The Mediterranean brings to mind intoxicating images of glistening azure waters and stunning beaches, punctuated by whitewashed fishing villages and medieval hilltop towns, including breathtaking natural wonders on Italy’s Amalfi Coast as well as exotic Spanish and Greek isles. Enjoy dining on some of the freshest seafood imaginable in fine waterfront eateries, paired by a fabulous glass of wine and perhaps even treat yourself to the ultimate escape by staying in one of these luxurious resorts.
The Westin Dragonara Resort Malta - St. Julian’s, Malta
The Western Dragonara Resort overlooks the Mediterranean in the alluring country of Malta. Located on a nearly 800,000-square-foot private peninsula in the heart of downtown St. Julian’s, surrounded by glistening blue waters with spectacular views of the sea from its spacious rooms. Rooms boast an expansive terrace or balcony along with Heavenly Beds, ideal for families. In fact, this property was chosen as the Best Family Resort in Europe by World Travel Awards. You’ll find outdoor pools with children’s splash pools, an outdoor Jacuzzi and direct access to the Mediterranean via the Med Bar beach. The Kids Club caters to children and offers a wide variety of activities for its younger guests. Enjoy diving and water sports as well as a state-of-the-art fitness center with saunas, steam rooms and a heated indoor pool.
Yria Island Boutique Hotel & Spa - Paros, Greece
Yria Island Boutique Hotel & Spa, modeled on a village of stunning Cycladic houses, is tucked in the picturesque bay of Parasporos on a former vineyard. Its rooms, suites and maisonettes were designed for luxury living, and are nestled among colorful, fragrant gardens. Enjoy a lovely sandy beach that sits at the edge of crystal clear, turquoise waters along with magical sunset views. If you’re looking for the best of the best, choose the villa, with its lavish indoor and outdoor living quarters overlooking the channel between Paros and Antiparos. The main pool and plunge pool offers breathtaking views of the deep blue sea, isles and islets too. Guests can enjoy indulging in delectable Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes with local and regional ingredients, at the property’s restaurant as well as getting pampered at the on-site spa.
Myconian Ambassador Hotel & Thalasso Spa Center - Mykonos, Greece
Myconian Ambassador Hotel & Thalasso Spa Center is a luxury resort overlooking the famous Platis Yalos, within walking distance from three renowned beaches on Mykonos, Agia Anna, Psarou and Paranga. You’ll love the little extras, such as ice pops by the pool and juice at check-in as well as the indoor spa. You’ll also find an outstanding restaurant serving Mykonos, Greek and Mediterranean delights. Accommodations boast beautiful sea views and the Passion Suite features a terrace with an outdoor Jacuzzi that overlooks the sea. Room amenities include luxuries like high-end toiletries, free Wi-Fi, a fully stocked mini-bar, and an iPod/iPhone/iPad wireless speaker dock.
Forte Village Resort - Santa Margherita di Pula Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
Forte Village Resort is a 5-star property with a traditional hotel structure, featuring spacious guest rooms in a wide array of different types. You can stay in a luxury suite, offering beautiful sea or garden views as well as stylish furnishings and interiors, complete with a balcony or terrace. Some also include a Jacuzzi. Hotel Castello is part of Forte Village, a luxury resort made up of seven hotels arranged to mimic a real Italian village. All properties meet at a central piazza from which guests can access facilities, including Thalasso & Spa, one of the few spas with the distinction of being one of the “Leading Spas of the World. When hunger strikes, there are multiple on-site restaurants, serving fine Italian and world cuisine.
Hotel Monte Mulini - Rovinj, Croatia
Hotel Monte Mulini is a boutique hotel set within a lush Mediterranean landscape, surrounded by greenery on a hillside overlooking a picturesque, small bay with sweeping sea views on the western shores of Croatia. Just a short walk along the marina will bring you to Rovinj, one of the most beautiful, romantic towns in Croatia. The elegant rooms and suites offer elegance throughout, including hi-tech amenities, gorgeous bathrooms and private balconies with more spectacular panoramic vistas. The stunning outdoor pool complex is made up of free-form lagoons and a swanky swim-up bar, surrounded by a furnished sun deck, and more ocean views. A pebbled beach awaits just 200 feet away.
Aphrodite Hills Resort - Kouklia, Cyprus
Aphrodite Hills Resort offers a wealth of outstanding facilities and is ideal for families as well as active travelers. Located on a hillside across over 500 acres, you’ll enjoy magnificent views and extensive grounds to explore. The property incorporates a Village Square that features a variety of restaurants, shops and St. Catherine’s Chapel. The all-inclusive dining option includes meals at many different establishments. Golfers will appreciate the 18-hole championship course, and among the other active pursuits includes the chance to go horseback riding, ride mountain bikes, try your hand at archery and even take lessons at the golf and tennis academy. Its award-winning Retreat Spa is a Greco-Roman inspired haven for the senses with a menu that includes a wide range of treatment. Many of its rooms offer views of the golf course and the Mediterranean, and some even include a private pool.
Mare Hotel Savona - Savona, Italy
Mare Hotel Savona offers an idyllic tropical beach escape on the Mediterranean as well as being a good base to explore other popular destinations on the Italian Riviera, like Finale Ligure and Bergeggi. You’ll enjoy a wealth of amenities, including free use of sunbeds and umbrellas, a saltwater pool with hydro massage, Wi-Fi and a bar. The beautiful rooms all have air conditioning, a TV and mini-bar – rooms on the south side offer the best views. The popular on-site restaurant serves fresh fish and tasty homemade restaurants, often featuring local ingredients, while Bistrot Marea offers cocktails in a warm terrace overlooking the sea under a starry sky.
Domes of Elounda - Crete, Greece
Domes of Elounda is a luxurious hideaway of intimate suites, renowned for holistically capturing the essence of all that is the Mediterranean. It features smooth-edged architecture and Moorish touches, world-class dining, the pristine sands of a private beach lined with olive trees and a beautiful spa decked out with metallic mosaics, lavish treatment rooms and a hair salon. There are multiple outdoor swimming pools: including freshwater pools and saltwater pools, as well as one indoor saltwater pool. The main pool offers views over the bay and to Spinalonga. Rooms all feature flat-screen TVs, mini-bar, bathrobes and slippers, high-end bath products and Xbox on request. It also offers easy access to memorable outdoor adventures in Crete.
Grand Villa Argentina - Dubrovnik, Croatia
Grand Villa Argentina is a 5-star luxury resort hotel that blends the old and the new, comprises a historic villa and a modern building, surrounded by lush gardens with Mediterranean vegetation. Ideally located on the waterfront near old town Dubrovnik, classic-style rooms are equipped with air conditioning, a mini-bar and a flat-screen TV. Its sandy, private beach has a seaside pool, umbrellas and chaise lounges, while fine dining experiences provide lots of opportunities for relaxation and delicious meals with a diverse culinary selection. You’ll also find a lovely terrace, perfect for a nightcap or dining on fabulous Croatian and international fare while watching glorious sunsets over the sea. A full-day spa features an indoor pool and fitness center, while treatments include body scrubs, facials, massages, manicures and pedicures.
Anassa, Cyprus
The “jewel in the crown of Cyprus,” as many refer to the Anassa, is a luxury 5-star resort on the Mediterranean shores, exuding the charm of a traditional Cypriot village. The classical low-rise buildings and gardens, arranged around a picture-perfect village square, tumble down a secluded hillside toward the endless blue sea, with facilities inspired by the surrounding landscape. The beach is known as the best, the longest and cleanest in the Paflos district, and swimmers here occasionally glimpse sea turtles. Luxury villas, or “residences,” include a well-equipped kitchen, while garden-view rooms, studios and suites come in a myriad of grades, all quite spacious. Some garden studios feature a private plunge pool.
Precise Resort El Rompido - Costa de la Luz, Spain
Precise Resort El Rompido is a luxury golf resort situated near the fishing village of El Rompido in a magnificent palm tree and tropical plant-filled setting overlooking one of the best golf courses in southern Spain. The courses, driving range and golf school are all are right on site, and just a short drive will bring you to Nuevo Portil and other Costa de la Luz courses. When you aren’t out on the course, you can enjoy a refreshing swim in the covered pool, soaking in the Jacuzzi, steam bath, sauna or humid and dry treatment rooms at the spa, available only to guests. Rooms are stylishly furnished with a blend of wood and clear, quality textiles to instill an immediate sense of peace and tranquility.
Orloff Resort - Spetses, Greece
Spetses in the Saronic Islands, just off the mainland, is known as the “island of aromas”. It features lemon trees dotting pebbled lanes, the scent of saltwater wafting through the air and the smell of pine from the forest-covered hills. This nearly vehicle-free island, where most visitors get around by bicycle or horse and buggy, offers everything an island escape should be: idyllic beaches, outstanding waterfront eateries serving up fresh fish and much more. Set in a 19th-century mansion transformed into a hip intimate resort, Orloff Resort is contemporary chic with its whitewashed buildings clustered around a large pool, while pebbled paths and designer deckchairs are shaded by ancient olive trees. Cool, thick-walled rooms offer a welcome respite from the blazing sun, with its white-washed walls and limestone floors offset by splashes of brilliant color. French windows lead onto a balcony or veranda overlooking the citrus gardens.
Mazzarò Sea Palace - Taormina, Sicily
Mazaro Sea Palace overlooks one of the most magnificent bays on earth, set among the rocks and sparkling waters. Rooms and suites are terraces on the sea, representing perfect harmony between innovation and tradition. You’ll enjoy elegant furnishings as well as a mini-bar, TV with satellite, individually programmable air conditioning and more. The hotel bar offers the chance to sip legendary cocktails, while the on-site restaurant serves up typically Sicilian specialties along with impeccable service. In addition to a swimming pool and hotel beach for the use of guests; sailing, surfing and scuba diving can be enjoyed nearby.
Gloria Serenity Resort - Antalya, Turkey
The most luxurious property in the Gloria Hotels & Resorts chain, Gloria Serenity Resort is nestled among the pine forest of Belek and enjoys a lovely sandy beach along with an array of outstanding facilities, including its spectacular Serenity Spa, known as one of the best in all of Turkey. It offers a variety of themed treatment rooms where guests can experience massage techniques from across the globe. Golf enthusiasts will find two 18-hole and one 9-hole golf course, all surrounded by stunning vistas, while just about everyone will want to take advantage of the sumptuous day beds that surround the beach bar. The property boasts an indoor swimming pool, two outdoor pools, several restaurants, bars and tennis courts. Activities also include water sports and bowling as well as live music and an amphitheater with evening shows. Superior rooms include one bedroom with a sitting group, a balcony and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi.
Aman Sveti Stefan, Montenegro
One of the most iconic images associated with Montenegro, a country legendary for its spectacular natural beauty, is of the tiny islets known as Sveti Stefan, attached to the coast by a narrow isthmus across the bay from Villa Milocer and the resort’s stand-alone Aman Spa. This former fortified village that dates back to the 15th century is filled with winding cobbled lanes and unforgettable sea views. Aman Sveti Stefan incorporates a beautiful coastline that includes pink sand beaches. The property features beautiful rooms, cottages and suites on the island, and luxury suites at Villa Milocer. Every option is completely unique, as you’d expect from a place that evolved from a 15th-century fortress, decorated in an elegant fashion, retaining its historic ambiance while providing modern comforts. Aman Spa offers four treatment rooms, each with its own fireplace for use during the winter months, an extensive treatment menu with several signature offerings designed to be tailored to individual needs, an indoor heated pool, yoga studio with daily complimentary sessions, a gym, finishing salon and hydrotherapy rooms.
Titanic Mardan Palace - Antalya, Turkey
Titanic Mardan Palace, set along the shores of the Turkish Riviera, is renowned as the most luxurious resort in the Mediterranean. It houses a swim reef, a man-made lagoon with more than 3,000 fish, where guests can swim feed and snorkel alongside its inhabitants. The construction of the hotel itself recreates the extraordinary palatial architecture of ancient Ottoman days. Each room was designed and appointed to the most luxurious of standards, all with breathtaking views over the Mediterranean Sea, the Beydaglari Mountains or the pool. The massive spa features a comprehensive menu of pampering treatments aimed to revitalize and relax, also boasting an aromatherapy bath, a steam room, saunas, Turkish bath, fitness center, meditation room overlooking the indoor pool and more. You’ll also find a number of options for getting active, like beach volleyball, tennis, squash and badminton. Multiple restaurants, offering everything from an exotic Far East-style dining experience to classically chic Western menus, as well as chic bars and cafes and one of the largest wine cellars in Turkey, also await.
