Grand Miramare

Grand Miramare

Grand Miramare stands across the road from Bagni Miramare, the largest private beach in Santa Margherita Ligure, where guests are handed a lounger, an umbrella and a towel at no extra charge, spaces going first come, first served each morning. The hotel itself has been run by the Fustinoni family since 1945, and that same instinct for care runs through the place: a kids club and highchairs for young families, a doctor on call, staff fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and a heated seawater pool with 1970s curves set in a garden of oleanders and pine trees, open from mid-April to mid-October. Seventy-two rooms sit across five floors, with private gardens rising toward Mount Portofino past century-old camellia bushes to a lookout over the Gulf of Tigullio, and Portofino and the Cinque Terre both within easy reach. Dinner ranges from the Art Nouveau formality of Vistamare, where long trousers are expected and the terrace faces the sea, to the Barracuda Beach Restaurant for fish and pasta with your feet nearly in the water, and Bar Le Colonne for the evening aperitif. Couples arranging a wedding or a birthday dinner at the pool gazebo will find a team that has clearly done this before, and pets are welcome for a modest fee. It suits people who want history done properly rather than reinvented, and it will disappoint anyone after minimalism or anonymity, given the gelato cart and piano bar evenings that fill the season here. What the Miramare offers that its neighbours cannot is that beach itself: the largest on this shore, and included in the stay rather than charged for it. Grand Miramare sits opposite Bagni Miramare, the largest private beach in Santa Margherita Ligure, with loungers included at no charge. Run by the Fustinoni family since 1945, it favours long lunches and Art Nouveau dining over reinvention, better suited to heritage lovers than anyone chasing anonymity.