Dock around the clock

In Europe's biggest working port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Mainport is a new hotel designed for anything but waterside toil.

Inside the sleek building of black glass and aluminium, hugging the inner harbour of the river Maas, some of its 215 rooms have a fireplace, panoramic windows, an oversize hot tub or sauna. If there's not enough room in the king-size bed, request a room with an XL king bed. Take a trip to the eighth-floor Turkish hammam for a steam and a massage on a warmed marble slab with skyline views, including Erasmus Bridge.

Rooms at Mainport are from €150 ($214) a night.

Quayside, homesick Australians can dine in the Down Under restaurant and bar, while On the Rocks has Argentinian steaks and Japanese sashimi. Or hail a water taxi, party boat or speedboat from the hotel's private dock.

Dutch maritime history is covered at next door's Harbour Museum; at the nearby Maritime Museum three large Panorama Burgerhout paintings have been restored and show the shipbuilder's achievements of naval vessels, dredges and tugs from the late 1920s.

Children, meanwhile, can help sort fish, unload ships and learn navigational tricks at the Professor Splash exhibition.

See designhotels.com/mainport.