Castelbrac

Style

The good life aquatic

Setting

Wind in your sails

Luxury hotel Castelbrac, a Belle Époque aristocratic pile by Brittany’s coast, is a storybook stay with terraces and crenellated towers carved into a cliff face, so each room has breath-taking views of Prieuré Bay. Designers Sandra Benhamou and Léonie Alma Mason have kept the interior’s art-deco details, adding bold prints and a sea-inspired colour palette. Seafood is excellent here, and the porthole-lit bar gives new meaning to the term drink like a fish – although you should sip and savour the signature Breizh Mojitos – it was formerly an aquarium.

Facilities

Rooms

Twenty-three, including one suite.

Checkout

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

More Details

Rates don't include breakfast, which is available for €35.

Also

The hotel layout is unproblematic for wheelchair users, with two elevators and two specially adapted Superior rooms.

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Room Service

Spa

At the Hotel

Yacht, spa and solarium, Aquarium terrace, chapel, laundry, parking, free WiFi. In rooms: Samsung flatscreen TV with a Bluetooth connection, iPod dock and radio, Nespresso coffee machine, kettle and courtesy tray, minibar, free bottled water and Thémaé bath products. DVD players are available, on request.

Our Favourite Rooms

Some Prestige Suites have a wraparound terrace, for heavenly sunrises, sunsets and plentiful yacht-cleaved river scenes in between; after dark, it’s just you and the bobbing boats in the moonlight. The Prestige Suite in the belvedere, makes up for its lack of terrace with waves of romance; the bed and a freestanding bath tub have panoramic views from four bay-facing windows.

Poolside

The heated, narrow stone pool (best suited for lazy laps) is exclusively for guests’ use. It’s cleverly worked into the hotel’s higgledy-piggledy structure, reached by a secluded staircase, and positioned for beautiful bay views and surveying the Claire de Lune promenade. To one side, there’s a little solarium with loungers for post-swim sunbathing.

Spa

The spa is set in the hotel’s peaceful, hortensia-clad interior courtyard. There’s just one art deco-inspired treatment room, so advance bookings are essential, but it’s elegantly styled, light and spacious, with a small shower room to one side. Treatments use natural, tea-based Thémaé products for massages, body scrubs, facials, and a range of pampering packages for men, and mums- and brides-to-be. Light refreshments are offered, or chase your spa session with a dainty afternoon tea.

Packing Tips

Pack a headscarf to stay glam and perfectly coiffed while on the hotel’s yacht, and pick up a few French phrases; staff are hired locally, and while they speak English, a little conversing en Français is a welcome courtesy.

Also

As a place to rest and recharge, the hotel has a small chapel (with texts for all denominations) where guests can sit and reflect at any time. Decorated with fishing net-draped icons, there’s a wishing tree set behind the pews.

Children

The hotel’s stairs and serene ambience are better suited to juniors, tweens and teens. Two rooms interconnect via a corridor to make an apartment, The chef can heat milk, tweak portions or whip up purées, and babysitting is available for €12 an hour.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

The little terrace in the upstairs dining room has fewer tables than the Aquarium Terrace, and it’s a prime sunset-admiring spot; in cooler weather, you can spy them from the round table by the windows.

Dress Code

Breton-striped belle.

Hotel Restaurant

The hotel owner’s worked with Ducasse and Gagnaire, so standards are high; however, cosy conviviality is valued over shooting for Michelin stardom. In winter the Pourquoi Pas restaurant opens (named after Arctic explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot’s ship), decked out in sea blues, greens and first-light yellows. Ingredients are sourced within 25km of the hotel, and the chef’s on first-name terms with local fisherman, farmers and bakers. Tasting and lobster menus give a glimpse of Brittany’s delicacies, and desserts are sweetly inventive. In summer light seafood and salad dishes are served on the Aquarium Terrace, one floor below.

Hotel Bar

The dress circle of booths in the Aquarium Bar once housed glass tanks filled with specimens from Dinard Bay and beyond. Portholes – and the ornate ironwork doors – remain, but the fish have swum away. The signature Breizh Mojito has both of Brittany’s famed libations – calvados and cider – muddled with mint, lime and cane sugar. The champagne concoctions are fizzily fun too.

Last Orders

Breakfast is 7am to 11am, lunch from 12.30pm to 1.15pm, and dinner from 7.30pm to 9.15pm. Meals are served on the terrace from noon to 6pm, and the tide of drinks ebbs around 11.30pm.

Room Service

In-room dining is available around the clock – the night menu is a little reduced, but staff are happy to oblige if you have specific needs.

Planes

Arrive at Dinard Airport within an hour from the UK; Ryanair flies direct from Stansted, Aurigny from Gatwick or London City. The airport is a 15-minute drive from the hotel, and for a €30 one-way trip, staff will zip you to the hotel in a Tesla. There are no direct flights from the US or major destinations in Asia and Australia, so the best option is to stopover in London.

Trains

There are direct trains to the SNCF Station in Saint-Malo from Paris Gare de Lyon or Montparnasse (around a three-hour trip); if arriving direct from St Pancras International on the Eurostar, the trip is just over six hours. From there, you can request a Tesla transfer along the scenic route (€30 for a 20-minute, one-way trip), or add a dash of Venetian-style drama to your trip and zoom across the bay on the hotel’s yacht.

Automobiles

The drive from London, via the ferry over the Channel, is a feasible seven-and-a-half hours; however, it’s easier to hire a car at the airport. Dinard is easily explored on foot, but a set of wheels allows you to see more of the coast. Valet parking is €24 a day.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Brittany is cooler than France’s sultry south, so sunbathing hours can be limited, but the Emerald Coast’s beauty is still striking on overcast days. Pack your beach bags for plage d’Ecluse (painted by Picasso in Baigneuses sur la Plage) and shelter in the smattering of traditional blue-and-white-striped tents on the shore, if there’s a sudden chill. The large municipal pool, set on a platform above the sands, has impressive coastal views. To the west, Saint-Enogat Beach is sheltered and secluded, dotted with the palms that thrive in Brittany’s microclimate. Dinard – once home to Lawrence of Arabia, and Winston Churchill’s favourite holiday spot – is dinky but filled with surprises; its grand, Belle Époque villas with turrets and high-vaulted roofs look like a Harry Potter set; a cache of galleries, casinos and souvenir shops line its hortensia-adorned streets and a gloriously Gallic market is held four days a week, along Rue Paul-Valéry with stalls selling cheeses, meats, calvados and antique maritime tomes, all set to accordion music. Director Alfred Hitchcock allegedly modelled the iconic Psycho house on one of Dinard’s villas (the resemblance is striking); his bird-swarmed statue stands in a square by the beach, and the annual Dinard British Film Festival is held in his honour, through September and October. Book an excursion on the hotel’s beautiful hand-built yacht to drop anchor by some of the wartime-occupied Channel Islands – the remarkably peaceful fishing areas were once the site of World War II’s most vicious bombardments; for a historic day trip, Omaha Beach and the D-Day landing points are a two-hour drive north. Back at the hotel, there’s little to do but swim, book a spa treatment or sit and sip a cocktail on the terrace, but loved-up twosomes can link arms and take a twilight stroll along the Clair de Lune promenade. In winter, the belvedere roof becomes an ice rink, and mulled wine and warm pastries are sold.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .