The best hotels in Saint Tropez
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Few places on earth prompt the same grade of hedonism as Saint Tropez. It is written into the once sleepy fishing village’s DNA, morphing from free-spirited bohemia into star-studded partying and then, more recently, hosting the global bling brigade. The glamorous chapter began in earnest when And God Created Woman was filmed on its pine-flanked shores, and Brigitte Bardot placed Saint Tropez on the world map. The French New Wave, Parisian Left Bank coterie were leaving the pages of their books to bake in the French Riviera sun well before. And despite its 21st-century agenda of rampant revelry – the Champagne-popping-diamonds-and-stilettos-welcome – the village’s bohemian spirit and Riviera elegance live on. You just need to know where to find it.
Whether checking in for a coastal cleanse or caviar-laced tasting menus, here are the best hotels in Saint Tropez.
How we choose the best hotels in Saint Tropez
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We’re always looking for beautiful design, a great location and warm service – as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
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Hotel Byblos
Imagine a hotel that blends a pastel-hued Provencal fishing village with an ancient Lebanese port, replete with ancient Greek references and Roger Capron ceramics. Gay-Para, the Lebanese billionaire who created it, did exactly that, but he also imagined it would win over St Tropez queen Brigitte Bardot, for whom he had an unwavering obsession. It didn’t, although she politely attended the opening party. But it did win the hearts of the glitterati, shortly followed by the deep wallets of Europe’s fortunate few. This is a fabulous, unapologetic vestige of the Riviera’s golden era, where heavy silver trays of seafood sit on balconies and Chanel heels strut to poolside dinners for live jazz and lobster. Mick and Bianca married here and the legendary nightclub, Les Caves Du Roy, continues to lure in the celebrities and high rollers, all drunk on the iconic party snaps of Grace Jones (and Veuve Clicquot).
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November StudioLily of the Valley
This relatively new arrival to the Cote d’Azur may share other five star hotels' cinematic Riviera views and cool, contemporary interiors, but its agenda is unique and, perhaps, prophetic. Philippe Starck’s walnut ceilings, daring marble bathrooms and offbeat rustic spaces high in La Croix Valmer play host to new thinking on luxury travel – where wellbeing is no longer confined to a Swiss lake but sits alongside tapas lunches and lazy pastry breakfasts. This is where the well-heeled (and well-tired) come to recharge without the Opus Dei flavour punishment, but equally without the heavy hangover of an overindulgent week. The spa has therefore had to up its game for this new breed of Riviera roller – who sign up to three holistic programmes (weight loss, sport and detox) or go at their own turmeric-shot and Technogym pace. Shades and materials both inside and out feel as organic and nourishing as the plates of poached fish and seasonal salads. The pool lords over trippy, Mediterranean views and reminds the one-only cocktail crowd (who occasionally slip off the wellness wagon) that wellbeing and pleasure were always bedfellows.
Address: Colline Saint Michel, Boulevard Abel Faivre, Quartier de Gigaro, 83420 La Croix-Valmer, France
Courtesy of AREV Saint TropezArev St Tropez
Nearly 70 years after Vadim’s steamy groundbreaking film And God Created Woman, a hovering nostalgia for Bardot’s glam glory days in Saint Tropez still persists, so why fight it? Hidden away on a quiet leafy street behind the humming Place des Lices, the 44-room boutique hotel AREV St Tropez — the first luxe lifestyle hotel in the newly launched AREV collection — was unabashedly named after the French word for “dream”. And dreamy it is – call it a vision of nautical-inspired style with yacht-like symmetry. Once you step beyond the low-slung Provençal cream and blue-shuttered façade, expect a ubiquitous theatrical tri-colour colour scheme — bold navy and white stripes and eye-popping reds, created by Madrid-based designer Luis Bustamante — which extends from the lobby to the deeply comfortable ultra-spacious rooms and suites with private terraces. Have a signature reinvented Bloody Mary at the retro Q bar, then tuck into delicious Mediterranean market-driven dishes – white asparagus with truffles, spaghetti with sea urchins and tuna, grilled saddle of lamb with Chanterelle mushrooms – at the indoor/outdoor restaurant, The Strand, named after St Tropez’s oldest eatery.
With an inviting turquoise pool, a fleet of bespoke high-tech electric bikes, a Techogym-equipped Fitness Center, a Padel court, plus a pétanque court in the olive-tree-shaded mini-village square (with a scarlet food truck for apéro nibbles) there’s already lots to do besides draping yourself on a sunbed with a bottle of iced Champagne. Inveterate shoppers and night owls rejoice: the boutiques and nighttime hot spots in the village are a 10-minute stroll away, plus the e-Mehari beach buggy shuttles guests back and forth to the sandy stretch of Pampelonne for long languorous lunches and a splash in the sea. Add to the mix AREV’s small but lovely spa, featuring an exclusive made-in-St-Tropez line of botanical beauty products and perfumes by ST Maison, used for treatments from sand scrubs to massages with sweet-smelling citrusy and floral essential oils. Lanie Goodman
droits d’auteurAirelles Saint Tropez, Pan Deï Palais
India-meets-Saint Tropez. This mustard townhouse confounds guests with its shuttered exterior concealing a dark-wooded Raj-era scene inside. The boutique hotel is built on a love story – where a 19th-century British general fell in love with an Indian princess, who later took her grief and rich colour palette to Saint Tropez. Old-world fans and four posters dressed in white linen curtains set an exotic tone, and while splashes of burnt orange, lime and crimsons animate the rooms, the bass note is earthy and restrained. The theme spills out into a walled garden, where the pool (which could have been a Raj pond in a past life) is lined with white parasols and thick, cushioned loungers. Its central location in the old town (a seven-minute walk to the beach) is staggering given its overall feeling of serenity and calm.
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Airelles St Tropez, Chateau de la Messardiere
It’s hard not to be wowed by this pretty, turreted beauty which has recently been gutted and glammed up by haut hoteliers, Airelles. The views of the pine woods and vine-combed hills sloping down to Saint Tropez Bay and Pampelonne from Château de la Messardière are as splendid as its interiors. Curtains are stiffer than Martinis, palatial panelling traces the walls and le grand gôut francais is swapped for something fresher and marginally more Provencal. When not playing petanque or Mini Moking off to the Chateau’s Pampelonne spot on the legendary stretch of sand, guests can spend an afternoon soaking, steaming and generally luxuriating in the Valmont spa. Elevated brasserie-style plates arrive poolside from Matsuhisa restaurant while La Table de La Messardière puts on the full Provencal charm.
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Grégoire GardetteLa Reserve
The epitome of contemporary calm, La Reserve Ramatuelle hides away from the Côte d’Azur crowds in the pine-shaded hills, 20-minutes inland from Saint Tropez. The traditional terracotta tiles dressing its villa and suite roofs belie the minimalist feast inside – the work of Jean-Michel Wilmotte who brought the splendid simplicity of the landscape indoors with spoiling effect. The pool scene (apparently ripped from a book of Slim Aarons prints) is animated by golden sunlight and endless glasses of rosé. Jasmine clings to the air and Mini Mokes whizz guests to La Reserve’s Pampelonne outpost, where plates of ceviche and tomatoes sprinkled in truffle line up like the cream umbrellas shading those digesting a long, lavish lunch.
V.MATICheval Blanc Saint Tropez
Cheval Blanc Saint Tropez has two serious local brags that curiously seems to precede both its three Michelin-starred restaurant and lavishly restrained interiors: it has access to a beach (more a small patch of white sand) and is a hop, skip, or Bentley nano-second away from Saint Tropez, unlike its Ramatuelle competitors. A tastefully contemporary expression of Riviera glamour, this Côte d’Azur maison comprises the original Pinede Chateau, extended and retuned inside for a less formal (but no less fabulous) set. This is where quiet luxury comes to play, to recline on creamy sun loungers following gourmet Truffle Croque-Madame lunches, or to inspect the hotel’s feast of modern art before a caviar and Champagne tasting menu, courtesy of Chef Arnaud Donckele. Rooms dressed in sumptuously simple blues and creams echo the views across a sequin bay to Saint Maxime, therapists work Guerlain potions into weary shoulders in the spa, and impeccably dressed waiters glide across the pine-shaded terrace, topping up paper-thin glasses of Ruinart.
Address: Plage de la Bouillabaisse, 83990 Saint-Tropez, France
David AndreVilla Marie
Rather than the choreographed and contrived interior overhaul, usually conducted by a Parisian design house, Villa Marie has the comforting eclecticism of a private home. Swirly white wrought iron chairs, pillared verandas shaded by vines and statues smothered in jasmine evoke a sense of nostalgia – a longing for a slower, sophisticated age. A variety of rooms (some with four posters, some vibrant orange, some brandishing the typical hallmarks of boudoir shabby chic) all inhale the salty, warm breeze through french doors. A distinct absence of integrated editing lends Villa Marie its bohemian appeal, just with the buttoned-up service you’d expect from a top Cote D'Azur hotel. Exotic gardens fan out beneath the pines, where guests roam and recline among olive trees, palms and cacti. The only discernible theme, aside from elevated bohemia, is white and cream with red accents on table clothes and poolside sun loungers, and regular sightings of Domaine de Marie wine (from the hotel’s sister maison in the Luberon).
Hotel Lou Pinet
There is something endlessly glamorous about Saint Tropez’s laid-back spirit. You’ll find it in droves at Hotel Lou Pinet where rooms are dressed in shades and prints from the sixties and seventies, and mint shutters lining a typically Provencal exterior blink out over one of the Riviera’s most ravishing pools, lined with turquoise tiles. Subdued colours and materials echo the region’s more rustic reputation – olives, creams, wicker and terracotta – and ahead-of-her-time Tata Harper has whipped the spa into eco-shape. Breakfast here is a photogenic affair – finessed spreads of bircher muesli, perfectly baked bread and pastries, fresh fruits and cold cuts, enough to stretch on till midday where Saint Tropez’ sandal and Tropezienne delis await only ten minutes away.
La Ponche
The bohemian allure that once drew an illustrious Parisian clientele of Left Bank writers, jazz musicians and glam 1950s film stars still prevails at this stylishly refurbished 21-room village townhouse hilltop hotel that overlooks the red-tiled rooftops and mythic cove where Vadim shot starlet Bardot in And God Created Woman. Everything from the unfussy neo-Provencal décor reinvented by designer Fabrizio Casiraghi—rooms decked out in creamy white, sand-colored walls, polished wood and terracotta tiled floors—to the terrace restaurant headed by chef Thomas Danigo, is an ode to the Mediterranean. Highlights: late-night fêtes in the plush retro bar and sunrise beachside sessions with Le Tigre Yoga Club.