Brussels Welcome Hotel

Step inside this hotel, on a former canal bank and site of the fish market, and you leave behind the big, Belgian city for somewhere more exotic. Rooms are themed on some of the world's more colourful locations - from Bali to Zanzibar - and furnished authentically or with great creativity. The owners are passionate travellers and have picked up items, and ideas, from their journeys. In 'Silk Road', there's a carved screen as a huge bedhead and silk hangings; in India, thick wooden doors open into a bathroom with a skyline mural of mystical domes and minarets; there are red-painted floorboards and Buddha figures in Vietnam; while Egypt is seductive in golds and blues with a massive bathroom with lanterns and whirlpool bath. It's worth upgrading if you're here several nights as the standard rooms are on the smaller side. Breakfast and evening tapas dishes are offered in the cosy, panelled bar and lobby area. Or there's a wealth of seafood restaurants on the street opposite.