Sheraton Sopot Hotel

Sopot is the middle third of the Tricity conurbation — Gdańsk to the south, Gdynia to the north — and has been Poland's summer address since the late nineteenth century, when Prussian sea-bathers first built villas along the shore. The Sheraton, opened in 2008, occupies the last plot of open beachfront on the town's main axis; the wooden pier begins a short walk to the north, the pine woods run inland from the back door.

The building is deliberately quiet against its neighbours — a low, horizontal composition of glass and pale stone that lets the sea remain the loudest element in the composition. Rooms face either the Baltic or the town's early-twentieth-century rooftops; the sea-facing balconies, in particular, are worth the small supplement.

The property is one of a small handful of licensed casino-hotels operating on the Polish Baltic coast. Casino Sopot occupies the ground floor of the east wing — an intimate room of a dozen or so tables, run under the state monopoly's licence, quiet enough that most hotel guests would not know it was there unless told. The room is subject to Poland's Gaming Act and admits adults 18 or older on presentation of ID.

Sheraton is a globally operated brand, and the operational fluency shows: everything works, at the standard travellers have come to expect. What makes the Sopot property unusual is the site — few Baltic hotels are this well placed, and fewer still make so few concessions to their view.