Rare Sports Cars and Historic Alpine Roads Have Become the Ultimate Luxury Hotel Amenity in Europe
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- The Puente Romano Marbella is an enclave on Andalusia’s Golden Mile featuring lush botanical gardens, over 20 dining venues, a Six Senses Spa, and curated luxury sports car drives along coastal highways and through mountain passes toward Ronda.
- Gstaad Palace, a landmark 1913 alpine castle in the Bernese Oberland, is known for hosting the annual Gstaad Palace Challenge rally featuring 30+ vintage cars paired with regional culinary pitstops.
- The Mandarin Oriental is an urban sanctuary housed in four restored 18th-century palazzos, home to the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Seta and a classic Alfa Romeo self-drive experience through Lombardy’s surrounding lakes and countryside.
As authentic experiences become a priority for travelers planning an international vacation, one specific kind of luxury enthusiast has started organizing trips around the drive rather than the destination. This is by no means road-tripping in the conventional sense. These are itineraries built around rare vehicles, historically significant roads and the properties positioned as the perfect starting line.
In Europe, where postwar sports car culture and the geography that shaped it are intertwined, a growing number of five-star properties have made that connection central to what they’re offering their guests. Three properties in Spain, Switzerland and Italy, have built programs worth the detour, waving the checkered flag for the adventure to begin.
Puente Romano Marbella
Marbella, Spain
Spread along Andalusia’s Golden Mile, Puente Romano Marbella feels more like an enclave of whitewashed coastal villas than a standard resort. Set among lush botanical gardens with centuries-old subtropical plants, the property holds three outdoor pools, a Six Senses Spa, and the Club de Tenis Puente Romano — the resort’s tennis club, opened in 1979 and originally operated under Björn Borg. Guests can select from more than 20 distinct dining venues, ranging from Nobu to chef Dani García’s steakhouse, Leña. The beach runs directly along the property’s edge.
The resort’s concierge arranges rentals ranging from luxury sports cars to vintage cars, with coastal highways, cliffside mountain switchbacks, and the winding ascents toward Ronda all waiting just beyond the gates. The property coordinates tailored driving itineraries; what that means in practice is a super car pointed at those passes before lunch, or a coastal run south toward the Rock.
Gstaad Palace
Gstaad, Switzerland
The Bernese Oberland has no shortage of expensive places to stay. Gstaad Palace, which has been in the business since 1913, stands head and shoulders above the rest. The fairytale castle features 90 individually decorated rooms and suites, five regional restaurants, and an expansive 1,800-square-meter spa built with local granite. Guests can take in panoramic mountain views, swim in the outdoor pool, or sit in the Lobby Bar until the mountains go dark.
The hotel is also home to the Gstaad Palace Challenge, an annual invitation-only rally headed by the property’s third-generation owner, Andrea Scherz. Up to 30 hand-selected crews take to the road over two days in historic sports cars — all manufactured between 1950 and 1990, running the range from Aston Martins and Porsche Carreras to Ferrari 250 SWBs — navigating the alpine roads of the Bernese Oberland. And it’s not only the driving: picnics and Swiss culinary stops are worked into the route, with the weekend closing over a gourmet dinner at the Palace.
A $20,000 transatlantic suite sets the stage for nine-month dining waitlists and quiet Left Bank mansions during a highly decadent long weekend in Paris.
Mandarin Oriental, Milan
Milan, Italy
Housed within four restored 18th-century residential palazzos, Mandarin Oriental, Milan offers an elegant sanctuary steps from La Scala and the Via Montenapoleone fashion district. The interior design pairs understated Milanese style with Asian-inspired flourishes. It shouldn’t work as well as it does. The property holds the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Seta and a comprehensive spa featuring a heated indoor pool. That spa also connects to the hotel’s courtyard bar.
Milan is not a natural driving city — its streets are narrow, and the fashion-district blocks run dense with pedestrians. Travelers follow custom routes out of the urban center in a 1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider. Lombardy’s northern lakes, vineyards, and hill villages come into view within the hour, and guests have the option to pair the day with lunch at a traditional family-run trattoria. The region’s automotive identity runs beneath the entire experience: Alfa Romeo was founded in Milan in 1910.
