Naples Beach Club, A Four Seasons Resort opened in November 2025 on the former Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club site. Naples Beach Club Four Seasons belongs on your short list if you want Gulf-front resort infrastructure with real Old Florida cues, and you should wait if the golf course is the reason you are going (Forbestravelguide) (Forbestravelguide1).
The decision is clean. Book now for beach, spa, racquets, cocktails, and the Four Seasons version of Naples restraint. Hold until early 2027 if you want the full resort with Tom Fazio's redesigned 18-hole course, The Gardens, in play. Compared with Miami, Naples is the better Florida call for early dinners, beach days, and low-volume luxury; Miami is still the move if nightlife is the point of the trip (Forbestravelguide) (Forbestravelguide1).
What Makes Naples Beach Club Four Seasons Worth Booking
The core reason to care is the land: more than 1,000 feet of Gulf beachfront in Naples, Florida. That is the amenity you cannot retrofit. Pools, restaurants, and spas can be rebuilt; direct Gulf frontage at this scale is the scarce part. If your Florida benchmark is a tower hotel where the beach feels shared with half the city, Naples Beach Club Four Seasons gives you a different rhythm: sand first, then everything else (Forbestravelguide) (Forbestravelguide1).
The resort also has the right kind of new-build pedigree. Hart Howerton handled master planning, architecture, and landscape design, while Champalimaud Design handled the interiors. Ed Bakos, Partner & CEO of Champalimaud Design, is the named design-side signal here, and the interiors use bleached pecky cypress ceilings, painted clapboard paneling, sea-glass chandeliers, periwinkle, and flamingo pink. Those details matter because this could have become a generic luxury rebuild. Instead, the property signals Old Naples through materials and scale rather than theme-park nostalgia.
Book it if you want a resort that works for a multigenerational Gulf Coast stay without forcing every hour into a programmed activity. Skip it if you want completed golf on arrival, hard-party Florida, or a hotel where the restaurant is the whole story. The Merchant Room by Chef Gavin Kaysen gives the property a proper dining anchor, but this is still a beach resort first.
The Legacy Is the Point, Not a Footnote
The new resort replaces Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, which had been on this stretch of coastline since the 1940s. That context should shape your expectations. This is not a blank-slate resort competing only on marble, square footage, and brand flags. It carries the memory of a local landmark, and the useful question is whether Four Seasons has kept enough of that restraint to make the rebuild feel specific to Naples (Forbestravelguide1).
On the evidence available, the answer is yes. Hart Howerton took cues from the wood-shuttered Queen Anne cottages of the surrounding neighborhood, and the interiors avoid the cold-white minimalism that can flatten Gulf Coast hotels into interchangeable real estate. Brass door knockers cast as seashells, dragonflies, and sea turtles appear in every guest room. That is a small detail, but it tells you how the resort wants to be read: residential, coastal, and lightly nostalgic.
This matters most for travelers who knew the old hotel, or who are choosing between a new-build resort and a heritage property. The safer luxury move in Florida is often to book the newest room product and accept that the place could be anywhere. Naples Beach Club Four Seasons is trying for the harder version: new infrastructure on a site with local memory. If you want the emotional texture of the old Naples coastline with Four Seasons operations around it, this is the relevant opening.
The comparison to Miami is useful here. Miami gives you bigger restaurant energy, later nights, and a louder hotel scene. Naples Beach Club gives you a quieter Gulf Coast base where the design references the neighborhood instead of competing with it. For couples or families who want high-comfort Florida without the social volume, Naples wins.
Old Florida Meets Four Seasons: What Actually Changed
The rebuild's smartest design decision is that it uses Old Florida motifs in physical details rather than marketing language. Hart Howerton designed the buildings with references to wood-shuttered Queen Anne cottages. Champalimaud Design carried that inside with clapboard paneling, pecky cypress, sea-glass chandeliers, and color notes that belong on the Gulf Coast. The result should read warmer than a typical corporate beachfront resort.
The resort's layout also treats the beachfront as the central asset. Hart Howerton framed more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) of beachfront as a garden, with pools, paths, gathering areas, and dune plantings including sea oats and sea grapes. That is practical design, not decoration. It means the beach is not a single photo-op at the edge of the property; it is the organizing feature (Fourseasons2).
Suite hunters should clock one specific detail: the expansive suite has a 2,100-square-foot (200-square-metre) terrace with Gulf and coastline views. That is the room category to ask about if outdoor space matters more than interior square footage. For winter Florida stays, terrace size is not vanity; it changes how much time you spend in the room versus the public areas (Fourseasons2).
The design will matter less if your ideal Four Seasons stay is defined by golf, because the course is still in transition. The 18-hole course is being redesigned by Tom Fazio and will reopen as The Gardens in early 2027. Golfers should treat a 2026 stay as a preview trip, not the finished product. Beach-first travelers have no reason to wait.
Dining and Drinks Are Better Than a Resort Afterthought
Chef Gavin Kaysen operates The Merchant Room, the resort's signature restaurant. That name gives Naples Beach Club Four Seasons a stronger culinary baseline than the usual beach resort dining stack, where the best meal is often the one you leave property for. The brief here is useful: a destination resort in Naples with a named chef attached to its flagship room.
The more specific immediate play may be The Merchant Room Bar. It has a scalloped oak bar, vintage-style rattan, and a Dean Barger mural of flamingos drifting through mangroves. The cocktail list, called Forgotten Classics, works from older drink templates rather than the usual resort menu of spritzes and fruit-forward crowd-pleasers.
Order with intent. The Gin Rickey uses Hayman's Old Tom gin, umeshu, and yellow plum. The Brown Derby mixes Buffalo Trace bourbon and Cynar with salted pamplemousse, honey, and lemon. The Rob Roy is the one to test if you want the bar at its most ambitious: Macallan 15 washed with dry-aged ribeye tallow, Cocchi di Torino, and barrel-aged bitters. That is a serious signal for a resort bar, and it gives drink-focused guests a reason to stay on property after sunset.
For the simplest move, use Sunset Bar when the point is the Gulf rather than the glass. The Merchant Room Bar is the room for cocktail nerds; Sunset Bar is the one for the trip photo and the easy table before dinner.
This is where Naples Beach Club separates itself from many legacy Florida resorts. A historic site can lean too hard on sentiment. A new luxury resort can lean too hard on brand sameness. The Kaysen restaurant, the Dean Barger mural, and the specific cocktail builds give the property enough identity for food and drink travelers to take it seriously.
Spa, Racquets, Boat Charters, and the Golf Caveat
Sanctuary Spa is 30,000 square feet across three levels with 13 treatment rooms, including three VIP suites. The thermal circuit includes aromatherapy steam rooms, a Finnish sauna, cold plunges, an ice room, and vitality pools. A 75-foot outdoor lap pool overlooks the golf course.
That makes the spa a full half-day commitment, not a massage squeezed between beach and dinner. If you are choosing between Naples Beach Club and a smaller Gulf Coast hotel, the spa scale is one of the clearest separators. It also helps justify a stay during shoulder periods when the beach day may not carry the whole itinerary.
The Racquet Club has six Har-Tru clay tennis courts, a pro shop, and seasonal clinics run by Matthew Bacon, a director with 25-plus years in the business. Four to six padel courts are coming soon. Tennis travelers should prioritize court times early in the stay, especially if traveling during peak family periods, because six Har-Tru courts can feel scarce once the resort is full.
Bella, the resort's 35-foot Hinckley Picnic Boat, is the insider move. Guest charters include sunset cruises and chef-prepared picnics, giving you a way to turn the Gulf into part of the itinerary rather than a view from a lounger. If you are booking a celebration stay, ask about Bella before you arrive rather than treating it as a day-of decision.
The big caveat remains golf. The 18-hole course is in the middle of a Tom Fazio redesign and is scheduled to reopen as The Gardens in early 2027. If someone in your group is choosing Naples specifically for daily golf, wait. If golf is a bonus and not the anchor, the beach, spa, racquets, dining, and boat access are already enough to build a strong stay.
How to Time a Stay at the Reimagined Naples Beach Club
Book Naples Beach Club Four Seasons now if your priority list runs beach, spa, dining, cocktails, racquets, and boat time. Wait for early 2027 if the Fazio course matters. That is the practical split. The resort already has the core pieces for a high-end Gulf Coast stay, but it will feel more complete once The Gardens opens.
Couples should build the stay around The Merchant Room, The Merchant Room Bar, spa time, and Bella if available. Families should look at the beach-first layout, the Racquet Club, and the 22-seat private cinema scheduled to open later this year with first-run films. Multigenerational groups should ask early about the suite with the 2,100-square-foot terrace if outdoor gathering space is the difference between separate rooms and a proper shared base.
Dress expectations should follow Naples rather than Miami: resort casual, with sharper choices for The Merchant Room Bar and dinner. This is not the Florida trip for nightclub clothes or beach-club costume changes. Pack for tennis whites, spa time, dinner on property, and Gulf-facing evenings.
The resort's importance is bigger than another luxury flag entering Southwest Florida. Naples Beach Club Four Seasons tests whether a brand-led rebuild can keep the useful parts of a 1940s coastal landmark while giving affluent travelers the infrastructure they now expect. Watch the 22-seat cinema next, then The Gardens in early 2027; once those pieces are open, the property becomes a fuller answer to the question Naples regulars have been asking since the old hotel closed.
