Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo

The Hôtel de Paris opened in 1864 as the cornerstone of the new Monte-Carlo quarter, sharing the Place du Casino with Charles Garnier's opera-casino and setting the template for European grand hotels. A century and a half later it remains the principality's defining address, its stone façade, gilded lobby and equestrian statue of Louis XIV — whose bronze knee gamblers still rub for luck — as central to Monaco's identity as the Grand Prix itself.

A lengthy rebuilding completed in recent years modernised the hotel around its heritage core, adding vast contemporary suites, rooftop terraces and garden courtyards while preserving the historic salons. Below ground lie the hotel's fabled wine cellars, carved into the rock in the nineteenth century and holding one of the world's great hotel collections. Dining is a pillar of the experience: Alain Ducasse's Le Louis XV pioneered haute Riviera cooking in a gilded dining room, while Le Grill on the roof opens its ceiling to the sky.

Guests have signing privileges across Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer's estate — the Thermes Marins spa, the beach club, the casino opposite — which turns a stay into the run of a small, absurdly glamorous country. For pure Monte-Carlo theatre, nowhere else compares.