Imperiale Palace Hotel

The Imperiale Palace Hotel suits you if you want your diving holiday to come with a proper hotel setting rather than a bare base for sleeping. The building has 83 rooms across five floors, with a private beach, a heated seawater pool and enough indoor comforts for the hours when you would rather not discuss bottom time, gas or surface intervals.

English is spoken by the hotel team, alongside Italian, French, German, Spanish and Russian. That makes the practical side of the stay easier, whether you are arranging dinner, asking the concierge about an excursion or simply trying to explain that the minibar water has mysteriously vanished.

The tone is more classic hotel than informal dive lodge. You have a bar, a restaurant, a spa, a gym and direct access to the beach, with the town of Santa Margherita Ligure close enough to reach without turning the evening into another expedition.

You find the hotel at Via Pagana 19 in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy. It sits a short walk from the town centre, so you can leave the hotel for a stroll, a coffee or a look around the local streets without planning transport around it.

The setting also puts the coast directly into your day. The hotel has direct access to a private sandy beach, with loungers and umbrellas for hotel guests. That gives you somewhere to spend the non-diving hours without having to hunt for a patch of shoreline first.

Piazza Colombo, Palazzo della Prefettura and Piazza de Ferrari are among the nearby sights. The address also works for a mixed trip: one of you can take a quieter beach day while the other heads into town or asks the concierge about an excursion.

The room choice is mainly about the kind of evening you want. Standard doubles are available with either a double bed or twin beds, while sea-view versions and selected balconies give you more reason to linger in the room before dinner. For a couple, a sea-view junior suite with a balcony is the obvious way to make the accommodation part of the holiday rather than just the place where the kit bag is abandoned.

There are also junior suites and larger suite categories, including a Family Junior Suite. The Executive, Tower, Imperial Blue and Imperial with Terrace suites are aimed at a more spacious, more polished stay, with some offering a terrace or sea view. Double-bed and twin-bed options matter here: you can choose whether the room is set up for a couple or for two divers who prefer not to share a mattress after a long day.

Air conditioning appears in many of the categories, while every listed room has a private bathroom. Depending on the category, you may also have a minibar, bathrobe, toiletries, a safe, telephone and towels. The minibar is useful for keeping water close at hand, and the air conditioning earns its keep when you return warm, salty and ready to sleep rather than socialise.

The main dinner address is Ristorante Novecento, where traditional Ligurian cooking is reworked with a modern approach. Lunch is served from 12:45 to 14:30, while dinner runs from 19:45 to 22:30. Lunch is casual; dinner calls for smart casual clothing, so the dive-shirt uniform may need a brief retirement.

For a daytime meal with the sea in view, Imperiale a Mare serves Mediterranean food outdoors from 12:30 to 16:00. Fresh fish and Ligurian specialities are central to the offering, which gives you a straightforward option when you want to eat near the beach rather than sit through a formal evening meal.

There is one bar, Caffè del Trattato, focused on cocktails and suited to an aperitif or a nightcap. Breakfast is available, and the hotel also has a snack bar and breakfast service in the room. Meal arrangements depend on the rate you book, so check the booking terms if the morning meal is part of your diving logistics.

The heated seawater pool is surrounded by greenery and gives you an easy alternative to the beach when you want a swim without sand, umbrellas or a conversation about whether the water is really warmer than yesterday. The private beach has loungers and umbrellas, so a book and a long afternoon are perfectly realistic plans.

The spa offers personalised treatments and rejuvenating massages, with massage and beauty treatments available. There is also a solarium, a garden and a terrace for slower hours. These are useful additions to a diving stay, particularly when the body has decided that one more energetic activity would be a poor management decision.

If you still have some movement left, the gym has panoramic views, and hiking is available in the surrounding area. A golf course is 3 km away. The concierge can help with excursions, giving you options beyond the hotel without turning this section into a timetable.

Check-in runs from 15:00 to midnight, with check-out by 12:00. Reception operates around the clock, which is useful when travel plans do not respect office hours. Express check-in and check-out are also available, and a credit card is required as a guarantee at check-in.

Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel. You also have parking, an electric vehicle charging station, a lift and accessibility facilities. The concierge can assist with excursions, while laundry, dry-cleaning and ironing services are available when dive clothes and ordinary clothes begin to form one large, damp negotiation.

The hotel accepts Visa, Maestro, American Express, Euro Mastercard and cash. A currency exchange service, luggage storage and a non-smoking setting add a few practical conveniences, while the private beach, pool and spa mean that most of the useful infrastructure is already on site.