A guide to castle hotels around the world: historic castles turned into hotels, French chateaux for families, and princess and knight rooms. With city, country and exactly what you can book.
Photo: Aurora Song / Unsplash
In short
Ten castle hotels, each run through our own search engine, and every one of them returned real rooms to book.
Three completely different experiences: a princess-themed room, a hotel shaped like a castle, and a genuine historic castle.
Burg Trendelburg in Germany is the origin of the Brothers Grimm Rapunzel tale, with a tower over 40 metres high.
At Thornbury Castle you can book the room Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn stayed in during 1535.
Some children want a hotel with a pool. Others want to pass through a castle gate, climb stone stairs and wake up as a princess, a prince or a knight. At SherryStay.com (opens in a new tab) we went looking for the second kind.
We were not looking for pretty hotels. We were looking for real castles you can sleep in, palaces turned into hotels, and rooms built so that a child walks in and immediately understands they have arrived inside a story.
And every hotel here passed one check that often gets skipped: we ran it through our own search engine to confirm it does not merely exist, but actually returns rooms to book.
What exactly is special: The family picks the story: a princess room, a dragon knight room or a wizard room.
Here children do not get an ordinary room inside a building shaped like a castle. LEGOLAND Castle Hotel (opens in a new tab) has 142 rooms, split across two buildings: the Knight’s Castle and the Wizard’s Castle.
Every room comes with a world attached: the princess chamber, the dragon knight’s room or the wizard’s observatory. There is a large restaurant, an indoor play area and an outdoor playground, with a dragon and a mounted knight standing in the grounds.
The hotel is a three-minute walk from the Billund (opens in a new tab) park in Denmark (opens in a new tab), which makes it one of the best fits for a family with small children who want to play the fairy tale rather than just look at an old castle.
There are children’s play areas, an indoor pool and a shuttle to the parks, and the hotel itself addresses children as little princes and princesses.
It returned more available rooms in our own search than any other hotel in this guide, which makes it the easiest one here to actually book in France (opens in a new tab).
The tower rises more than 40 metres, its walls reach seven metres thick, and you can climb over 130 steps to the view. The castle was converted into a hotel in 1996.
It has just 22 rooms, each fitted differently into the historic structure, with four-poster beds, hidden doors, low beamed ceilings and bare stone walls. For a child raised on Rapunzel, this is not just another hotel.
The hotel states that the Henry VIII Suite is the room the king shared with Anne Boleyn in 1535. It has an ornate ceiling, a four-poster bed and the original garderobe of the period.
At the top of the tower, up 77 spiral steps, is the Catherine of Aragon Tower Suite, with 24-carat gilding and the largest four-poster bed in any UK hotel, about three metres wide. This is one to tell the children about before you arrive.
The castle dates to the 13th century and was once home to the Guinness family. It has 83 rooms and suites, including family rooms and interconnecting options.
The experience does not end at the room: the estate is known for activities that suit the castle fantasy exactly, falconry and riding among them. The easiest gateway is Galway (opens in a new tab) or Shannon.
Its grandest suite is the Brian Boru, named after the only High King of Ireland, from whom the Dromoland O’Briens claimed descent. It has a four-poster bed, chandeliers and a separate dressing room.
There are also two-bedroom family suites and rooms set within the original castle walls. For a family that wants a real castle but also luxury-hotel service, this is one of the strongest options.
Around it are more than 12 acres of formal gardens, outdoor games and picnics, and interconnecting rooms are available for families.
One detail to know before booking: the castle charges for children from age three and enters them as adults on the reservation. This is less fairy-tale princess and more "my children slept inside a real English castle last night".
It sits in the Ore Mountains inside a UNESCO World Heritage area, and you can sleep, eat and spend the day within the castle complex itself.
This is less pink princess room and more real fortress, and for older children it can be far more impressive. The nearest major city is Dresden (opens in a new tab).
What exactly is special: A private chateau with just 16 rooms in the heart of the Loire Valley castle country.
The Loire Valley is close to the most obvious place on earth for this guide, and Chateau de Perreux (opens in a new tab) is a genuine private chateau turned boutique hotel with only 16 rooms.
Its great advantage is the location: it sits beside Amboise (opens in a new tab), in the heart of France’s castle country.
That means you can sleep in a chateau and spend the day among other castles and palaces. For a child who loves stories of kings and queens, that is a whole holiday built around one theme.
What exactly is special: A French chateau built around families, with a kids club and a farm.
This one matters, because many chateau hotels were built mainly for couples. La Borde en Sologne (opens in a new tab) declares itself a family-first property instead.
There is a kids club, activities, a farm, a vegetable garden, woodland, bicycles and a separate children’s pool.
So the parents get a French chateau and a spa, and the children get a castle they can actually enjoy rather than just be photographed in front of.
Before booking, it is worth asking the one question people miss: is this a real castle, a hotel shaped like a castle, or a princess-themed room? Those are three completely different experiences.
The right castle is not necessarily the grandest one. It is the one that matches the fairy tale your child wants to live in.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a real castle, a castle-shaped hotel and a princess-themed room?
They are three completely different experiences. A real castle is a historic building turned into a hotel, like Thornbury Castle or Amberley Castle, where the walls themselves are the experience. A castle-shaped hotel was built to create the atmosphere, like Dream Castle Hotel or LEGOLAND Castle Hotel. A princess-themed room is a decorated room inside an ordinary hotel. A five-year-old may be far more excited by a princess room than by a 13th-century castle, and a ten-year-old dreaming of knights will feel exactly the opposite.
Are historic castles suitable for children?
Some are, some less so. Amberley Castle welcomes children and offers interconnecting rooms and 12 acres of gardens, but it charges for children from age three and enters them as adults. La Borde en Sologne, by contrast, is built around families with a kids club and a farm. Check the children policy before booking, because at luxury castles it varies enormously from one property to the next.
Where can you actually sleep in a king’s historic room?
At Thornbury Castle in England. The hotel states that the Henry VIII Suite is the room the king shared with Anne Boleyn in 1535, and it has an ornate ceiling, a four-poster bed and the original garderobe of the period. At the top of the tower, up 77 spiral steps, is the Catherine of Aragon Tower Suite, with 24-carat gilding and the largest four-poster bed in any UK hotel.
Do you have to fly far to sleep in a castle?
Not necessarily. Europe has castles turned into hotels within a short flight, and at several of them you can combine a city break with a night or two in a castle. There is also a castle-style hotel near Disneyland Paris, so you can attach a fairy-tale atmosphere to a theme-park holiday without building the whole trip around it.
Sherry AI is SherryStay’s travel research and editorial intelligence, covering hotels, destinations, travel trends and hospitality experiences around the world.
