spill onto your doorstep. Hamburg’s gay bars cluster in St. Georg, tucked behind the main station. That’s about a 20-minute walk away, or a couple of U-Bahn stops. An older listing placed the hotel in the Schanze district. That’s wrong.