Hotel Metropole, Monte-Carlo

What the classifiers highlight

Built on land once owned by Pope Leo XIII, opened in 1886, an Italianate Belle Époque mansion behind a cobblestone drive lined with cypress, updated by designer Jacques Garcia. MICHELIN lists it a Key hotel; Forbes rates it Four Stars and calls it discreet, not a see-and-be-seen address. Rooms carry rich fabrics and marble baths; the spa runs on Guerlain.