Central Vienna doesn’t mean touristy in this instance. DO & CO is a dark, slinky glamourpuss of a hotel, lodged in the postmodern, mirror-fronted Haas Haus, designed by Pritzker prize-winning architect Hans Hollein.

How clever: shops where lamp-makers, electricians and bakers once did a brisk trade have been overhauled and revamped into this trio of one-of-a-kind urban escapes.

The diva of Vienna’s hotel scene, Lamée screams “tryst”. Inspired by Austrian-American actor and scientist Hedy Lamarr, this modernist hotel whisks you back to the decadent 1930s, providing a strong hit of Hollywood in sexy, gold-kissed rooms full of velvets, shimmery drapes and ebony veneer polished to a mirror-like sheen.

The Fleischhaker family have waved a minimalist-chic wand on this glorious 19th-century townhouse, a few minutes’ walk from Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier art district. Wine is the theme: each coolly understated, parquet-floored room is devoted to an Austrian wine-maker (cue carefully selected minibar wines and grape-infused toiletries).

Vienna cavorts with 1920s Paris at this en-vogue boutique hotel on the main shopping street of Mariahilferstrasse.

Of all Vienna’s grand hotels, the Hotel Imperial on the Ringstrasse boulevard is the most regal and romantic. Built as a palace for the Prince of Württemberg in 1863, it’s a riotous feast of marble, gilded stucco and weighty chandeliers that take an age to polish.

In a happening corner of the 6th district, this boho-chic newcomer comes with a spritz of old-school glamour. Named after Josefine, a fictional artist who fled the Russian Revolution and found refuge in Vienna, the hotel is a playful, imaginative 1920s romp, designed with a razor-sharp eye for detail.

Every bit as sumptuous as its famous chocolate cake, this extravagant five-star pad — still in family hands — is so close to Vienna’s grand State Opera House you can almost hear the orchestra tuning in the pit.

In a radical conversion of a 1970s tower block, this marvellously eccentric, circus-themed, forever-young hotel is but a tightrope walk away from Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier art hub and the alley-woven lanes of the 7th district.

Right on the doorstep of the Belvedere Palace’s muse-strewn gardens and gallery full of Klimts, Hotel Daniel takes a bold leap into contemporary waters and is one of Vienna’s most progressive bolt holes.

After-hours viewings are the Altstadt’s forte. In a turn-of-the-century townhouse in Vienna’s artsy, livewire 7th district, this stylish hotel-gallery showcases the phenomenal art collection of founder Otto Ernst Wiesenthal — yes, that is a Warhol.

A Viennese whirl of Italian marble, stucco, chandeliers and sweeping staircases, this properly posh five-star hotel in the former Bank of Austria elicits gasps of wonder from new arrivals.

Stitching together two grand palaces, Almanac Palais Vienna is a vision of modernity; unless you stumble into the heritage rooms on the first floor, you’ll hardly realise this isn’t a new building.

Taking the Roaring Twenties as its design cue, Hilton Vienna Plaza exudes glamour through a mix of dark wood, polished bronze fixtures, Carrara marble and dazzling chandeliers.