By Tremayne Carew-Pole from Hg2 luxury city guides

It's 8am, the start of a new day, the sun is streaming into my blurry eyes and I'm feeling dehydrated. As I shade my eyes I can see the entrance queue moving slowly forward and clubbers who don't look the part being turned away. The tall man next to me, clad from head-to-toe in leather, certainly looks the part; I begin to fret about my attire and especially the polo shirts of my new German friends. We've torn the city apart, moving slowly further east in a celebration of dawn – and now all I can think about is sheltering my eyes from the glare of the sun.

I touched down at Narita airport in Japan following a 15-hour odyssey from Milan via Paris. After spending a couple of hours catching up with emails and work stuff in my Tokyo eyrie, the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku, I was invited by the manager to go up to the New York Bar and Grill for dinner. Sitting there on the 52nd floor, listening to a quartet from the U.S. play True Colors and looking at the Tokyo skyline, I started thinking about what makes a great bar. First, let me say that the New York Bar in Tokyo is great. It is one of my favorites. It’s always jammed pack with an interesting range of locals, ex pats, artists (Courtney Love was in town), and it is, of course, where Bill Murray wandered around in Lost in Translation....

Rocco Forte’s Hotel de Rome in Berlin celebrates its first birthday on Oct. 12, 2007 with two very special birthday packages that reflect the fact that the hotel has been open for 365 days. The first birthday package costs 365 euros per room per night and includes an upgrade to a junior suite that normally costs 750 euros per room per night, buffet breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, Parioli (until 2 pm on Sundays) and free use of the Spa de Rome. An additional night can be booked for 320 euros. The hotel is also offering a second package in the Bebel Suite. This suite overlooking the Bebelplatz costs 3,650 euros per night, a saving of 1,150 euros. Included in the price is: a limousine transfer from the airport; 24-hour butler service; a five-course dinner with accompanying wines and Krug Champagne; free minibar, DVD and internet usage; breakfast; and a two-hour couples’ spa treatment. An additional night may be booked for 2,000 Euros.

As the last of the steins clink for Oktoberfest, Sir Rocco Forte is poised to inject Munich with a reviving shot of elegance. Tomorrow, the ambitious hotelier introduces his third German property — following Berlin’s Hotel de Rome and Frankfurt’s Villa Kennedy last year — and right on the heels of his new Geneva outpost. Named after legendary hotel magnate Lord Charles Forte –- Rocco’s late father — the $87 million Charles Hotel is a custom-built, eight-story gem in the heart of the Bavarian city.