Opened 1886 in the principality's Carré d'Or, closed 2003, reopened 2004 after a full Jacques Garcia redesign, 125 rooms, two-Michelin-star Joël Robuchon Monte-Carlo, the Odyssey pool reimagined by Karl Lagerfeld, and the only independent palace inside the principality.
"If the Hôtel de Paris is the principality's living room, the Métropole is its drawing room, the address you take when you do not want to share the lobby with three hundred people."
The Hôtel Métropole opened in 1886 on the grounds of Cardinal Antonio Tosti's private villa, which the Monte-Carlo Hotel Company had acquired the same year. The first guest list ran through the European Belle Époque establishment, the King of Romania, the Sultan of Constantinople, the Prince of Wales among them, and through the 1890s the Métropole rivalled the Hôtel de Paris for the principality's prime book. The hotel ran continuously through the twentieth century with diminishing distinction; by the late 1990s it had drifted out of the top tier. The current ownership, the Greek-Monégasque Métropole SAM, separate from the SBM, closed the property in 2003 and reopened it in March 2004 as the principality's first fully reconceived twenty-first-century palace.
The 2004 reopening was a Jacques Garcia project, the Paris-based interior designer responsible for Hotel Costes, La Mamounia in Marrakech, and the renovation of the Hôtel La Réserve in Geneva. Garcia's Métropole is the only Monaco palace in his hand: a layered, jewel-tone, deliberately Mediterranean-orientalist interior that pushes back hard against the principality's standard Belle Époque off-white. The lobby, with its black-and-white marble, oversized Murano chandeliers, and oil portraits of indeterminate provenance, is the principality's most photographed contemporary hotel interior. The 125 rooms and suites are a quieter version of the same palette, with high ceilings, parquet floors, Frette linens, and the largest bathrooms among Monaco's palace hotels.
Joël Robuchon Monte-Carlo opened with the hotel in 2004 and earned two Michelin stars within twelve months, the late Robuchon's first French Riviera residency, run since 2004 by Chef de Cuisine Christophe Cussac, who has held the two stars without interruption for more than two decades. Yoshi (one Michelin star) is the hotel's Japanese counter, designed by Didier Gomez and overseen by Robuchon's Japanese deputy. Together the two restaurants make the Métropole the only Monaco palace with three Michelin stars across two rooms under a single chef. Le Café Métropole on the Avenue de la Madone is the all-day brasserie. The Odyssey, the hotel's rooftop pool, redesigned by Karl Lagerfeld in 2012 in a black-and-white Greek-mythology palette, is the principality's most distinctive piece of contemporary hotel design.
The Métropole's position in the Carré d'Or, Monaco's prime retail and residential triangle, is the hotel's positioning argument against the SBM properties. The Hôtel de Paris and the Hermitage are on the casino frontage; the Métropole is one block back, on the same level, with the principality's flagship Cartier, Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton boutiques directly outside the entrance and the Casino three minutes on foot. The Spa Métropole by Givenchy adds a 950 m² wellness facility with Givenchy's only Monaco partnership. The hotel runs independent of the SBM Cercle, which means the room rate trades at a small discount to the equivalent SBM categories and the dining at the Métropole has the principality's most contained, most personal register.
For honeymooners who want the Monaco address book but not the casino lobby, the Métropole is the answer. A Deluxe Suite, breakfast on a Carré d'Or balcony, the Lagerfeld pool at midday, dinner at Joël Robuchon, the day is a quieter, more curated version of the principality's standard brief. The smaller scale (125 rooms vs. 207, 596 across the SBM trio) is the proposition.
The Carré Suite or the Diamond Suite for the milestone year, dinner at Joël Robuchon, breakfast in the lobby under the Murano chandeliers, an afternoon at the Givenchy spa. The Métropole handles the celebratory anniversary with more personal attention than the SBM palaces' larger rosters allow. Repeat guests will be remembered by name at the door inside two visits.
The Spa Métropole by Givenchy is the principality's most personal wellness room, 950 m², only Givenchy partnership address in Monaco, full Decléor and ELEMIS programmes, the Lagerfeld Odyssey pool one floor up. Pair with the Thermes Marins on the SBM Cercle ticket (the Métropole sells access) for a multi-day seawater-therapy brief built around the Carré d'Or.
4 Avenue de la Madone
98000 Monte-Carlo
Monaco
Carré d'Or boutiques outside the entrance; Casino de Monte-Carlo 3 minutes on foot; Port Hercule 7 minutes; Nice Airport 30 minutes by car.
125 rooms & suites
Classic Rooms from €700/night
Deluxe Doubles from €950/night
Carré Suites from €2,100/night
Diamond Suites from €4,500/night
Carré d'Or Suite on request
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened 1886; closed 2003 for full reconception; reopened March 2004 under Jacques Garcia; Karl Lagerfeld pool added 2012.
Joël Robuchon Monte-Carlo (2 Michelin stars)
Yoshi (1 Michelin star)
Le Café Métropole all-day brasserie
Odyssey rooftop pool (Karl Lagerfeld design)
Spa Métropole by Givenchy (950 m²)
Carré d'Or boutique location
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From €700/night. Carré Suites and Diamond Suites book four months ahead for spring and autumn weekends, six months ahead for Grand Prix week and the Yacht Show. The hotel runs noticeably tighter than the SBM properties, under 60 rooms typically open at any one time.
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