Le Relais d’Amboise Hotel Opens With a Spa Carved Into Caves
Le Relais d’Amboise Hotel opened on 24 September 2026 with 63 rooms, a troglodyte spa and a Michelin starred chef, from €305 a night, facing the royal château.
RUKAIYA KADIWAL 
From above, slate roofs and pale stone houses fold around a pool and a bend of the Loire. Trees soften the courtyards, and sunlight runs across the river. This is Le Relais d’Amboise Hotel, which opened on 24 September 2026 at the foot of the royal château.
La Revue des Hôtels reports that the property joins two historic hotels, Le Choiseul and Les Minimes. It now offers 63 rooms and suites under five stars. The Le Relais d’Amboise opening follows about 18 months of work.
How Le Relais d’Amboise Hotel Came Together
Le Choiseul and Les Minimes once faced each other on the quay. Entrepreneur Frédéric Jousset bought them through Artnova, his impact fund dedicated to heritage. The hotels closed at the end of 2024 so they could be merged into one.
The estate now spans seven houses and pavilions. One is the Manoir des Minimes, a former convent founded at the start of the 16th century. Another is the Maison du Duc, named after the Duke of Choiseul, to whom Louis XV gave the property.
Marugal operates the hotel, and it has joined The Leading Hotels of the World. The renovation cost 17 million euros. This Relais d’Amboise hotel France project is therefore both a restoration and a rebirth.
Rooms in Seven Houses
The Relais d’Amboise 63 rooms are spread across twelve categories, and 22 of them are suites. Comfort rooms measure 15 to 28 m², Superior rooms 23 to 34 m² and Deluxe rooms 32 to 43 m². Some have a terrace or a view of the château.
Junior Suites overlook the garden and measure 39 to 52 m². The architecture is by LBBA, with interiors by Fabien Roque under the artistic direction of Joséphine Fossey. Pets are welcome.
Rates are announced from €305 a night, depending on the season. For a five star hotel Amboise can offer, that is the starting point rather than a fixed price. Guests should check current rates before booking.
A Spa Carved Into Five Caves
The Spa des Roches is the hotel's most unusual feature. It occupies five caves cut into the tufa stone. The troglodyte spa Amboise now offers includes a sauna, a hammam, a hot tub and a cold plunge pool.
Treatments come from Clarins and myBlend. The outdoor pool has been enlarged and sits at the heart of a one hectare park. A fitness room completes the offer.
For travellers comparing spa hotels in France, the setting is the draw. The images published by the hotel for the spa are renderings, so the finished rooms may look different. That caution matters when choosing a stay by a picture.
Dining and Art Under the Cliff
Le Choiseul restaurant serves bistronomic French cuisine created by Nicolas Aubry, the Michelin starred chef at Ezia. Vincent Léger Blanchard is the executive chef. Le Turner bar has a rooftop terrace facing the Loire, the Île d’Or and the château.
Beneath the cliff, Les Greniers de César holds troglodyte galleries for concerts, screenings and exhibitions. It also has four red brick silo domes from the 16th century and a cellar for Loire wines. For the opening, sculptor Bernar Venet was given free rein, with an exhibition trail organised alongside the Château du Clos Lucé and the Château Royal d’Amboise.
Gardens, Steps and a View
The park descends in gardens to the Jardin des Minimes. A century old Lebanon cedar overlooks the cliffside gardens. A staircase of about 130 steps leads to a viewpoint over the Loire.
The address is 36 quai Charles Guinot in Amboise. Among luxury hotels in Loire Valley towns, few sit so close to a royal château. The Amboise hotel opening 2026 adds a new name to a region that already draws many visitors.
What the Report Leaves Open
Several details are missing. The report gives no room count by category, no spa prices and no figures on bookings. Many of its images are renderings, not photographs of finished spaces.
It is also a news report, not a hotel review. It does not describe a stay, so it cannot judge service or comfort. More details are on the official Relais d’Amboise website.
For a very different hotel project built on partnership and scale, see this report on the Centara budget hotels plan in Thailand. One story is about stone and caves, the other about roadside rooms. Both start with an old idea about where people like to stop.
The river keeps moving past the quay, as it did when the first hotels stood here. Behind the stone walls, a new chapter has quietly begun. If the welcome matches the setting, the place may soon feel as though it was always meant to be one house.
