Fanø Krogaard

Fanø Island, Denmark

The building has been a kro — a Danish village inn — since 1664, and it shows, in all the right ways. Creaking parquet, the faint scent of wood, a fireplace crackling by the reception, a small library where someone is always halfway through something. Mette Hyttel grew up in a hotel on the mainland across the water and now runs this one on Fanø's eastern edge the way she always imagined hospitality should feel: like arriving at the home of a friend who happens to live somewhere very beautiful.

There are 25 rooms across several buildings, from the high-ceilinged main house — where wide windows look out over the Wadden Sea and, on a clear day, seals on the sand — to the newer Skomagerens Hus, dressed in island wallpaper and heavy curtains. The North Sea beaches are a 15-minute walk west. Breakfast is included, and unhurried.

25 rooms