One&Only Portonovi – Montenegro’s most exciting hotel opening

It’s a temper captured by Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch A Thief, and Jean Seberg and David Niven in Bonjour Tristesse – together with Slim Aarons’ well-known 1969 {photograph} titled merely ‘Sunbathing’. Montenegro loved an analogous second within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s, when figures corresponding to Orson Welles and Sophia Loren alighted on its meandering coast. Now this little Balkan nation, simply an hour’s drive south from Dubrovnik, is resurgent once more. There’s pleasure within the air. Recent names are touchdown. One&Only Resorts and Private Homes have a knack for being in the proper place on the proper time – one thinks of One&Solely Reethi Rah within the Maldives in 2005, One&Solely Desaru Coast in Malaysia and One&Solely Mandarina in Mexico extra not too long ago. So the One&Only Portonovi, on the northern finish of Montenegro’s coast, is about to be equally period-defining, the crest of a brand new riviera wave for this Mediterranean starlet.

SPECTACULAR LOCATION

Little Montenegro could also be small however it packs loads into its borders, with a panorama that rolls from mountains and lakes to thick forests and, in fact, that dazzling shoreline. Whereas many travellers have found Croatia over the previous decade or so, neighbouring Montenegro is comparatively unknown to many and has the glamorous attract of a vacation spot that’s now having fun with its time within the solar. Nationwide highlights embrace the ramparts of Budva, the epic Tara River Canyon and the ghostly Byzantine metropolis of Stari Bar. Nevertheless it’s the fjord-like contours of the Bay of Kotor that these staying at One&Solely Portonovi will recognize the most – a pure amphitheatre with Greek and Turkish ruins amid the bushes that has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Web site standing. The resort connects with its environment at each stage, with personal jetties to solid off from on the signature villas, one of many few personal sandy seashores within the nation and ocean views from nearly each angle. For these questioning what the Côte d’Azur felt like within the authentic Roaring Twenties, this can be a fascinating illustration.

SEABORNE ADVENTURE

It is a area whose maritime historical past swishes like a mermaid tail. Boats sailed in from Byzantium and Rome, buying and selling vessels ventured east. Battles had been fought; fortresses constructed with each eyes on the horizon. Now the sails belong to yachts and catamarans, scudding throughout the Bay of Kotor to search out an empty islet to drop anchor at, a spot to swim, snorkel and picnic. Doing away with from One&Solely Portonovi by land or sea can result in a number of escapades, most being rigorously curated by the resort group. A day in an 18th-century palace by the ocean, hosted by the aristocratic household who nonetheless reside there, maybe, or motoring alongside the coast, Sixties-model, in a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, stopping above an empty seaside to run into the waves. Company can island hop on a non-public boat in pursuit of medieval legends, or embark on a Bond-model diving mission into Yugoslav-period submarine caves.

ONE OF EUROPE’S TOP WELLNESS DESTINATIONS

Take a deep breath and inhale that sea air. It has been scientifically confirmed that merely staying by the ocean has all kinds of wellness advantages – all these adverse ions jostling about, serotonin ranges steadying themselves like a ship on the waves. However One&Solely Portonovi additionally has Chenot Espace, a world-famend transformative wellness idea that can make this a well being vacation spot in its personal proper. Due to its late founder’s nearly 5 a long time of analysis into anti-ageing and science-primarily based well being experience, Chenot has a faithful following, together with such riviera-pleasant names as Salma Hayek and Sophia Loren. Many make the pilgrimage to its flagship within the Italian Dolomites, however this Adriatic outpost brings Chenot’s 360-diploma strategy to wellbeing to this coastal area for the primary time. Diagnostic assessments result in personalised programmes that mix train, eating regimen, therapies and stress aid, drawing on each conventional Chinese language strategies and glossy scientific expertise. Or you may merely have a facial or therapeutic massage. With week-lengthy retreats aimed toward lengthy-lasting change or one-off therapies obtainable, and a sprawling complicated that includes a hammam, sauna and all kinds of swimming pools, this makes One&Solely Portonovi a holistic heavy-hitter that’s with out comparability on this a part of Europe.

The French Riviera way of life delights in lengthy lazy lunches and cocktail hours illuminated by the sundown glow, with rendezvous within the diary at basic seaside golf equipment corresponding to Le Plongeoir or Membership 55. In Montenegro, One&Solely Portonovi will create its personal social scene with eating places and bars that draw on native components – ripe tomatoes, aubergines, mountain herbs, tinglingly contemporary seafood – for refined farm-to-desk menus. Sabia by Giorgio Locatelli is the Michelin-successful chef’s first restaurant within the area. The focaccia-juggling Locatelli got here to the UK within the Nineties, decided to indicate the nation easy methods to recognize Italian delicacies and successful a star for Locanda Locatelli yearly since 2003. At Sabia his group will create the foodie hits of southern Italy, with a uncooked bar for small plates of natural crudo. For native flame-grilled recipes, there’s La Veranda, whereas Caminetti Bar serves caviar and Champagne with a view, and the top-turning Tapasake Membership has a good-looking pool, DJ soundtrack and Japanese-impressed bites of sushi, sashimi and ceviche for poolside lounging. As we’ve learnt throughout lockdown, a restaurant isn’t simply in regards to the meals however the environment and sheer theatre.

Montenegro is a mosaic of various architectural eras and kinds – Roman villas, medieval monasteries, broad-angled modernism… However our favorite is the interval of the Venetian Republic, with its dramatic stone arches and terracotta tiles that seem to swim throughout cities and villages like shoals of purple snapper. One&Solely Portonovi riffs on this lingering, romantic heritage, showing within the panorama with a palatial class – a neoclassical escape of slender columns, marble partitions, cool stone flooring and gently sloping terracotta roofs. Swimming pools of water and glass viewing home windows replicate the clear sky overhead and the mountains. The resort’s rooms, suites and villas all have an inherent sense of area and privateness, connecting with the outside by way of foyers, balconies or terraces, whereas floor-ground rooms lead immediately into the gardens. It is easy to think about bringing household and pals right here for a publish-lockdown reunion. Two-bed room suites are suited to multi-generational stays, whereas three- and 4-bed room villas kind their very own escapist worlds with a private bar, wine cave, spa room and library to retreat to, and an enclosed flower-scented backyard with its personal swimming pool, in addition to a hydrotherapy pool. However even common rooms have window-aspect bathtubs for an immersive view of the bay. There’s a way that each one areas right here act as commentary decks for company to understand the great thing about the Bay of Kotor – the impressionist colors saturating water and sky can be sufficient to make these authentic riviera painters, Cézanne and Monet, stretch out a contemporary canvas.