Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel – the Croisette's domed grande dame

Two cream-stone domes rise above the Boulevard de la Croisette, a silhouette so bound up with Cannes that the town is hard to picture without it; the facade's twin domes are said to take their shape from the bust of the Belle Époque courtesan La Belle Otero. The hotel opened on 30 January 1911, designed by architects Charles Dalmas and Marcellin Mayère and built by the Swiss hotelier Henri Ruhl, with Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia among its financiers. It has stayed close to both cinema and power ever since, part of the InterContinental group in its various guises since the 1960s, and after a five-year closure it reopened on 13 March 2023 as Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel, following a restoration overseen by interior designer Tristan Auer. The MICHELIN Guide lists it among its selected addresses in Cannes.

01The house

Ruhl's hotel was an instant success: it was such a huge success that the hotel acquired the adjoining Hôtel de la Plage on its western side and demolished it for a new wing built between 1912 and 1913, which doubled the hotel's size and gave it its present form. The years that followed were harder — part of the building was requisitioned as a wartime hospital, and ruined by the October Revolution, the Carlton lost its clientele of Russian aristocrats in 1917, with the hotel put up for sale in 1919 for a sum that did not even cover its debts. It recovered, and in 1989 the landmark was classified as a Historical Monument.

The hotel closed in 2021 and reopened under Regent Hotels & Resorts, the ultra-luxury brand IHG had acquired in 2018, paying just $39m for an initial 51% stake when the brand had only six hotels. The restoration, led by Tristan Auer with architect Richard Lavelle, expanded the footprint from 32,000 to 52,000 square metres through the addition of rear wings, which now frame an enclosed garden planted with 22,000 specimens and a hotel-record infinity pool. Inside, the false ceilings and oversized concierge counters are gone; the eye is drawn instead to soaring columns in rare marble uncovered under eight layers of paint, Murano glass chandeliers, and the colonnaded Camélia Tea Lounge with its arched windows framing the Mediterranean.

02Rooms and suites

The hotel counts 332 rooms and suites, including 72 with direct sea views, and 37 branded residences spread across the two new wings. Sizes range from a 27 sqm Classic City View room up to an 80 sqm One Bedroom Suite City View, each dressed by Auer in a palette of powdery rose, pale green and light grey drawn from his research into the garden of the Maeght Foundation nearby. A handful of suites on the upper floors belong to an Iconic Suites collection named after guests who have returned year after year for the Film Festival — among them Elton John, Sophia Loren, Alain Delon, Sophie Marceau, Sean Connery and Sharon Stone.

Insider tip

Ten minutes' walk from the Palais des Festivals; private beach club on the Croisette since the 1930s.

03Where to eat

Four kitchens operate across the ground floor and gardens. The Riviera Restaurant serves brasserie cooking built on local terroir from a Croisette-facing terrace, while Rüya turns to Anatolian cuisine, its seasonal menu ranging from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Down on the sand, the Carlton Beach Club serves Franco-Italian dishes with views across to the Esterel mountains and the Lérins islands, in a setting that has operated since the 1930s. For something sweeter, the Camélia Tea Lounge pairs more than thirty custom tea blends with a dedicated tea master and a patisserie menu beneath the lobby's restored colonnade.

04The bar

Bar°58, named for the hotel's address on the Croisette, trades in Champagne, classic wines and inventive cocktails inside interiors finished with raku ceramics sourced from the nearby village of Mouans-Sartoux, part of Auer's wider research into local materials and colour. For evenings that run later, the Viñales Cigar Lounge — named for the UNESCO-listed Cuban valley — stocks cigars alongside whiskeys and cognacs in a deliberately clubbish, old-world den.

05Spa and wellbeing

Le C Club Spa occupies part of the new rear wings and has partnered with the Swiss skincare house La Prairie on an exclusive programme devoted to beauty and longevity, alongside a bespoke signature facial created only for guests of the Carlton. The adjoining fitness centre adds a Pilates zone, boxing and cryotherapy to more conventional equipment, with bespoke health plans available on request.

06The neighbourhood

The hotel sits mid-way along La Croisette, with luxury stores nearby and the Palais des Festivals a 10-minute walk away. It has long been inseparable from the cinema next door: the hotel was a central location for the Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief, starring Grace Kelly, and it remains a fixture each May for jurors, directors and stars attending the Cannes Film Festival.

07Making the most of a stay

Ask for a sea-view room on an upper floor for the long cinematic light the hotel's designers built the rooms around, and arrive early for afternoon tea in the Camélia Tea Lounge during festival season, when every seat along the colonnade fills. The garden and infinity pool in the rear wings offer a quieter counterpoint to the Croisette-facing terraces, while summer guests can walk straight down to the hotel's own stretch of the Carlton Beach Club for lunch with feet in the sand.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.