Five-star hotels in Évian-les-Bains, on Lake Geneva

Hotels in Evian: lakeside town or hillside resort

Évian lies on the French shore of Lake Geneva, in the north of Haute-Savoie, by the Swiss border. By road it is 45 km east of Geneva, yet Lausanne is only 14 km away by boat. It is a small town, with 9,267 inhabitants in 2023.

Hotels in Evian fall into two settings. Several line the quays and Rue Nationale in the centre, while the Evian Resort occupies the slopes above. The Atout France register lists a single five-star hotel in the commune, the Hôtel Royal; the resort's two other hotels, the Ermitage and La Verniaz, are classified four stars and stand in neighbouring Neuvecelle, so this page does not list them. The resort says the station, port, shops and restaurants are within walking distance of the Royal, and from April to September the historic funicular runs down to the centre.

From the Cachat spring to a Belle Époque spa town

The springs of Évian were still little known at the time of the French Revolution. In 1823 a Genevan entrepreneur, M. Fauconnet, founded the Évian mineral water company, buying the two main springs in 1827; the better known was named Cachat after the family that sold it. By decree of 28 January 1865 the town, then home to about 2,200 people, became Évian-les-Bains. In the late 19th century the town had more than 20 hotels; the baths followed in 1902 and the Hôtel Royal in 1909.

The town also has a diplomatic history. In July 1938 the Évian Conference, called on the initiative of President Franklin Roosevelt to address the flight of refugees, mostly Jewish, from Nazi Germany and annexed Austria, brought some thirty delegations to the Hôtel Royal. The Évian Accords, which ended the Algerian War, were signed on 18 March 1962. Évian hosted the G8 summit in June 2003 and the G7 summit from 15 to 17 June 2026, the first French town to host a G7 or G8 leaders' summit twice.

Palais Lumière, the Buvette Cachat and the funicular

The Palais Lumière, on the lakefront quay, is the former thermal establishment built between 1900 and 1902 by Ernest Brunnarius. Closed in 1986, it reopened in 2006 as a cultural and congress centre with its metal and glass dome restored, and holds temporary exhibitions all year. Nearby, the Villa Lumière, once the property of the family of the cinema pioneers, is now the town hall.

On Avenue des Sources, the Buvette Cachat, the Art Nouveau pump room of the Cachat spring, dates from 1903. It reopened in June 2026 after seven years of restoration, with free spaces on local heritage, architecture and the Geopark. Visitors can drink evian water straight from the Cachat spring, which flows constantly at 11.6 °C.

The funicular, nicknamed the little Évian metro, links the centre with Neuvecelle. It is the only funicular in France with six stations; closed after 1969, it reopened on 21 June 2002 and has been free since. On Tuesday and Friday mornings, the market around the church sells Savoyard cheeses, cured meats and fish from the lake.

On the lake and in the hills

Évian is certified as a France Station Nautique water sports resort, with paddleboarding, diving, pedalos and boat trips on the lake. The Jardins de l'Eau du Pré Curieux, between Évian and Publier, can only be reached by a solar-powered boat from the town's quays, a crossing of about fifteen minutes. Completed in 2002 and labelled a Jardin Remarquable, the gardens explore the relationship between water and plants around a colonial-style house of 1870.

CGN boats cross daily to Lausanne in about 35 minutes, and the tourist office suggests the cathedral and the Olympic Museum there, and on the French shore the medieval village of Yvoire. For views, the tourist office recommends the cable car at Thollon-les-Mémises, 20 minutes away, which runs from May to September.

Hôtel Royal, the Palace above the lake

Hôtel Royal was commissioned in 1905 by the Évian mineral water company, which wanted to build 'the most beautiful hotel in Europe'. Designed by Albert Hébrard, it was inaugurated on 16 June 1909 and named after King Edward VII, for whom a suite was reserved; the king died in 1910 without ever seeing it. The vaults and domes of the public rooms carry frescoes of the seasons by Gustave Jaulmes, restored during a renovation led by the interior architect François Champsaur.

The Atout France register lists 150 rooms, classified five stars on 29 November 2022, at 13 Avenue des Mateirons; the hotel gives its own address as 960 Avenue du Léman in Neuvecelle. It is also on Atout France's list of hotels holding the Palace distinction, which our guide to Palace hotels in France explains. It stands at the centre of a 19-hectare park that the LPO, France's bird protection league, recognises as a bird refuge.

The rooms were completely refurbished in 2015. Séjour rooms measure 27 m², facing the park or, with a furnished balcony, the lake; Résidence rooms run to 40 m² over the park and 47 m² over the lake. In the Séjour park-view and both Résidence categories, rooms on the fifth floor have no balconies. Among the suites, the Edward VII Suite covers 165 m² with a 20 m² balcony, and the Royal Suite, the largest, has 207 m² and 60 m² of terraces facing the lake.

Dining, spa and children at the Royal

Les Fresques, the fine-dining restaurant, has ceilings painted by Gustave Jaulmes and a panoramic terrace over the lake. It holds one MICHELIN star (as of 2026), first awarded in 2018; chef Yohan Fatela oversees its cooking, served at dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, and that of La Véranda, open daily beneath a fresco by Marco Del Re. In July and August, the Sunday brunch moves to L'Oliveraie, the poolside restaurant under olive and pine trees.

The evian SPA fills 1,700 m² and is built around a concept inspired by the life cycle of evian natural mineral water. For families, the Kid's Club looks after children aged three and over staying at the hotel at no extra charge, with an outdoor play area and a heated indoor pool.

Golf, music and the rest of the Evian Resort

According to the resort, the Evian Resort brings together three hotels, the thermal baths, a casino, a concert hall, eleven restaurants and two golf courses. The Evian Resort Golf Club, on the hills above the town, is home to The Champions Course, which hosts The Amundi Evian Championship every year. Founded in 1994 as the Evian Masters, the tournament became one of the five women's major championships in 2013 and returned to a July date in 2019; the 2026 edition ran from 9 to 12 July.

La Grange au Lac, a concert hall in a larch wood in the resort's grounds, was built for the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Designed by Patrick Bouchain and inaugurated on 20 May 1993, it is made of cedar and pine and hosts the Rencontres Musicales d'Évian, a chamber music festival.

When to go: Évian through the year

Évian has a mountain-influenced continental climate, with cold, snowy winters and mild summers broken by the occasional storm; April and October are relatively humid. Dates change each year, so the table gives usual months only.

Getting to Évian: Geneva, the train and the Lausanne boat

Geneva Airport, in Switzerland, is the nearest international airport, and Léman Express trains from Geneva Cornavin run to Évian by way of Annemasse and Thonon-les-Bains. Drivers leave the A40 motorway at Annemasse or Nangy, then follow the D1206 and D1005 through Thonon-les-Bains. The CGN boat from Lausanne lands where Évian's taxi rank waits.

Beyond Évian: Lake Annecy and the Alpine resorts

Évian shares the Haute-Savoie department with Annecy, 85 km away by road, and its lake, where Menthon-Saint-Bernard has a five-star hotel on the eastern shore. Two ski resorts near Mont Blanc lie in the same department: Megève, conceived in the 1920s by the Rothschilds as a French alternative to St Moritz, and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, host of the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

Atout France lists seven Palaces in the Alps: five in Courchevel, one in Megève and the Hôtel Royal in Évian. For more five-star addresses in the mountains, see our French Alps selection.