Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid ranks #15 on our 2026 list of the best honeymoon hotels in the world. The case below explains why — the hotel itself, the standard it operates at, what it does specifically for couples on a milestone trip, and the alternatives we tested it against.
“César Ritz's 1910 Belle Époque palace, restored to within an inch of its origin and held to the Mandarin Oriental standard. Three Michelin Keys, two Michelin stars at Deessa, the Golden Triangle of Art outside the door.”
The hotel itself
César Ritz's 1910 Belle Époque palace facing the Prado, restored to within an inch of its origin and held to the Mandarin Oriental standard. The Golden Triangle of Art outside the door.
"The hotel César Ritz built in 1910 to be the equal of his Paris and London properties — restored over four years and reopened in 2021 as Mandarin Oriental's Spanish flagship. The most decorated hotel in the country."
The Ritz Madrid opened in October 1910 with a personal commission from King Alfonso XIII to César Ritz — the Swiss hotelier whose properties in Paris and London had already become reference points for the European luxury hotel — to bring the same standard to the Spanish capital. The Belle Époque palace, designed by French architect Charles Mewès in collaboration with the Spanish architect Luis de Landecho, opened on Plaza de la Lealtad facing the Prado Museum, and operated continuously for the next 109 years as the address against which Madrid's other hotels were measured. In 2017 it closed for the most ambitious historic-hotel restoration in modern Spanish history; it reopened in April 2021 as the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, after a four-year, reportedly €110 million programme overseen by Mandarin Oriental and the Olayan Group.
Why it works for a honeymoon
A city honeymoon is the riskiest format and the one that pays off the most for the right couple. The hotel needs to do what a destination resort does — give you the reason to stay in — without losing the case for the city outside. The best urban honeymoon hotels have the Michelin restaurant inside the building, the spa that erases the morning's flight, and the staff that get the table at the city's hardest restaurant for tonight.
Mandarin Oriental is the one Asian hotel group whose Western expansion didn't dilute the original culture. The flagships in Hong Kong and Bangkok are still the standard against which every new MO is measured, and the brand has been disciplined enough to refuse most of the deals that crossed its desk. For honeymoons the MO is an argument for service intensity at a level even Four Seasons doesn't match: the spa programmes are the longest in the industry, the butler service is real, and the food rooms are typically the city's best.
The restoration kept the Belle Époque shell — the white-stone façade, the original entrance hall, the ironwork of the central staircase, the 1910 stained-glass dome over the lobby — and entirely rebuilt the interiors behind it. The room count was reduced from 167 to 153 to give every category of room a proper proportion; corridors were widened; the original ballrooms and salons were brought back to use as restaurant, bar, and event spaces. The Mandarin Oriental design team — led by French architect Gilles & Boissier — produced what is, by general critical consensus, the most successful Belle Époque hotel restoration in Europe in the past decade. Every visible surface has been redrawn; every visible surface looks as though it has been there for a century.
The hotel's restaurant programme is its strongest single argument. Deessa, in the original 1910 dining room and led by Quique Dacosta, holds two Michelin stars and runs several multi-course tasting menus across Wednesday-to-Saturday lunch and dinner services. Palm Court, in the central glass-domed atrium that is the most photographed space in the hotel, runs all-day dining and the city's most discussed afternoon tea. Pictura runs the rooftop terrace dining; the Champagne Bar runs the late-night programme. There are five restaurants and bars in total, all overseen at the executive-chef level by Quique Dacosta. The spa — a 1,000-square-metre underground installation that was one of the most expensive elements of the restoration — includes the city's only proper hotel hammam, an indoor pool, and a treatment menu that draws on Mandarin Oriental's Asian heritage applied to Spanish ingredients.
Where it ranks against rivals
For a 2026 honeymoon at this level, the most direct comparisons are Four Seasons Resort Seychelles in Seychelles (#14), Claridge's in London (#16), Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru in Maldives (#13). Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid earns the higher rank for one or two specific reasons we explain in the verdict above. The other properties are not lesser hotels — in some cases the answer for your particular trip is the runner-up, and the city-specific page below has the full local ranking.
Practical: getting in
Address: Pl. de la Lealtad, 5, Retiro, 28014 Madrid, Spain. Honeymoon-suited categories book six to nine months ahead in shoulder season, twelve months ahead in peak. The full review at the hotel page has current rates, room categories worth paying up for, and the dining and spa programmes worth booking pre-arrival. Use our honeymoon occasion page for the broader context.