The Maybourne Riviera

The Maybourne Riviera is the most ambitious hotel opening on this coast in a generation. It stands on a cliff some 300 metres above the sea at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, ten minutes' drive above Monaco, on the site of the old Vista Palace, rebuilt by Jean-Michel Wilmotte into a cascade of white terraces. It opened in 2021, it is owned by the group behind Claridge's and the Connaught, and it shows: the service, the bar and the general polish are London-grade.

There are 65 suites and studios, each with a balcony and a view of the Mediterranean, and they differ by designer as much as by size. The interiors were handed out to Bryan O'Sullivan Studio, Rigby & Rigby and André Fu, working alongside Maybourne's own team under Michelle Wu, so two rooms at the same rate can feel like two different hotels. Two suite categories, the Infinity Blue and the Infinity Pool Duplex, have an infinity plunge pool of their own. Guest feedback reliably praises the rooms, the design and the sense of arriving somewhere that has been thought about.

The point is the view. From almost every room and from the infinity pool you look down onto the whole of Monaco, the Cap Martin peninsula and, on a clear day, Italy. The restaurants are serious. abc kitchens riviera is Jean-Georges Vongerichten's top-floor room, the Riviera Restaurant cooks the terroir of the Côte d'Azur, La Piscine does pizza at the pool and Le 300 runs from morning to evening. La Môme Riviera, the beach club in the cove at the tip of Cap Martin, is ten minutes down the hill, with loungers thrown in through the summer. Surrenne Riviera, the spa, spreads over three floors and behaves more like a longevity clinic than a hotel treatment suite, with Biologique Recherche facials, cold and infrared therapy, osteopathy and two open-air studios.

It suits design-minded couples, honeymoons and anyone who wants Monaco as a view rather than a place to walk around. The catch is that nothing is walkable. You drive or shuttle everywhere, and the rates are among the highest on the coast, with extras priced to match. Some feedback notes it can feel quiet out of season, with limited atmosphere, and the hotel closes for the winter altogether, reopening in the middle of March. Go knowing that the drive is part of the deal and the view is what you are paying for.