Althoff Villa Belrose – a Florentine villa above the Gulf of Saint-Tropez

On a pine-covered hill above Gassin, five minutes back from Saint-Tropez harbour, Althoff Villa Belrose looks less like a hotel than a private villa that drifted south from Florence: ochre-yellow façades, white balustrades and terraced gardens stepping down through umbrella pines toward the gulf. Thomas H. Althoff opened the house in 1997 after six years of building work, and for two decades its gourmet dining room, Le Belrose, was the first restaurant on the Saint-Tropez peninsula to carry a MICHELIN star, a distinction it held from 1999 to 2019. Today the MICHELIN Guide counts Villa Belrose among its Selected hotels on the Riviera – a discreet five-star estate of 39 rooms and suites set across roughly nine thousand square metres of pine forest and garden, recently given a lighter, more contemporary face without losing the quarter-century of habit and familiarity that keeps its guests coming back.

01The house

The villa's Florentine silhouette, mimosa-yellow walls and immaculate balustrades set in a pine wood were already a fixture of the gulf when it opened its doors in 1997 after six years of construction. For a quarter of a century it has stood on its hill above Gassin as the jewel of the German-owned Althoff hotel group, run since January 2001 by general manager Robert Jan van Straaten, whose long tenure has given the house the settled, unhurried air of a family estate rather than a hotel.

Three winters of closed-season renovation, completed for the 2025 season, were entrusted to Markus Hilzinger, the designer behind Althoff's Dom Hotel in Cologne and the Taschenbergpalais Kempinski in Dresden. He lightened the salons and terraces, kept the solid-wood floors and Italian marble bathrooms, and introduced three new suites – Belrose, Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Tropez – without disturbing the timeless, slightly theatrical elegance that is the house's signature.

02Rooms and suites

Villa Belrose counts 39 rooms and suites, each with its own balcony or terrace looking either over the bay or into the garden. Categories run from the compact 15 m² Standard Single Room up through Superior Double Garden and Pool rooms, Standard, Deluxe and Prestige Sea View rooms, to the Superior Suite Sea View and the Suite Belrose Panoramic View – a 60 m² suite with separate bedroom and living room that can be extended to 80 m² with an adjoining room, its balcony framing the whole sweep of the bay from Sainte-Maxime to the Esterel and, on a clear day, the Alps.

Insider tip

Open seasonally; reopens 23 April 2027. Free shuttle to Saint-Tropez and Pampelonne beach.

Marble, wood and fabrics from established French houses dress every room, and double rooms in the Garden and Pool categories can be configured with connecting doors for families. The Front Office will also arrange a baby cot on request, and the hotel keeps two rooms adapted for guests with reduced mobility.

03Where to eat

Villa Belrose's gastronomic history runs deeper than most addresses on this stretch of coast. Chef Thierry Thiercelin held a MICHELIN star and three Gault&Millau toques at the restaurant from 1998 to 2014; his successor, the Italian chef Pietro Volontè, kept the star until 2019, making Le Belrose the first starred table on the Saint-Tropez peninsula. The dining room itself has since been rebuilt in marble, brass and sculptural lighting, a softer, more contemporary reading of Riviera glamour.

Today Le Belrose is led by chef Jimmy Coutel, whose cooking leans on short supply chains and the produce of the Côte d'Azur. Two tasting menus are offered: the four-course "Farigoule", built around local tradition, and the five-course "Signature", with bolder, more playful combinations. The kitchen's calling card is a vegetarian dish, "Le Jardin de Sydney", built entirely from seasonal vegetables grown by a local farmer of the same name. By the pool, the more relaxed Le Méditerranée serves French and Mediterranean dishes for lunch, with fourteen tables and seating for thirty-six.

04The bar

The lobby, with its chequered marble floor and arched doors framed on the sea, opens onto an outdoor terrace built for lingering – a chilled rosé at lunchtime, an aperitif as the lights come on across the bay in the evening. It is deliberately unshowy: a place for guests who have already seen the port's yacht-side champagne circus and would rather watch it from a distance.

05Spa and pool

The hotel's main pool measures 25 by 12 metres, holds 300 m² of water kept at 26°C and ranges from 0.85 m to 2.40 m deep, with space for twelve double and sixteen single sunbeds around it; a second, smaller relaxation pool with twin whirlpools sits alongside. A compact gym looks straight out over the water and the palms beyond.

The beauty centre works exclusively with NIANCE, a Swiss anti-ageing brand chosen for treatments built around the body's own capacity to regenerate – facials, massages and body care, with Lancaster products for days spent by the pool. A personal trainer and jogging routes through the private residential hills around the hotel are arranged through the concierge.

06The neighbourhood

Villa Belrose sits apart from the village it overlooks, in the quiet hills of Gassin, with Saint-Tropez harbour, its markets and the place des Lices only five minutes away by the hotel's own electric shuttle, which also runs to Pampelonne beach. The hotel's concierge points guests toward the Citadel of Saint-Tropez, a fortified complex dating from the seventeenth century that the town bought in 1993 and which remains one of the area's most visited historic sites, as well as smaller, more local detours into Gassin and Ramatuelle's vineyards and hilltop lanes.

07Making the most of a stay

Guests who want more space than even the Suite Belrose offers can book one of sixteen private villas in the surrounding hills through Althoff Bellevue Villa Rental, each arranged with a butler, a stocked fridge on arrival and babysitting on request – in effect a residential village sharing the same hillside and the same kitchen.

Villa Belrose keeps strictly seasonal hours, closing over winter and reopening for 2027 on 23 April. Free Wi-Fi runs throughout the house, parking in the courtyard is complimentary (a private garage costs extra), two charging points serve electric cars, and dogs are welcome for a daily fee, complete with their own doggy menu, though not at the table in the restaurants.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.