Benkirai Hotel

Class: First

Style: Modern design

Rooms: 39

The thought of the Côte d’Azur might initially conjure gaudy imagery of giant yachts, expensive sunglasses, and all manner of conspicuous consumption, but St. Tropez, even after all these years, defies those expectations. Nestled in a lush Mediterranean neighborhood, the Hotel Benkirai is unobtrusive and architecturally refined, a perfect reminder of why, despite the massive influx of money, this is still the destination of choice for Riviera-bound travelers with an aversion to ostentatious marble and gilt.

Patrick Jouin, the famed modern designer (and former Starck protégé), is known for his organic and understated, slightly minimal aesthetic, and he delivers it at every opportunity here. Clean mod lines are juxtaposed with cozy Mediterranean style in the open-air restaurant and lounge spaces. And as guests walk in from the gardens — at times it seems as though the hotel naturally sprouted up between the indigenous palms and flowers — they’ll feel as if they are suddenly transported into a space so urbane that it would fit nicely in Paris or London.

Rooms, with their treated-concrete floors, wholeheartedly embrace the hotel’s mod-chic program, and are stunning enough to compete with the Riviera’s scenery. Beneath this gloss, the Benkirai is deeply luxurious, as it would have to be, to keep this crowd — what’s most notable, probably, is that the hotel is every bit as good-looking as its guests.