Palácio Estoril Hotel

Palácio Estoril Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the centre of Estoril, Portugal, opposite the gardens leading towards Casino Estoril. The hotel opened on 30 August 1930 as part of the development of Estoril into an international coastal resort. It was designed by French architect Henri Martinet, with the lengthy construction project later completed under architect Raul Jourde. The building is recognised by its large white façade, formal entrance, classical interiors, gardens and outdoor swimming pool. During the Second World War, the hotel accommodated exiled European royalty while also attracting Allied and Axis intelligence agents operating in neutral Portugal. Ian Fleming stayed at the hotel in 1941 while serving in British Naval Intelligence, adding to its later association with James Bond.

Palácio Estoril Hotel has appeared in Dois Dias no Paraíso (1957), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) and The Easy Way (2008). The hotel has generally appeared as an elegant international hotel, with its exterior, entrance, lobby, gardens and pool among the areas used for filming.

In Dois Dias no Paraíso (1957), meaning Two Days in Paradise, Palácio Estoril Hotel provides the Estoril hotel around which the film’s central misunderstandings begin. Successful Madrid stage performer Diana Delmar receives an ambiguous telegram and secretly flies to Portugal to meet its sender at the hotel. When her wealthy admirer António Azevedo and her theatrical manager follow her to Estoril, Diana attempts to avoid them by entering the first available hotel room. There she meets Eduardo Pimentel, captain of a roller-hockey team preparing to travel to Madrid, beginning the romantic complications that continue through the story.

In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Palácio Estoril Hotel appears as itself and is the hotel where James Bond and Tracy di Vicenzo stay during the Portuguese section of the film. Bond arrives in his Aston Martin DBS and notices Tracy’s red Mercury Cougar parked outside. He enters the real lobby, recognises the hotel manager and checks into room 516, with a young hotel employee handing him the key. The exterior entrance, lobby, gardens, newly constructed swimming pool and views from the hotel are all used to establish the location.

Bond later encounters Tracy gambling at the nearby Casino Estoril and pays her debt after she makes a bet that she cannot cover. Although the story then returns to their rooms at the Palácio, the hotel-room interiors, including Bond’s suite and Tracy’s room, were constructed at Pinewood Studios. The real hotel therefore provides the exterior and public identity of the Palácio, while the more private encounters between Bond and Tracy were filmed on sets.

In The Easy Way (2008), originally released as Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence, Palácio Estoril Hotel is used during the sections set in South America following the escape of French bank robber Albert Spaggiari. Reporter Vincent Goumard succeeds in locating Spaggiari and spends several days interviewing him about the 1976 Société Générale robbery in Nice and his life as a fugitive. The hotel provides part of the comfortable surroundings in which Spaggiari presents himself as an international celebrity living in the sun, staying in palaces and drinking champagne, despite remaining wanted by the French authorities.

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