At first sight you wouldn't know this hotel existed, until, looking down after your evening stroll in front of the Monte Carlo Casino, you notice a massive hole where the cliff should be and row after row of subterranean balconies looking over a massive sunken garden.

This is an enormous hotel - 619 rooms - literally built into and onto the rocks beneath the Casino. Inside it feels rather like a cruise ship, an effect magnified by the fact that the rooms, or at least a large proportion of them, are just metres from the sea. Staying here you feel well insulated from the tawdry glamour of the rest of Monte Carlo, with magnificent seascapes to inspire you well away from the tinkle of the slot machine.

The hotel decor is plush modern, every room decorated in a uniform style - bright blue and white stripes, simple white painted bamboo furnishings, all with little sit out balconies. Tasteful signed prints (surprising for this kind of hotel) adorn the plain white walls, and bathrooms are what you would expect - marble and sparkling. Just the strange white leather padded doors add a hint of eccentricity. Corridors are in blue and white bamboo patterns, while the receptions areas have all the usual coffee shops, gift shops and designer shops that you would find on a cruise ship. Still, the hotel is special for the sweeping seaviews, and the price - alot more reasonable than the overdecorated swanky joints up the hill. Accept it for what it is - a modern 'multiplex' hotel - and you will not be disappointed, for it does what it does extremely well. The best seaviews are to be had from the 4th floor, which has a wide terrace interconnecting between rooms, and the 1st (for proximity - you could fish from your balcony). Try and choose a room in the left hand 'wing' - the hotel is designed like a series of honeycombs - because from here you get views not only of the ocean but also along the coast to Italy - magical at sunset.