Stately retreat featuring posh rooms, fine dining, a chic lounge & a saltwater pool, plus a spa. Perched on a hillside overlooking Portofino harbor, this sophisticated seasonal hotel is 1 km from the harbor and 2 km from Cervara Abbey. Airy, elegant rooms feature marble bathrooms, free Wi-Fi and flat-screen TVs. Posh suites add separate living areas, and balconies or terraces, while upgraded suites include private gardens, or additional terraces with sea views. Free perks consist of buffet breakfast and a beach shuttle. There's an upscale restaurant with a terrace, as well as a stylish lounge, and a heated saltwater pool with a bar. Other amenities include a fitness center, and a lush garden featuring a spa with treatments and a sauna.
"In a pastel villa that presides over pine-covered slopes and the deep blue waters of the Ligurian Sea, Hotel Splendido, A Belmond Hotel was a 16th-century monastery before it became a cliff-side luxury hotel at the turn of the 20th century." - Erica Firpo, Laura Itzkowitz
"On the terrace at Hotel Splendido with a Campari spritz."
"Splendido is a seaside resort is a former 16th century monastery that’s perfectly placed in the hillsides above the Gulf of Portofino—in fact, it's known for its sweeping vistas of the water. First opening as a hotel in 1901, the property has hosted old Hollywood stars including Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardener, and Elizabeth Taylor. Travelers, too, will be treated like movie stars at the resort, with a gala-style dinner in the hotel’s al fresco restaurant, La Terrazza, which overlooks the Gulf of Tigullio."
"The Splendido Mare, once a fishermen’s guesthouse, is the 14-room harborside sister of Belmond’s Splendido, a hillside hideout that started life as a Benedictine monastery before becoming a hotel in 1901, then a magnet for movie stars (Elizabeth Taylor had four honeymoons there). Its makeover, by in-demand Parisians Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay, is exquisite—local terra-cotta tiles and nautical nods, such as the knots woven into headboards in quietly lavish rooms, with Gio Ponti armchairs and rich Loro Piana fabrics. Everything is done subtly, almost unnoticeably, and there’s a deceptive simplicity to the cooking of brothers Enrico and Roberto Cerea. Their restaurant in Bergamo has three Michelin stars, but here they stick mostly to seafood and Ligurian classics, including a sublime pesto trofie. This is Portofino, after all, which is above all discreet—a place where the actors and the aperitivo-sipping locals don’t much bother one another." - Nicholas DeRenzo, CNT Editors
"The Splendido Mare, once a fishermen’s guesthouse, is the 14-room harborside sister of Belmond’s Splendido, a hillside hideout that started life as a Benedictine monastery before becoming a hotel in 1901, then a magnet for movie stars (Elizabeth Taylor had four honeymoons there). Its makeover, by in-demand Parisians Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay, is exquisite—local terra-cotta tiles and nautical nods, such as the knots woven into headboards in quietly lavish rooms, with Gio Ponti armchairs and rich Loro Piana fabrics. Everything is done subtly, almost unnoticeably, and there’s a deceptive simplicity to the cooking of brothers Enrico and Roberto Cerea. Their restaurant in Bergamo has three Michelin stars, but here they stick mostly to seafood and Ligurian classics, including a sublime pesto trofie. This is Portofino, after all, which is above all discreet—a place where the actors and the aperitivo-sipping locals don’t much bother one another." - CNT Editors