Hashtag Life visited the exquisite Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, in collaboration with the Monte-Carlo Societe des Bain de Mer, for a stay and experience like no other, in Monaco and the Cote D’azur. Here is our account of our stay at a hotel so unique it will have you besotted from arrival, to departure, and beyond.
The Monte-Carlo Societe des Bains de Mer houses four of the most prestigious, well known and sought after hotels in Monaco and the Cote D’Azur. All year round members, professionals, stars, tourists and locals alike frequent the hotels and its abundance of spectacular offerings, events, luxuries and comforts. The SBM features four luxury hotels in the Principality of Monaco, and Hashtag Life had the pleasure of experiencing the Monaco Bay Hotel during our visit this month.
The Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel is perched on a stunning peninsula on the border of the Larvotto Marine Reserve overlooking classic views of the Monte-Carlo coast, and it’s sister hotel the Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel. The youngest hotel of the group, having opened in 2005, the Monte-Carlo Bay is best described as a resort within a resort, taking a fresh, cool and modern look at luxury, whilst leveraging all the heritage, experience and ‘the best of Monaco’, which is unique to the Societe des Bains de Mer.
The hotel’s design is neo-classical, with an emphasis on the ‘neo’. Outdoors, it channels a seaside flare and beach club ambiences with wide sweeping terraces, subtle palmy landscapes, endless yet tastefully laid out sunbeds and cabanas, and a swimming pool complex to rival all others. A beautiful glass-panelled conservatory houses a year-round indoor pool and stands over a bridge in the middle of the equally huge sandy-bottomed lagoon which in turn spills out onto cascades of outdoor swimming pools. This airy, spacious, colourful swimming concept overlooking wide spans of the Mediterranean itself makes it difficult to choose the seawater over the lavish bathing comforts the hotel has designed for its guests. Surrounding the pools are a Veuve Cliquot inspired pool bar and a fun and healthy ‘roll in’ ice-cream bar with low GI ice-cream hand-rolled before your eyes from scratch, and also where you will find all kids in an orderly queue, if lost!
More excitingly for the adults however, are the outdoor terraces of L’Orange Verte, offering all day menus of light, healthy world-cuisine, split up on the menu by region, as well as the indescribable Las Brisas. Las Brisas is headed up by the hotel’s Michelin Starred Chef Marcel Ravin, who has also mastered the hotel’s incredible fine dining Blue Bay restaurant (more on that later!). Like Blue Bay, Las Brisas combines the Caribbean heritage of Chef Marcel, with mediterranean flavours to produce an exquisite and refreshing touch on fresh and flavoursome gourmet food. With its sweeping views, its riviera-chic style, and Michelin-chef inspired menu, every guest owes it to themselves to visit at least once and fall in love with the Monte Carlo Bay hotel. We visited for lunch on our first day; so our love affair was sealed from the start. On the opposite side of the hotel accessed through the hotel’s cocktail bar, perfect for evening drinks, (or in our case during our visit – watching the World Cup!), is one more terrace of the Blue Gin Bar, a great place to watch the sunset, enjoy creative cocktails, light nibbles and shisha!
That, however, is just the hotel’s outdoor world. Inside the hotel is another wonderland in itself; 330 rooms including 22 suites fill the hotel which even during high seasons provides space and privacy for guests through its careful design and thoughtful layout. The rooms are modern, spacious, and offer both mountain or sea views so they never disappoint. The suites expand on these comforts with their space, lounge areas, wide terraces and top floor panoramic views.
The hotel also hosts, of course, it’s own casino, although a visit to the befamed Casino de Monte-Carlo is highly recommended, even for guests who do not play, but wish to soak in the spectacular ambience and other-worldly experience of the Casino by night in the Place de Casino, with the historic Hotel de Paris standing by it’s side. Guests of the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel can easily access any of the sister hotels, including the Monte-Carlo Beach Club, via the internal shuttle bus stopping right outside each venue every 15 minutes.
The hotel’s resident Spa is that of French beauty and wellness pioneers the Cinq Mondes Spa, offering specialist treatments, massages and professional Spa Cosmetic Products, all inspired by the world’s ancestral cultures and distinctive for their sophistication and sensory appeal. The Spa’s ‘beauty rituals of the world’ on offer hail from North Africa and the Middle East, The Polynesian Islands, Ayurvedic India, and Bahia Brazil. All Cinq Mondes products combine state-of-the-art cosmetology and are crucially, paraben, silicone and phenoxyethanol free. Whether for treatments or to benefit from the hammam, saunas, and Japanese Baths, every guest will reap the benefits of retreating to the calm and recharging tranquility of the Cinq Mondes Spa.
A visit to the Monte-Carlo Bay, or indeed just to Monte-Carlo is not complete without the unique experience of dining at the Blue Bay Restaurant. Open daily for dinner, Michelin Starred Chef Marcel Ravin’s charming restaurant offers an unforgettable culinary journey. Whilst this restaurant merits a review of it’s own, a must mention is the skilful journey Chef Marcel transports his guests on through a fusion of Martinican and Mediterranean creations. What will blow you away is Chef Marcel’s artful monopoly on textures. For each dish, Chef Marcel will use the same ingredients in different ways to create a myriad of opposing yet complimentary textures, flavours, and cooking techniques which awaken and intrigue the palette more fully through each stage.
As the final rays shimmer on the horizon of the beautiful Monte-Carlo bay, any corner of the hotel will charm and enchant its guests to pure satisfaction. Of all my hotel visits globally, I found that the Monte Carlo bay delivers in all aspects – every service is delivered to the highest standard, every need or request has clearly been pre-considered, and is effortlessly met and facilitated in the hotel’s daily offering and operations. Many a luxury hotel may be perfectly polished and presented in its appearance but then fail to meet guests needs and expectations from an experiential perspective; that is, when you actually have a request or concern, is the hotel equipped, organised, and willing enough to receive and handle those requests? The Monte-Carlo Bay’s delivery of this can best be summed up as that relationship where two people finish each other’s sentences. Whether it was as simple as requesting more water for our room and receiving large chilled bottles within seconds, or whether it was overstaying both our breakfast and lunch sittings after the restaurants had finished serving, without being approached a single time and ushered to hurry up – this is a hotel which feels like a home but looks like a royal residence. I would return in a heartbeat with the surety that I will find the same friendly faces, seamless expertise and abundant offering each time. After all, who would want to leave a place like this?
Visit:
http://www.montecarlobay.com
http://www.montecarlosbm.com
We Chose to travel with Antler luggage; the British brand which has maintained high quality, reliable, and innovative designs for over 100 years.
We chose to travel with the Juno II large suitcase which comes at unbeatable value for its lightweight design, 360 degree rotating wheels and double wheel system (meaning it still feels like it’s flying, even after you’ve landed!) and TSA locks.
Visit: https://www.antler.co.uk/
See the Antler Juno II Case in action:
See More from our Visit:
