40 avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco
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Monaco is the second smallest country in the world and the most crowded, and its real luxury is not gold or marble but space. Flats change hands for sums that would buy a sizeable farm in the countryside, and new land has to be won from the sea. Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort spends that rarest commodity with a straight face. It sits on its own peninsula at the eastern end of Monte-Carlo, surrounded by four hectares of garden.
The towers are modern and rather businesslike, three of them arranged in an L around the grounds. What they enclose is the surprise. The gardens are laid out by theme, Mediterranean in one corner and tropical in another, with some fifteen hundred plant species between them. Somewhere in between lies an organic vegetable garden. On soil that would fetch a fortune as building land, someone is quietly growing courgettes. Paths lead on to the hotel's own stretch of sea. The mood throughout is that of a holiday resort rather than a grand hotel.
There are some three hundred and thirty rooms, and three in four face the sea. The renovated ones borrow from Memphis, the playful Milanese design of the 1980s, with rounded lines and bold blocks of colour set on ochre terrazzo. The rest will follow in phases over the next few years. At the top, a suite on the eleventh floor offers nearly two hundred square metres, a genuine estate by local standards.
The pool makes the same point. Instead of a rectangle, the Bay has a lagoon that wanders through the gardens on a bottom of soft sand, past waterfalls and little green islands. The day drifts between its cocoon beds and an infinity pool heated all year and facing straight out to sea. Braver swimmers head for the Sea Bay, a guarded stretch of real Mediterranean beside the Larvotto reserve, where each lounger is named after an island. Anyone can claim Capri for the day. Later in the day, the new Clarins spa takes over.
Dinner is Blue Bay, where Marcel Ravin, who grew up in Martinique, brings Caribbean flavours to Mediterranean produce. His Monte-Carlo egg comes with cassava and passion fruit, and the pre-dessert arrives in a small calabash, placed straight into the guest's hand. In summer, evenings can run on next door at the Sporting, where concerts fill the Salle des Étoiles and Jimmy'z keeps going long after. On quieter evenings, a drink at the Blue Gin bar by the water is enough.
So much space draws a crowd. The resort is large, with meeting rooms and banqueting halls, and in July and August the lagoon belongs mainly to families. Until the renovation is complete, rooms vary, and a quarter of them look inland, so both the floor and the view are worth specifying. The Casino square is a taxi ride away. Room to breathe comes with a short drive.
Across the rest of Monaco, people pay fortunes for a few extra square metres. At Monte-Carlo Bay, the luxury is that nobody is counting.
Next door
The Sporting Monte-Carlo, with the Salle des Étoiles concert hall and the Jimmy'z nightclub, sits beside the hotel on the same stretch of Avenue Princesse Grace.
Behind the hotel's façade the lagoon winds through the gardens on a bottom of sand, crossed by footbridges and passing a blue-domed pavilion. It is open from May to September and included for hotel guests in season. Along its edge, the curtained Cocoon Bay day beds are let by the day for two, with drinks brought by a waiter.
Beyond the lagoon the hotel has its own way into the Mediterranean: a 700 m² guarded swimming area inside the Larvotto marine reserve. Ten loungers line the rocks, each named after a Mediterranean island, with food from Marcel Ravin's kitchen. Sea Bay opens from June to September and is reserved by the day for two, apart from the room.
Every one of the 332 rooms has a terrace, and three in four face the sea. The renovation is going through the building in phases, so rooms of the same category can still look different. A Prestige sea-view room measures 51 m², terrace included, on the second to sixth floors; the city-view Superior rooms begin at 44 m².
Marcel Ravin's restaurant has an open kitchen indoors and a terrace over the bay of Monaco. The cooking joins his native Martinique to the Mediterranean, with vegetables from the hotel's organic kitchen garden and fish chosen under the Mr Goodfish charter. Menus change every three weeks; dinner is served from Wednesday to Saturday, and La Table de Marcel seats a few guests apart.
At a glance
Where
40 Avenue Princesse Grace, 98000 Monaco; on a four-hectare peninsula at the eastern end of Monte-Carlo, bordering the Larvotto natural reserve and adjacent to the Sporting Monte-Carlo; 30 km and around 35 minutes by car from Nice Côte d'Azur airport, seven minutes by helicopter; motorway A8, exits 56 and 58; Monaco station
Why this one
Pools heated to 28°C, winter included.
Waterfalls and gardens around it.
A guarded swim in the Larvotto reserve.
The Edit Notes
The sand-bottomed lagoon is a summer affair: it opens from May to September, Sea Bay only from June, and the Kids Club and Las Brisas run in high summer. Between October and April the water left is the covered pool and the outdoor infinity pool, both heated all year. On the day of arrival the lagoon and outdoor areas open to guests only from the afternoon, so a one-night stay in season gives less of it than the dates suggest.
A quarter of the rooms look inland, and the hotel says so in the category names: Superior, Deluxe and Deluxe Premium are city view. Above them the wording changes again, from Deluxe 'seaside' to Exclusive and Prestige 'sea view', with a Prestige Corner on the angle of the building. The rooms are being renovated in phases, so decoration differs within one category. Ask for the floor, the exact view and whether the room has been redone before confirming.
Lagoon access is part of a room booking in season, but the curtained Cocoon Bay day beds on the lagoon and the ten Sea Bay loungers on the 700 m² guarded swimming area are reserved separately, by the day, for two, and at extra cost. With only ten loungers by the sea, Sea Bay is the scarcer of the two; reserve it with the room for July and August, when the resort is at its fullest and families fill the lagoon.
Marcel Ravin's restaurant serves dinner only, from Wednesday to Saturday, with menus renewed every three weeks and La Table de Marcel as a restaurant within the restaurant. A stay from Sunday to Tuesday misses it altogether; L'Orange Verte covers those evenings with a more relaxed menu. Book Blue Bay before the room if the dinner matters, and note that the children's meal benefits for young guests do not apply there, nor at Las Brisas or in room service.
The price question
The money buys space that the rest of Monaco cannot offer: gardens, a lagoon, a pool heated through the winter and a guarded patch of sea, with Monte-Carlo a short ride away. It does not buy uniformity or a central address. Rooms differ while the renovation runs, a quarter face the town, and the best of the water is seasonal and partly charged on top. The fair comparison is a beach resort, not a grand hotel on the Place du Casino.
Book it for a summer stay of several nights built around the lagoon and the sea, in a sea-facing room confirmed as renovated, with one Blue Bay dinner fixed in advance. A couple wanting the Casino and the Place on foot, or a winter weekend for the water, is better placed in town.
Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo
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Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo
The Société des Bains de Mer hotel on Square Beaumarchais, with Pavyllon Monte-Carlo by Yannick Alléno, L'Abysse and new Diamond Suites.
The Extra Edit
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