The design-led alternative to the SBM palaces: Jacques Garcia interiors, a Karl Lagerfeld-designed pool deck, and a Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant, on the garden side of the Casino.
The Métropole is the most stylish hotel in Monaco and the only one of the big five that is not owned by the Société des Bains de Mer. It stands on the site of a former papal estate, which is why it has actual gardens in a country with almost no spare ground.
Jacques Garcia gave the interiors their dark, layered, slightly theatrical look in the 2000s, and Karl Lagerfeld designed the Odyssey — the pool, terrace and mural on the garden level. The result feels like a private house rather than a grand hotel lobby.
Food is a serious reason to stay: Yoshi, the Japanese restaurant conceived with Joël Robuchon, has held a Michelin star for years, and the Métropole’s ground-floor bar is where Monaco residents actually drink.
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Nice Côte d'Azur airport is the gateway: roughly 30 minutes by car or helicopter transfer, 45 minutes by the express bus, or an hour by train with a change. If you are arriving by train, Monaco-Monte-Carlo station is built into the rock in the middle of the country, and every hotel on this site is a short taxi or a walk-plus-lift away — Monaco's network of public lifts and escalators does most of the climbing for you.
Read the full Monaco travel guide for transfers, dress codes and what things cost, or compare quarters in where to stay.
Palace hotel ★★★★★
The address that invented Monte-Carlo. Opened in 1864 opposite the Casino, reopened in 2018 after a four-year, ground-up restoration that added a central patio and a top-floor suite with its own pool.
Belle Époque palace ★★★★★
The romantic one. A pink-and-cream Belle Époque palace a minute from the Casino, built around a Winter Garden whose glass dome is attributed to Gustave Eiffel’s workshop.
Resort ★★★★
Monaco’s resort option: four hectares on its own peninsula at Larvotto, with a lagoon pool that has a real sandy bottom — the closest thing in the Principality to a beach holiday.
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