Try "Saint-Tropez", "Positano", "truffle" or "Cyprus".
Home›The 25 Finest Resorts
The twenty-five resorts that define the Mediterranean, each holding a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating, two or three MICHELIN Keys, or France’s Palace distinction.
Last checked October 2026.
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Opened in 1992 on the clifftops near Porches, Vila Vita Parc spreads its white buildings through some 22 hectares of gardens above the Atlantic, between Portimão and Albufeira. Its 203 rooms, suites and villas all have their own terraces. A stairway through the cliffs leads to a private beach and a beach club, and there are a dozen restaurants on the estate, led by Ocean, which holds two MICHELIN stars, with a wine cellar of more than 11,000 bottles. The spa is by Sisley Paris. MICHELIN gives it three Keys, its highest rating, one of only two hotels in Portugal with three.
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A 19th-century military fortress built to guard the Bay of Palma, Cap Rocat is now one of Europe's most unusual luxury hotels. Architect Antonio Obrador restored it, and it is protected as a national monument. It sits in a 30-hectare nature reserve with two kilometres of protected coastline. Rooms are set into the fortress walls, the Sentinel suites occupy old lookout posts above the sea, the spa is dug into the fortress itself, and the Sea Club sits at the water's edge. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
A seaside resort among the pine woods of the Formentor peninsula, at Mallorca's northern tip, with its own beach. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
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Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe founded the Marbella Club in 1954 on a family estate by the sea, and helped turn a fishing village into Spain's most glamorous resort town. It still sits on the beach of Marbella's Golden Mile, sheltered by the Sierra Blanca mountains. Bungalows and villas stand among subtropical gardens of more than 300 kinds of plants, and the beach club has its own pier. Its founding idea of "elegant simplicity" has drawn royalty and film stars for more than seventy years. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
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LVMH's Riviera hotel stands in a pine garden on the Baie des Canoubiers, minutes from the old port yet far from its crowds, with its own sandy beach below. It is small by design, which makes a summer room one of the hardest reservations on the coast. The evening's event is dinner at La Vague d'Or, one of the most decorated restaurants in France. Days pass between the beach, the pool and the spa. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
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Built in the 19th century as a cavalry officer's wedding gift to his bride, this château rises from a 13-hectare park of umbrella pines above Pampelonne Bay. Its 1920s parties were the talk of the coast, and Airelles runs it with the same theatrical flair today. It has 86 rooms and suites, a 1,000-square-metre spa facing the sea, and five restaurants, among them Matsuhisa by chef Nobu and Jean-François Piège's Jardin Tropezina, with tables in the sand at Pampelonne. It holds France's Palace distinction and two MICHELIN Keys.
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Michel Reybier's hideaway sits in its own estate of Provençal scrubland above one of the Riviera's most beautiful bays. It is a short drive from Saint-Tropez yet entirely private. Architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte gave it clean modern lines and sea views, and its villas of three to six bedrooms have their own pools. Its restaurant La Voile holds two MICHELIN stars, and the Nescens spa's health and fitness programmes are a reason many guests come. It holds France's Palace distinction and three MICHELIN Keys.
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The grande dame of the Riviera has stood at the tip of Cap d'Antibes since 1870. From the white Villa Soleil, a long garden walk leads to the Eden-Roc Pavilion and the famous seawater pool cut into the rocks, lined with private cabanas. F. Scott Fitzgerald based the hotel in Tender Is the Night on it, and during the Cannes Film Festival it fills with film stars. It has 108 rooms and suites, four private villas and four restaurants. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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This Belle Époque palace stands in six hectares of gardens at the tip of Cap Ferrat, the Riviera's most exclusive peninsula, and has welcomed guests for more than a century. A funicular runs down to Club Dauphin, with its heated seawater pool and cabanas at the water's edge, and the restaurant has a MICHELIN star. For complete privacy there are villas in the grounds, among them Villa Rose-Pierre and the five-bedroom Villa Beauchamp. MICHELIN gives it three Keys.
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Since 1953 the Chèvre d'Or has occupied a cluster of stone houses at the top of Èze, a medieval village on a limestone peak between Nice and Monaco, with the Mediterranean far below. Its rooms and suites are scattered through the village lanes, and the Panoramic and Nietzsche suites have private pools. Its restaurant holds two MICHELIN stars, and MICHELIN gives the hotel three Keys, its highest rating.
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Opened in 1864 on the Place du Casino, this is Monaco's palace hotel and the address for Grand Prix weekend, when its rooms look down on the circuit. A rebuilding completed in 2019 added the Diamond Suites, led by the Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III suites, with rooftop terraces and private pools above the harbour. They are among the most expensive suites in Europe. Alain Ducasse's Le Louis XV and a wine cellar cut into the rock complete the legend. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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High above Portofino's harbour, the Splendido began as a Benedictine monastery before a 19th-century baron made it his summer home. By the 1950s it was the benchmark of Italian glamour, host to Elizabeth Taylor, Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. Newly restored by designer Martin Brudnizki, it has 53 rooms and suites, a private villa, a heated pool and a Dior spa. A shuttle runs down to Splendido Mare on the Piazzetta. MICHELIN gives it three Keys.
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Giuseppe Cipriani of Harry's Bar opened the Cipriani in 1958 at the tip of Giudecca island, a few minutes by the hotel's own boat from St Mark's Square. It is still the grandest escape in Venice, with an Olympic-size saltwater pool, gardens and its own vineyard, all rare luxuries in the city. The Palladio and Palazzo Vendramin suites look across the lagoon to San Marco. The house drink is the Bellini, which the same Cipriani invented at Harry's Bar. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
A medieval hamlet and its estate of vineyards, woods and fields in the Val d'Orcia, south of Siena, restored by Massimo Ferragamo into suites and private villas. The estate makes its own Brunello di Montalcino, and its private golf course runs through the Tuscan hills. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating, one of only four hotels in Italy with both.
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On the water's edge at Marina Grande, J.K. Place Capri describes itself as "more like a private home than a hotel": a white villa of bright rooms and terraces opening onto the Gulf of Naples. Its penthouse suites look straight out to sea. The spa and terrace restaurant give little reason to leave, though the boutiques of the Piazzetta are minutes away. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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Built into the cliff just outside Positano and named for the small 17th-century chapel at its entrance, Il San Pietro has been run by the same family for more than half a century. Terraces covered in bougainvillea fall towards the sea. A lift cut through the rock leads down to a private cove with a beach club and a tennis court at the water's edge. MICHELIN gives the hotel three Keys, its highest rating, and its restaurant Zass has a MICHELIN star.
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The Sersale family turned their summer house in the heart of Positano into a hotel in 1951, and it remains the village's most famous address. John Steinbeck stayed in 1953 and called Positano "a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there." The red palazzo looks across the village's domes to the sea. At night La Sponda restaurant glows with hundreds of candles, and Franco's Bar is the coast's favourite place for a sunset drink. It holds a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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One of the Amalfi Coast's newest grand hotels, Borgo Santandrea opened in 2021 on the cliffs just outside Amalfi, with terraces stepping down to a private beach. The interiors celebrate mid-century Italian design and the region's hand-painted ceramics. MICHELIN gives it three Keys, its highest rating.
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Caruso occupies an 11th-century palace on a cliff in Ravello, high above the Amalfi Coast, with an infinity pool that seems to pour straight into the sea far below. It has 50 rooms and suites, and its Mediterranean gardens run along the cliff edge. Dinner at Il Pantaleone, its gastronomic restaurant, looks out over the whole coast. It holds a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
Built in pale local stone in the manner of a Puglian village, Borgo Egnazia sits among olive groves near the Adriatic between Bari and Brindisi. Rooms are spread between the main house, village lanes and private villas, with a beach club, golf nearby and the Vair spa. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
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This 15th-century Dominican convent on the clifftops of Taormina became a hotel in the 1890s. It reopened under Four Seasons in 2021 and a year later starred in the second season of The White Lotus. Its cloisters and gardens frame Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea, and an infinity pool hangs over the cliff. MICHELIN gives it three Keys, and its restaurant holds a MICHELIN star.
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Amanzoe crowns a hilltop above Porto Heli like a modern acropolis. Its colonnades were designed by Ed Tuttle and open to views of olive groves and the Aegean in every direction. Every pavilion and villa has its own pool, and a private beach club waits on the shore below. Athens is two and a half hours by car, or 25 minutes by helicopter. MICHELIN gives it two Keys.
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On Navarino Bay on the Peloponnese's west coast, within the Costa Navarino estate, Mandarin Oriental's Greek resort spreads its villas and suites, most with private pools, down a hillside of olive trees to the sea. Costa Navarino's golf courses and the Anazoe spa are on the same estate. It holds a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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The Astir Palace was the glamorous heart of the Athens Riviera in the 1960s. Four Seasons reopened it in 2019 on its own pine-covered peninsula at Vouliagmeni, 30 minutes from central Athens. The 30-hectare estate has three private beaches, two hotel buildings and a set of 1960s-style bungalows, several with private pools, plus eight places to eat and drink. Yachts tie up at the Astir Marina next door, which makes it a natural start or finish for a Greek island charter. It holds three MICHELIN Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
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Mandarin Oriental's Turkish retreat curves around Paradise Bay near Göltürkbükü, the most fashionable corner of the Bodrum peninsula, with private beaches, terraced gardens and wide views over the Aegean. Villas with private pools climb the hillside, and the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy coaches on site. More than a dozen restaurants and bars, among them Hakkasan, ROKA, Gigi and Ferdi Baba, make it a destination in itself. It holds a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.
That makes 25 entries in all.
The Mediterranean Season Letter
Four letters a year, one for each season: the Mediterranean from spring to autumn, and Beyond the Mediterranean, into the Alps, in winter. The one best hotel to book, and the events worth crossing a sea for.
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