Designed by architects for travel enthusiasts: Our curated collection of outstanding holiday accomodations — also via map. Do you already know our new entry?
URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR is Europe’s leading online portal for architecturally outstanding holiday homes. We’ve published a series of award-winning books – available in bookshops or directly in our online shop.
What do you bring back from a holiday? Ideally, relaxation and a fresh perspective on life. Once back home, it is often the little things that help revive that holiday feeling. All the nicer when you could buy them right where they come from.
Designed by architects for travel enthusiasts: Our curated collection of outstanding holiday accomodations — also via map. Do you already know our new entry?
What do you bring back from a holiday? Ideally, relaxation and a fresh perspective on life. Once back home, it is often the little things that help revive that holiday feeling. All the nicer when you could buy them right where they come from.
in April 2026
Souvenir shop with an attached hotel
Anyone staying at the Engelwirt Apartments won’t have to look far for a gift for the neighbour feeding the cat or the grandmother minding the children: wine from Franconia, chocolate from the Upper Palatinate or a book full of thoughtful reflections – all this and more can be found in the apartment hotel’s shop in Berching.
The hosts, Stephanie and Michael Zink, have curated this unusual little store with a clear focus on quality: handmade goods from small regional manufacturers, preserves reminiscent of a grandmother’s pantry, along with items that keep memories alive long after the suitcases have been unpacked back home. But it’s not only about food. The book corner is well worth exploring: Ottolenghi for cooking enthusiasts, travel guides for the active, fiction for quiet evenings and richly illustrated stories for the youngest ones. And for a gentle drift into sleep after reading, there’s just the thing: colourful cushions by Eagle Products invite you to relax. On your next stay, you’ll almost certainly discover something new again.
If you have access to a great kitchen, you naturally also need great ingredients to work with. At the Vipp Townhouse in Lagrasse in the south-west of France, around 40 kilometres from Narbonne, the two come together perfectly.
The oldest parts of the Vipp Townhouse date back to the Middle Ages – just like the town’s covered market, located directly opposite the front door and listed as a historic monument since 1937. On Saturday mornings, you’ll find everything here that’s essential for a stay in the South of France from a culinary perspective: regional fruit and vegetables, a wide selection of bread, cheese, pâtés and wine, as well as flowers and plants. Just across the street, a shop sells regional pottery. In the evenings, the covered market occasionally becomes a venue for readings and concerts, so visitors can enjoy cultural specialities alongside culinary delights.
It doesn’t always have to be something edible: from a stay at Brücke 49 in the Grisons holiday resort of Vals, you can take home pieces of cashmere knitwear that feel like a few days in the Alpine landscape – something you’ll want to experience again and again.
Interior designer Ruth Kramer, who designed Brücke 49, runs the boutique as a family venture. Available here – both on site and via online sales – is, among other things, a small clothing collection. Ruth develops each piece together with her daughter Pernille. What matters to them is not to create short-lived fashion, but companions for life. One of their collaboration partners is the Danish label Moshi Moshi Mind, which stands for similar values: natural materials, mindful production and a sense for the essential. In addition, the boutique offers items for a well-designed home, such as tea towels from Lithuania or doorstops made from rope sourced from the Italian island of Giglio.
The way to a traveller’s heart is through his stomach
Now this is what a real holiday feels like: regional jam and honey on the breakfast table, then spaghetti for lunch with local cheese and bacon, accompanied by a wine from the area. Best of all, everything is available directly at the Pergola Residence apartment hotel.
This is where it finally makes sense to have a holiday apartment with a kitchen, because in the little bottega of the Pergola apartment hotel in Algund, north-west of Merano, the hosts have gathered everything weary holiday appetites could wish for: products from the Algund dairy, which has been turning cow’s and goat’s milk into delicious cheese and yoghurt for more than a hundred years. A local butcher from Algund supplies traditional South Tyrolean speck. High-quality olive oil and marinated olives come from Tuscany. For breakfast, there are regional jams and honey. Handmade pasta and sauces are also available. And then, of course, there is the rich selection of wines, stored in the 16th-century vaulted cellar.
It may be the most intense way to experience a vacation: heading to the market in the morning, picking out the finest ingredients, returning to the kitchen – and cooking. At Casa Sabir in historic Ortigia, the island old town of Syracuse, the market is right outside the balcony door.
Casa Sabir is located directly on the market square of the small island of Ortigia – the historic centre of the Sicilian city of Syracuse. Here, until midday each day, the stalls brim with fresh fish and seafood, vegetables, cheese, fruit and spices. The kitchen is the heart of the house: a well-equipped, elegantly lit space with a functional steel island that invites you to cook for yourself. For an even more immersive experience, guests can book a cooking class, with a chef guiding them through the market and introducing them to the island’s traditional flavours. Perhaps you might even prepare something from your market finds that – once preserved – can be taken home, keeping the tastes and flavours of the South alive.
Pasta, wine, chocolate, beer – the kiosk at Lermooser has everything you need to round off an evening in the mountains. Or a morning. Or midday. And the large shared kitchen next door leaves nothing to be desired anyway.
If you don’t feel like going far after a long day in the mountains, this is exactly the place. The kiosk at Lermooser has everything for a perfect evening: mum’s homemade Bolognese meets high-quality Italian pasta from Gragnano. Or perhaps a warming soup? Wine, chocolate, coffee, pastries, crisps, beer – and, if you fancy it, an Aperol Spritz. Cooking and eating take place in the communal kitchen: a five-metre cooking island, fully equipped with hobs, sinks, dishwashers and every utensil you might need. Cooking together, pouring a glass, letting the day come to an end – that’s the idea. Let’s just hope no one opens the bottle that was meant as a gift for those back home…
A little shop just as you would imagine it: the village store in Forst offers everything you might need from time to time – delicacies as well as wine, onions as well as toothbrushes. It is run by two people who see village life as both a challenge and an opportunity – the hosts of Schockelgaul.
Designer Nana and architect Frank moved from Berlin to the Palatinate and quickly learned: if you forget something at the supermarket when living in the countryside, it can be inconvenient. That, among other reasons, led them to open their village shop, where they also tell their own story – of life in cities and in the countryside, and of travels further afield. The traditional Buchmüller bakery supplies baked goods, the Demeter farm Goyert provides organic bread and eggs, and Allgäu mountain cheese comes from Bad Hindelang. Alongside these are Westphalian wooden bread bowls, Palatinate specialities and French sardines. A very personal village shop – with a healthy blend of rural charm and metropolitan spirit.
If only you could keep your temporary home with you at all times. With Leif Jørgensen’s two holiday houses, that is at least partly possible. Many of the pieces of furniture he designed specifically for the place can be purchased via his website.
Jørgensen has worked for 35 years as both an architect and a product designer – and sees the two as inseparable. Together with his wife, designer Mette Bache, he has converted and further developed the ensemble of Farm House, Barn House and Shelter on the Danish island of Zealand. The Barn House was completed in 2018 – and for it, Jørgensen created a dedicated furniture series that is now available through his online shop. Whether shelving system, chair, sofa, table or bench, the holiday feeling can be taken home in a very tangible way. And assembly doesn’t require any cryptic instruction leaflet: Leif Jørgensen himself lends a hand – via a YouTube video series.
Photocredits: Iuliia Pilipeichenko via unsplah.com (cover image), Peter Maitner / Erich Spahn (Engelwirt Apartments Berching), Pia Winther (VIPP Townhouse Lagrasse), Lukas Schweizer (Brücke 49), Patrick Schwienbacher (Pergola Residence), Luca Giannini (Casa Sabir), Simon Burko (Lermooser), Nana Forell / Katrin Rothe (Schockelgaul), César Machado (Barn House & Farm House)
Barbara Hallmann
Barbara Hallmann studied in Weimar and Lyon and completed a traineeship at ARD. Since 2009, she has dedicated herself to writing about architecture, urban planning and design. She also developed an upscale boutique guest concept and was jointly responsible for the successful identity campaign of a slow travel destination that was previously not very visible. She lives in Germany and France - and likes to be found by stories when travelling.
In the Danish coastal region of Odsherred, architect and designer Leif Jørgensen and his wife, designer Mette Bache, have (re)built an ensemble of three houses with great attention to every detail: Farm House, Barn House and Shelter.
In the Swiss mountain village of Vals, the two houses of Brücke 49 offer a harmonious mix of local architecture, unique antique pieces and Scandinavian design – and a temporary home for design lovers.
Outside: a lively hustle and bustle. Inside: peace and quiet and the grandeur of bygone eras. Casa Sabir is located on the market square of the small island of Ortigia – the historic centre of the Sicilian city of Syracuse.
Located directly on the market square of the medieval town of Berching on the banks of the Main-Danube Canal, the Engelwirt is a special place to meet, celebrate and work.
Next stop Lermooser: the course was newly set for the listed railway station at the foot of the Zugspitze. Since then, the friendly hotel has been delighting guests with its bright rooms, easy-going kiosk and sustainable concept.
The Pergola Residence near Merano was designed by Matteo Thun, the new Spazio 46 by Hannes Peer. The terraced complex nestles harmoniously into its surroundings between vineyards and apple orchards.
The guest house "Zum Schockelgaul" is located directly on the German Wine Route in the the village of Forst. The farmstead features four apartments, a converted barn, a wine bar, a village shop and a spacious garden.
The charm of two worlds: Just like the scenery in Lagrasse, a small village in the south of France with medieval structures, the Vipp Townhouse builds a bridge between bygone eras and modern times. Surrounded by picturesque nature.
Nestled in the hills of the Lechrain, the listed farmhouse Pankraz Burggen embodies a respectful approach to traditional architecture. Its core values: simplicity and naturalness.
On the banks of a small pond, a short distance from the historic farm complex, stands the ‘Backhäusle’ in the heart of the Black Forest. For decades, it served as a functional outbuilding for baking bread. Today, it is a listed building, along with the other buildings of the Sägehof.
Across Europe, many successes achieved in the field of monument preservation can be attributed to private organisations and foundations. Our author Anneke Bokern examines the strategies they pursue, which approaches are most promising, and where the limitations of these models lie.
Majestic olive trees, curved stone walls, imposing vaults and wild herbs: Corni di Fiasco is an Apulian Arcadia in close harmony with nature, the light and the materials of the region.
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