Hôtel du Palais Biarritz

The Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz is one of the most legendary addresses on France's Atlantic coast. Napoleon III had the imperial palace hotel built in 1855 for Empress Eugénie, and it rises on a cliff right by the sea facing the Grande Plage beach. Today the protected building is home to the Basque Country's most significant spa offering. The hotel's Guéthary Spa combines the Basque Country's traditional thalassotherapy with modern wellness services. The Atlantic's mineral-rich seawater flows into a heated seawater pool and various water-therapy pools. A sauna world, hammam, steam room, and an extensive treatment menu — from four-hand massage to algae treatments — are available to hotel guests and outside visitors. Biarritz is the most elegant spa town of the Basque Country — a town shaped by the Belle Époque that retains a unique blend of Atlantic power, Basque culture, and cosmopolitan atmosphere. The Hôtel du Palais's location right by the water, framed by the lighthouse and the endless Atlantic, is simply without equal.