Four Seasons Hotel Seoul

Gyeongbokgung was built in 1395 as the main palace of the Joseon kings, and since 2015 it has had Four Seasons Hotel Seoul for a neighbour, just over half a mile away on foot. Heerim Architects & Planners took the hotel up 29 storeys, in glass ribbed with fins that glow gold after dark. The height earns its keep. From a room on the palace side, Gyeongbokgung lies below like its own floor plan, courtyard after courtyard of grey tile, with wooded hills climbing straight up behind. Downstairs, the tall lobby is hung with long panels of bronze mesh, and the armchairs are drawn up to a fire burning in a block of carved stone.

Recommended for anyone on a first visit to Seoul who means to walk to the palace and drink well afterwards, and for families: the Kids For All Seasons lounge costs nothing and opens on weekends and public holidays, and the indoor pool, under a ceiling of lit hexagons, has a children's plunge pool beside it. Palace aside, the neighbours are office towers and embassies. Insadong's antique shops and tea houses are a kilometre's walk; Myeongdong is a taxi ride. Yu Yuan cooks Cantonese in rooms styled after 1920s Shanghai. Charles H. is behind an unmarked door and takes its name from Charles H. Baker Jr., whose Gentleman's Companion of 1939 was half travelogue and half drinking book. Baker crossed the world to collect his drinks; here they have all been brought down to the basement.