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¶ Grand-Hotel de 1'Europe in Bad Gastein, Austria. Since the 15th century when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III discovered the therapeutic effects of Bad Gastein's thermal waters, the tiny Alpine village has been called "the Spa of Kings." Kaiser Wilhelm spent 20 seasons there, and it remains a favored haven for pashas and potentates. The sprawling, four-story hotel, opened in 1909, boasts bathrooms with 7-ft.-sq. tubs, marble floors and walls, and taps for mineral as well as plain water. ¶-Park-Hotel Adler in Hinterzarten, Germany. An ancient Black Forest inn that dates back to 1446, the Adler has been in the Riesterer family for 14 generations, during which time everybody slept there—from Marie Antoinette and Napoleon to Goebbels and Adenauer. One of the hotel's popular additions is a glassed-in swimming pavilion in the garden, navigable even when winter snows pile up six feet deep. But the main attraction remains the cuisine, a fact that prompted the Riesterers to equip every bathroom with a scale—thoughtfully set back 1 ½ kg. (roughly 3 Ibs.). ¶ San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Italy. A converted monastery, one of its cloisters 600 years old, the San Domenico has been a hotel since 1896. Part of its appeal is the monkish ambiance, part the views of Mount Etna and the Sicilian seascape. Though rooms are air-conditioned, most guests leave their windows open to enjoy the perfume from orange, lemon and almond trees in the garden beneath. Winter used to be the peak season, and in those days, recalls Night Porter Antonino Cappelli, as few as three titled families would fill the whole hotel with their retinues, and it took a mule train to fetch their belongings from the railroad station. Now spring and summer are the busy months, and, says Cappelli, "today they come with a flight bag containing a change of underwear." ¶ Hotel Maria Cristina in San Sebastian, Spain. Queen Maria Cristina started it all back in 1912, when the city built a five-story hotel to accommodate the countless chamberlains, ministers, officers, grandees and courtiers who followed her to Miramar, the royal summer residence on the Bay of Biscay. Led by the Duke of Alba, the Duke of Lerma and the Duke of Pinohermoso (who once commandeered the couch in the ladies' powder room rather than sleep in another hotel), the Spanish aristocracy still faithfully flocks to the Maria Cristina every summer. "We cater to a certain class of people who no longer have the money their grandparents had," says Director Abelardo Bellver, "but they do still have the very same tastes."