5 Hotels With the Most Stunning Tennis Courts in the World
There’s a certain kind of hotel that treats a tennis court like a stage. Not a box to check on an amenities list, but a place with its own light, its own silence, its own view worth stopping mid-serve to look at. I went looking for the best of them, from a Swiss mountaintop to a canyon in Arizona. Here’s where I’d pack my racket.
Bürgenstock Resort, Lake Lucerne, Switzerland
Some hotels give you a view. Bürgenstock gives you a floating dome, 500 meters above Lake Lucerne, with the Alps stacked up behind it like an audience that never leaves.
The Diamond Domes let you play through Swiss winters, which sounds almost unfair given what’s on the other side of the glass. Fog rolls through the valley below. Snow dusts the peaks. And you’re inside, warm, chasing a ball across a court that feels more like a greenhouse for athletes than a sports facility.
This is the kind of place where a match becomes an excuse to be somewhere spectacular. You finish a set, step outside, and the whole lake is laid out under you like it was arranged specifically for this moment.
Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, France
Some hotels are famous for their history. Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc is famous for being the history. Fitzgerald wrote about places like this. Slim Aarons photographed its pool from above until that single image became shorthand for an entire era of glamour.
Five red clay courts sit tucked among Aleppo pines and old olive trees, the kind of setting that makes even a mediocre backhand look cinematic. Royals have played here. So have generations of actors who came to the Riviera to be photographed doing exactly that.
Earlier this year, the hotel teamed up with Lacoste on a capsule collection, so guests can actually dress the part now. Venus Williams flew in for the launch, which tells you something about how seriously this place takes its tennis heritage.
A good day here might start with a walk along Antibes’s old stone ramparts, move into a lesson on the clay, and end with a swim in a sea that’s somehow bluer than it has any right to be. If you want a template for how to plan a French Riviera trip around moments like that, The Chica Travelista has a few worth stealing.
Gstaad Palace, Gstaad, Switzerland
Gstaad Palace sits above the village like it’s keeping watch. The tennis courts here are almost an afterthought to the scenery, except they’re not, because nothing about this place is an afterthought.
You play with the Alps as your backdrop and the Palace’s turrets behind you, a mountain retreat that’s hosted European aristocracy since the early 1900s and hasn’t lost a step since. There’s a stillness to a mountain court that a beach court can’t match. No waves, no wind off the water. Just thin, clean air and a view that makes you forget to keep score.
Chalet-style luxury usually means fireplaces and wood paneling. Here it also means walking off the court into a village that still looks like a postcard from a century ago.
Cromlix Hotel, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Andy Murray didn’t just buy a hotel. He bought a piece of Scottish nobility and quietly built a tennis pilgrimage site inside it.
Cromlix dates back to 1874, a Victorian mansion with the kind of grandeur that makes you want to dress for dinner even when nobody’s asked you to. But the court is the real draw for anyone who’s watched Wimbledon more than once. It’s painted in Wimbledon’s own colors. The balls are Cromlix-branded. And the umpire chair on site actually came from a Murray match against Roger Federer in Glasgow, a small detail that turns a photo op into something closer to a relic.
Running the hotel is a family project. Andy’s mother Judy coaches tennis on site. His wife Kim handled the interiors. His own wedding reception happened on these grounds. When Scottish weather does what Scottish weather does, guests trade the court for a walk by the lochs or a dram of something warm, maybe with a piece of shortbread made from Andy’s grandmother’s recipe.
Enchantment Resort, Sedona, Arizona
Sedona’s red rocks don’t really do subtle, and neither does Enchantment’s tennis setup. The resort sits inside Boynton Canyon, walled in on nearly every side by towering sandstone, so a rally here comes with a backdrop most courts can only dream of.
There are seven courts total, staffed by a team of USPTA-certified pros who run drills, clinics, and the occasional round robin that pulls in players from town as much as from the hotel itself. Pickleball has its own dedicated courts too, for anyone looking to switch things up between sets.
What makes this one different is the setting doing the heavy lifting. You’re not fighting for a view between rallies. The canyon walls are just there, glowing a deeper red as the sun drops, while you finish a set and head back toward the casitas for dinner. It’s the kind of court that makes you play a little longer than you meant to, just to stay outside a bit more. For more ideas on building a Southwest getaway around moments like this one, The Chica Travelista is a solid place to start.
Where the Racket Meets the Reservation
A tennis court can be just a court. Or it can be the reason you remember a trip. These five have figured out how to make it the second one, whether that means a dome floating above a Swiss lake or a canyon glowing red at sunset in Arizona. Wherever you end up serving next, The Chica Travelista is worth a browse before you book.