22 avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco
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Monaco's coastline is short and mostly concrete, and its hotels have tried all sorts of tricks to bring their guests to the water. One dug a lagoon with a sandy bottom, and another moved a beach club onto its roof. Le Méridien Beach Plaza has a simpler arrangement. It has a beach. It is the only hotel in the principality where a guest can walk barefoot from the lift to the sea, with no road or promenade to cross.
The hotel stands on the Larvotto seafront, beside the Grimaldi Forum and the public beach. Part of the Marriott family, it is a modern block of eleven floors with nearly four hundred rooms. Nobody will confuse it with a Belle Époque landmark. Contemporary art in the lobby changes regularly, but what matters lies behind the building, where the garden slopes down to the water. Next door, the Larvotto promenade runs along the public beach, lined with restaurants.
The rooms come in several categories, up to rooftop suites with views over both the sea and the city, done in soft pastels. Many of them face the sea, with balconies big enough for a table and two chairs. City-side rooms are less inspiring, and some of the older ones show their age, though they are kept clean and comfortable. A high floor on the sea side makes the best choice, since the view widens as the street noise fades.
The ritual is simply to go down. Loungers and parasols wait on the private beach, facing a protected marine area. The water lies just beyond, for those who prefer salt to chlorine. A large mural by a street artist livens up the concrete wall behind the beach. In the garden above, heated seawater pools wait outdoors, with shallow ones for children and another indoors for when the weather turns. Massages are given down by the water, which is hardly a hardship.
Breakfast is a generous buffet, and lunch stays close to the water, on a terrace given over to fish and grills. In the evening the beach bar takes over with cocktails and a barbecue, and the clubs of Larvotto are a short stroll along the promenade. On the Grand Prix weekend, the beach turns into an open-air club, complete with a stage.
The convenience comes with some compromises. Wellness stops at a gym and a sauna, plus those massages on the beach. The conference centre can hold two thousand people, so the hotel is often busy with meetings, and breakfast gets crowded when families are in. The Casino and the harbour are a twenty-minute walk away, or a few stops by bus.
In Monaco, reaching the sea usually takes some ingenuity. At Le Méridien, it involves a lift and a pair of bare feet.
On the key
Through Le Méridien's Unlock Art programme, the room key also opens the doors of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.
The hotel's beach lies within the Larvotto marine reserve, so the water beyond the loungers is protected, and two breakwaters keep it calm. Lifeguards watch it in season, and Alang serves lunch and drinks directly on the sand, on shaded decks or at the loungers. A pontoon at the end handles the noisier side: jet skis, kayaks and water skis.
Between the building and the beach, the garden steps down through maritime pines. Two heated seawater pools look over the coast, with two shallow pools beside them for young children. A fifth pool, freshwater and heated, sits indoors under a glass atrium that opens onto the pines, used all year, with aquagym and aquabike sessions for resident guests.
Balconies begin with the Deluxe and Premium categories, sold with either a partial or a full sea view. Classic and Superior rooms face the city. Higher up, the Junior, Design and Horizon Suites combine a sea view with a balcony, and the Horizon Suites, on the tenth and eleventh floors, add a separate living room behind floor-to-ceiling windows.
In summer, lunch moves outside to Muse, a deck of tables set beneath the trunks of old maritime pines, looking out to sea, with Mediterranean cooking. Indoors, Le Café Lacoste, curated by Riccardo Giraudi, serves French bistro dishes; Sen is a Japanese speakeasy for the evening; and La Bisnonna has taken up the Italian kitchen on the sea-facing veranda.
At a glance
Where
22 Avenue Princesse Grace, 98000 Monaco; on Larvotto beach, overlooking the protected Larvotto marine reserve; Nice Côte d'Azur airport about 33 km
Why this one
The only one at a Monaco hotel.
Four outdoor pools on the way down.
The Larvotto marine reserve.
The Edit Notes
The categories are cut by view. Classic and Superior rooms look over the city, the Superior simply from a higher floor. Balconies start with Deluxe and Premium, and both are sold with either a partial or a full sea view, so the exact wording on the booking matters. Design rooms in the Crystal Towers face the sea. The Horizon Suites, on the tenth and eleventh floors, are the first category to combine a full sea view, a high floor and a balcony.
The private beach is staffed and lifeguarded from April to September, and Alang, the bar on the sand, follows the same months; Muse, under the pines, opens from May to September. The outdoor pools start in April, though the hotel's own pages end their season in September on one page and October on another. In winter the stay moves indoors: the glass-roofed pool, the sauna, the gym and the treatment rooms of L'Institut by MWS.
Through its La Plage & More programme the hotel sells day passes to the beach and pools from April to September, so in high season the loungers are shared with visitors from outside. Next door, the Sea Club conference centre covers 3,000 m² and holds up to 2,000 people across four floors of meeting rooms. Before booking a quiet week, it is worth asking whether a large congress, or the Grand Prix weekend, which the hotel sells as a package, falls on the same dates.
In July and August the Kids Club takes children aged four to twelve, included in the stay, in a space under the pines, and the outdoor area has two shallow pools for the youngest. From October to May the Sunday brunch adds children's workshops. Family rooms and connecting rooms exist; the Executive Suite can be joined to a Superior or Premium room as a two-bedroom unit. One pet up to 12 kg is accepted per room, never on the beach or by the pools.
The price question
The money buys a rare thing in Monaco: a room a lift ride from a private beach, with pools under pines between the two. It does not buy intimacy. This is a large hotel with a conference centre for 2,000 next door, day-pass guests on the sand in summer, and city-view rooms in its lower categories. The real comparison is a beach-club day pass plus a smaller hotel in town.
Book it for a summer week between April and September, in a sea-facing room with a balcony, for anyone who wants the sea within a lift ride and the city on foot. A couple looking for silence over a congress or race weekend, or a winter guest who comes for the beach, is better placed elsewhere or on other dates.
Fairmont Monte Carlo
A large hotel in central Monte Carlo on the Grand Prix hairpin, with a rooftop pool, the restaurants Nobu and Amù, and the Nikki Beach club; rooms look over the sea, the garden or the hairpin.
Monte-Carlo Beach
Forty rooms and suites of the Société des Bains de Mer just over the border in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, with a private beach under pines and an Olympic-size seawater pool.
The Extra Edit
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