Opened 2005 on the Larvotto peninsula, four hectares of sea-front gardens, a sand-bottomed outdoor lagoon heated year-round, 334 rooms in Art-Deco Mediterranean Mediterranean register, the 900-square-metre Clarins & myBlend spa, and the only proper resort posture inside the principality.
"The only address in the principality where the children can walk barefoot from the room to the water without crossing a road. For Monte-Carlo, that is the rarest piece of geometry on offer."
The Monte-Carlo Bay opened in 2005 on land that the SBM had reclaimed from the sea over a thirty-year process, the most ambitious piece of Monégasque urban engineering since the construction of Fontvieille. The brief from the start was unusual for Monaco: rather than the dense palace-on-a-rock posture of the historic SBM addresses, the new property was to be a proper resort, four hectares of sea-front grounds with a horizontal layout, low-rise pavilions, and a Mediterranean-Floridian aesthetic that the principality had not previously had room for. The architects Luc Svetchine and Jean-Michel Wilmotte produced a building that looks almost out of place inside Monaco, long, low, white-stuccoed, more St-Tropez than Belle Époque, and that is, deliberately, the proposition.
The 334 rooms and suites occupy a single curved building wrapped around the gardens. The Art-Deco-inflected interiors were refreshed in 2019 under designer Studio Indigo; the colour palette runs through off-white, terracotta, and Mediterranean blue with wood accents and Cuban-inspired ceiling fans in the higher categories. Every room has a balcony; the better Sea View categories look out across the lagoon to the Italian Riviera; the suites, particularly the Penthouse and the Suite Diamond, have full wraparound terraces. Connecting rooms are unusually plentiful for Monaco (this is the principality's family-resort selection by default), and the room sizes start a notch above the average of the SBM palace properties.
The grounds are the proposition. The free-form outdoor lagoon, fed with seawater and rough-edged in the Floridian resort style, is sand-bottomed at the shallow end and progresses to swimming depth; it is heated year-round and is the principality's only piece of resort water of that scale. The indoor 25-metre pool, the kids' pool, and the whirlpool form a connected aquatic complex with the lagoon. The Spa Clarins & myBlend (900 m², added in 2022 in partnership with Clarins) is the largest of the SBM spas; the Casino Las Vegas (the SBM's slot- and table-floor outpost) sits adjoining for evening play. The restaurants, Blue Bay (1 Michelin star, Caribbean-Mediterranean menu by Marcel Ravin); Le Las Vegas brasserie; Le Vista poolside grill, are the strongest dining roster of any modern Monaco property.
The Larvotto position is the third proposition. The Bay sits at the far eastern end of the principality, at the Italian-border edge, with the Larvotto beach reopened in 2021 a four-minute walk down the promenade and the Casino-Monte-Carlo a six-minute drive (or a twelve-minute walk along the seafront). The position is the principality's only true resort posture and the obvious selection for travellers who want a Monaco base that is not, primarily, a casino building. SBM Cercle privileges apply identically to those of the Hôtel de Paris and the Hermitage, guests at the Bay can use the Cercle card at the Casino, the Café de Paris, the Thermes Marins, and the Monte-Carlo Beach Club without surcharge.
Monaco's only proper family-resort proposition. The sand-bottom lagoon at the shallow end, the kids' pool, the Larvotto beach four minutes down the promenade, the daily Kids' Club programme during school holidays, and the connecting-room inventory that exists at scale here and almost nowhere else in the principality. The Oceanographic Museum is a nine-minute drive; the casino is far enough not to set the tone for a family weekend.
The 900 m² Spa Clarins & myBlend is the most modern wellness facility in Monaco, added 2022, the SBM's largest of three spa addresses, the Clarins partnership the principality's deepest. Connect with the Thermes Marins seawater therapy programme four minutes down the road via the SBM Cercle and you have a multi-day wellness brief built around two complementary properties.
For honeymooners who want Monaco's address book without the Belle Époque density, the Bay is the answer. A Diamond Suite, breakfast on the terrace, lunch at Le Vista by the lagoon, dinner at Blue Bay (one Michelin star), evening at the Casino Monte-Carlo, the day is a quieter version of the SBM brief, with the resort layout taking the edge off the principality's typical compression.
40 Avenue Princesse Grace
98000 Monte-Carlo
Monaco
Larvotto Beach 4 minutes on foot; Casino de Monte-Carlo 6 minutes by car; Italian border 8 minutes by car; Nice Airport 30 minutes by car.
334 rooms & suites
Classic Rooms from €420/night
Sea View Doubles from €620/night
Junior Suites from €1,200/night
Diamond Suites from €3,800/night
Penthouse on request
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened 2005; interiors refreshed 2019 (Studio Indigo); Spa Clarins added 2022.
Sand-bottomed outdoor lagoon (heated year-round)
Spa Clarins & myBlend (900 m²)
Blue Bay (1 Michelin star, Marcel Ravin)
Le Vista poolside grill; Le Las Vegas brasserie
Casino Las Vegas adjoining
Kids' Club programming
SBM Cercle privileges
From €420/night. Summer Sea View weekends (July, August) book four months ahead; Grand Prix and Yacht Show weeks six months ahead. Diamond Suites for family Christmas and New Year sets book a year out.
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