Hotel Royal, Evian Resort

The rooms at Hotel Royal were comprehensively refurbished in 2015, with the suites updated since, and the result is accommodation that gets the balance right between early twentieth-century grandeur and the kind of comfort that actually matters after a long day on the course. Blond oak brings warmth to the bedrooms, marble adds a cool, clean touch, and the colour palette draws from the lake outside, with blues appearing on walls and vaulted ceilings that shift with the light through the day.

For golfers, the rooms deliver where it counts. You want space, a proper bed, a well-appointed bathroom and somewhere to sit with a drink while you look out over the water, and Hôtel Royal gets those fundamentals right. Many rooms and suites come with terraces or balconies, which adds a lot if you are staying for more than a night. After a round on a course with that much elevation change, being able to step outside, take in the lake view and decompress properly is not a small thing.

The range of room types makes the hotel workable for different kinds of trips. Couples can keep it straightforward with a classic lake-view room, while longer stays or special occasions justify stepping up to a suite for the extra space and the more generous terrace. If you are travelling in a small group or with non-golfing partners, the more spacious layouts help everyone settle in without feeling cramped. It is a polished set-up, but not one that feels intimidating or overly formal.

The suites, many of which command the full sweep of the lake and the mountains beyond, are the kind of rooms that stay with you. The grand salon features monumental frescoes by Gustave Jaulmes, restored and revived, mapping the splendours of the seasons across the ceiling. Period furniture sits alongside contemporary lines without any sense of conflict, and the overall effect is of a hotel that has kept what makes it special while making sure the rooms feel current where it counts.

There is real substance behind the style. The refurbishment has modernised the accommodation well, so while the building keeps its Belle Époque character, you are not trading comfort for heritage. For a golf holiday, that matters just as much as the grand setting. You want to sleep well, recover properly and be ready to go again the next morning, and the rooms here make that easy.

Food & Drink

The dining at Hotel Royal is anchored by Les Fresques, the hotel's gourmet restaurant, which has held a Michelin star since 2018 and carries the three macaroons of the Ecotable label for its commitment to responsible sourcing. The kitchen is led by Chef Yohan Fatela, whose approach to cooking was shaped before he ever entered a professional kitchen, in the garden of his grandparents' farm where produce was picked and treated with respect. That focus on produce and seasonality comes through clearly in the menu.

La Véranda offers a more relaxed expression of the same culinary approach, with its terrace opening directly onto the hotel's grounds and Lake Geneva as the backdrop. The menu is built around French cuisine delivered with precision and a clear eye for what is in season. It is the sort of restaurant you go back to because the cooking is consistently good and the setting does the rest. L'Oliveraie handles warm-weather lunches near the pool with a Mediterranean-style buffet that suits the setting perfectly.

Le Bar, with its high ceilings and Belle Époque atmosphere, is the natural place to settle in the evening with a well-made cocktail in classic surroundings and no particular reason to move. In summer, the Pool Bar extends that pleasure to the edge of the infinity pool, which is a very good place to be after a round in the Alpine sun.

Leisure Facilities

The evian®SPA is one of the most distinctive wellness spaces in France, which is why it was voted France's Best Wellness Retreat by the World Spa Awards in both 2024 and 2025. Spread across 1,700m², it is built around a concept that mirrors the fifteen-year journey of evian® natural mineral water as it travels through the Alps, absorbing minerals and emerging pure at the surface. That journey becomes the structure of the spa experience, with four dimensions, Celestial, Minerals, Precious and Vitality, each offering treatments designed around a different aspect of water's relationship with the body. It is not a standard hotel spa. The concept is exclusive to a handful of destinations worldwide, and the team here has a reputation that reflects the seriousness with which the whole operation is run.