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Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo M onaco has always had movie-set allure: Grace Kelly racing a convertible on the Grande Corniche in Hitchcock's To Catch Waldorf Astoria New York F ew hotels have embodied A m e r i c a n m y t h o l o g y a s profoundly as the Waldorf Astoria New York. When it opened on Park Avenue in 1931, it was the world's tallest and most advanced hotel, swiftly becoming a magnet for the powerful and socially prominent. Presidents, world leaders, and UN delegates negotiated behind closed doors; European royalty and American political families made it their New York base; and Hollywood stars adopted it as their Manhattan residence, including Cole Porter, who lived there for three decades. Even its cuisine entered the cultural canon with the creation of Eggs Benedict and the Waldorf Salad of fruit and nuts. After closing in 2017 for a reported $2 billion restoration, the Waldorf reopened in fall 2025, revealing a meticulous transformation led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with interiors by Pierre-Yves Rochon. Artisans revived the hotel's original Art Deco splendor across its 375 guest rooms and suites, as well as 372 privately owned residences designed by Jean-Louis Deniot. In the legendary lobby, Louis Rigal's murals and his Wheel of Life marble mosaic, made of 148,000 hand-cut pieces, have been restored to their former brilliance. A focal point is the 1893 World's Fair clock: a walnut, mahogany, marble, and copper masterpiece commissioned by Queen Victoria for the World's Columbian Exposition. Peacock Alley, a glamorous echo of the corridor where Fifth Avenue's fashionable once strolled between the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels, reflects its 1931 design with maple burl-wood-paneled walls and black marble-clad columns. The Silver Corridor linking the third- floor Grand Ballroom, Astor Room, and Basildon Room has also been revived. Inspired by the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, its inlaid mirrors, metalwork, and surviving murals make it one of the few features carried forward from the hotel's earliest location. As part of the restoration, the Waldorf reacquired two original silver urns by E.F. Caldwell & Company, now refitted with lights to illuminate the passage. Cole Porter's piano, High Society, has also returned to pride of place in the lobby. Porter reportedly composed "Anything Goes," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and "I've Got You Under My Skin" on its keys. waldorfastorianewyork.com. a Thief, the pink Grimaldi palace rising majestically above the Mediterranean cliffs. Monaco may be steeped in the legend of Princess Grace, whose 1956 marriage to Prince Rainier turned the principality into a global fairy tale, but the Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo secured its mystique long before her arrival. Built in 1886, it was conceived as a grand, palace-style hotel for visiting aristocrats and wintering European elites. Set in Monte Carlo's central Carré d'Or, the hotel's tiled cupolas and classical columns are framed by Tuscan cypresses, palms, and jasmine, giving it the relaxed elegance of a Mediterranean villa. After a theatrical overhaul by Jacques Garcia in 2004, the hotel is entering a new chapter: The first phase of a major renovation, again led by Garcia, has debuted with 45 redesigned rooms and suites on the second and third floors. Deluxe suites are reimagined as elegant private apartments lined in honey- veined Italian marble, with vintage- inspired Devon&Devon cast-iron tubs. In a nod to the colors of the Côte d'Azur, alternating floors are done in fresh palettes of goldenrod and sky blue, the walls wrapped in embroidered Colefax and Fowler fabrics. Garcia designed bespoke furnishings to match this new sensibility, including the neoclassical dressing table that converts to a desk in the junior suites, crafted from white ash wood and gilded Tassin leather, which cleverly conceals a retractable television. The Spa Metropole by Guerlain remains one of the hotel's most dramatic spaces, with its sculptural marble and theatrical lighting. And the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Odyssey heated saltwater rooftop pool, inspired by Homer's epic tale and wrapped in glass murals of Ulysses' journey, is still one of Monaco's most cinematic settings. metropole.com. Waldorf Astoria New York's restored Peacock Alley with Cole Porter's Steinway piano Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo 53