Are classic cars the new luxury hotel must-have?

There are many aspects of hotels that can be labelled as offering added value, or, as they are more commonly known, ‘experiences’ – beehives, boat trips, Augustinus Bader facials, to name just a few. But when you need something that completely transports you, nothing can compete with a vintage-car collection as a truly immersive experience.

At Hotel Al Moudira in Luxor, it’s as if the Beatles song Drive My Car has come to life. Indeed, it’s a great song to blast as you cruise along in its 1968 stretch Mercedes 200, the wind blowing in your hair. A beautiful place, sprawling and lost in a time warp, Al Moudira is a haven of antiques, thanks to its owner, Florian Amereller, a keen collector of museum-worthy pieces salvaged from various palaces in Alexandria. His collection of treasures extends to the garage, which are filled with a svelte line-up of retro automobiles that includes two 1980s Land Rover Defenders and a 1960 VW Karmann Ghia, along with the aforementioned Merc – surely the most memorable airport pick-up imaginable.

While all the great and most celebrated hotels offer that glorious, dreamy feeling that you are somehow starring in your own personal movie, at Belmond’s Villa San Michele, just outside Florence, that feeling comes to life as you drive up to the sun-baked, collonaded entrance in an ice-blue 1965 Porsche. Here, a vintage-car moment allows you to really feel the cobbled landscape of this Renaissance city in the most wonderfully nostalgic way. The concierge, Adriano Pecoraro, is amazing at piecing together the most storied vintage rides, such as 1980s Ferraris and the classic Ape Calessino, not to mention the best addresses to seek out, from the nearby ruined temple dedicated to Minerva, to the statuary wonders of the Villa Bardini.

Meanwhile, not far away in Volterra, in the Tuscan countryside, lies Borgo Pignano, a divine eco retreat that houses a museum-quality collection of cars and Vespa scooters that celebrates the golden age of Italian design: included is a 1957 Fiat 500, alongside 1930s Gloria Garibaldina bicycles and a 1954 Ducati. You can’t take any out for excursions, but just to see them in such surroundings is enough (although you can explore the estate on horseback should you wish).

And while it’s a wrench to leave its loungers, the hairpin roads that surround the Maybourne Riviera in the South of France are made for a Jaguar 1969 E-Type or 1978 Rolls Royce Corniche, both of which can be magicked up by its concierge, working closely with Sunset Ride, suppliers of the most immaculate and lauded cars on the Côte d’Azur. Yes, the roads here still manage to conjure up scenes straight from Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief perfectly — especially when revving up to the hotel’s La Môme Riviera beach club, right down by the water’s edge in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.

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Another landscape made for epic road trips has to be Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way, especially when you’re sitting in a 1936 Buick Roadmaster Convertible, the star attraction at Sheen Falls Lodge, a Relais & Châteaux wonder in Kenmare, Ireland, which has been part of the collection since 1992.