With a superb location five minutes from Old Town Square, the renovated 71-room Maximilian is all about smart design. Czech-born architect Eva Jiricna has created attractive and useful communal spaces - a library, an honor bar, a small business center, and a glass-roofed breakfast room - that stir trendy travelers out of their chambers. The rooms are pretty swell, though, with high ceilings, neo-Cubist furniture, and great lighting - both recessed and on adjustable headboard stalks for reading in bed. For a real escape, there's the Floating Center - a room with a huge tub for relaxing in total silence. If you want something a bit less extreme, various Thai massages are on offer.