Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino

The one thing

Dior built this spa to look like the places Christian Dior himself went to rest: his childhood home on the coast at Granville, his retreat at Milly la Forêt, and his house in Provence, La Colle Noire. The house's own Toile de Jouy motif, worked here in soft lime tones, runs through the rooms alongside quartzite stone and oak, and the whole design is intended to feel like a private summer residence rather than a hotel spa. It is a real design lineage rather than a branding exercise, and it gives the spa a personality that belongs specifically to this house rather than to Dior's name alone.

The verdict

Splendido sits on a hilltop above Portofino harbour, on the site of a sixteenth century Benedictine monastery that was eventually abandoned after repeated raids and left to fall into disrepair. A nineteenth century owner, Baron Baratta, rebuilt it as a family summer house, and in 1901 it was bought and converted into the hotel that opened the following year. Early guests included the Duke of Windsor, Winston Churchill, and later Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and the hotel has carried that kind of attention for most of its life since.

Martin Brudnizki led a renovation across 2023 to 2025 that touched the pool, the restaurants, the rooms and suites, and the lobby, and the hotel reopened in June 2025 with its Dior spa as part of that work. The Michelin Guide's 2026 Keys selection gave the hotel Three Keys, and both Dior and Belmond describe the spa as Italy's first permanent Dior spa, a claim worth taking as theirs rather than as an independently judged title.

Splendido is owned by Belmond, which like Dior belongs to LVMH, so the spa is best understood as one luxury house working inside another rather than an outside brand paying for a name on the door. Dining sits close behind it: La Terrazza and Splendido Grill are both led by Executive Chef Corrado Corti, in the kitchens here for more than twenty years, and the new bar, Baratta Sedici, takes its name from the baron who first rebuilt the house. A stay built around the spa rarely feels short of things to do once treatment is finished for the day.

The water

The spa's most distinctive setting is outdoors. Le Jardin des Rêves, the Garden of Dreams, is a pair of double gazebos set in the hotel's tiered gardens above Portofino Bay, used for treatments taken in the open air rather than in a windowless room. It began as a summer only addition in 2023 and 2024, and the house liked it enough to build the permanent spa around it.

Indoors, four treatment rooms sit across two floors of the hotel's original building, including one double room with sea views used for couples. A rooftop terrace above the spa, shaded with rattan and reed canopies, serves as the relaxation lounge, with a wellness bar for drinks before or after treatment. The hotel's own heated saltwater pool, redesigned by landscape architect Marco Bay as part of the same renovation, sits apart from the spa itself as a hotel amenity rather than a spa facility, with views over the bay that most guests find hard to leave.

Treatments

Splendidior is the house signature, a ninety minute face and body ritual built around semi precious stones and a rock crystal massage technique, with a concept drawn from the stars and the moon. Alongside it sit three further body rituals, New Look, D Tissue and Constellation, each aimed at a different outcome from reshaping to tension release to muscle recovery, and a facial menu that includes Kobi Dior, Golden Aura and a Dior branded take on Hydrafacial.

The spa also builds half day packages around its treatments rather than offering them only on their own: Dolce Vita Therapy pairs a ritual with yoga and a drink, Health is Wealth adds a detox focused brunch, Dior Fitness Therapy folds in tennis or a private fitness session, and A Getaway for Two is built for couples staying through lunch. Each runs close to half a day, which suits a guest planning treatment as the centre of a day rather than a quick addition to one.

Getting in

Treatments are booked directly with the spa by email or telephone, and the hotel asks for twenty four hours notice to cancel without charge, with a short consultation before each session. The pool and tennis court are kept for registered hotel guests, with occasional day access considered case by case, and no published policy was found either way for the spa itself, so a non resident guest is better off asking directly before planning a visit around it.

Portofino is best reached via Genoa or Santa Margherita Ligure, with the final approach into the village by road or water. The hotel runs seasonally, broadly from spring into autumn, and the exact opening and closing dates move slightly year to year, so these are worth checking directly with the hotel before booking a trip around them.

What to know before you fall in love

The spa's most memorable setting, the garden gazebos, is outdoors by design, so a guest who wants every treatment indoors and out of the weather should ask about the indoor rooms specifically when booking.

Splendido's own room count differs slightly between sources, even on the hotel's own website, so this is one detail worth confirming directly with the hotel rather than assuming before you arrive.

No day spa access was confirmed for guests staying elsewhere, so the simplest way into the Dior spa, as with the pool and tennis court, is a stay at the hotel itself.

The hotel runs seasonally rather than year round, so the exact dates for your own trip are worth checking directly before you travel.

Best for

This suits a guest drawn to a genuinely designed space rather than a branded one, who wants treatment taken outdoors above the water as much as indoors, and who would rather build a stay around Portofino's own hillside setting than around the busier harbour below, with two of the town's better known tables a short walk from the spa itself.