The Monte Carlo Beach: dolce vita à la Monegasque

Chic and timeless, the luxurious Monte Carlo Beach Hotel has welcomed high society for nearly a century.

The hotel was born in the Roaring Twenties, a time of emancipation for young, modern women, or “garçonnes” and when Coco Chanel shortened skirts and launched the trend of tanning.  A time, above all, when sea bathing for leisure became summery… To accommodate the new preferences of its guests, the Société des Bains de Mer offered, just steps from the Monte Carlo Country Club, a leisure complex and beach hotel “at the water’s edge”, which later became the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel. Tucked into a pine forest, it has its own beach and an Olympic-sized seawater pool.

Marlene Dietrich, Nureyev and Gloria Swanson liked to stay at the hotel. Charlie Chaplin, who came to the Principality to present City Lights, stopped at the Monte Carlo Beach. Other guests have included Sir Winston Churchill, Maria Callas and the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.

The hotel was designed by architect Roger Séassal as a pure Art Deco Californian villa.  With only 40 rooms, a solarium, tents and bungalows, the establishment has the intimate scale of a charmingly lovely property.  The charm was enhanced when the SBM developed the Pointe de la Vigie, the interior of which has been completely renovated and redecorated several times. Redesigned by the architect and designer India Mahdavi, the Vigie’s interior is inspired by the colourful visions of Matisse, the graphic art and photography of George Hoynigen-Huene and the Riva, the motorboat and symbol of a special carefree era on the Riviera.