Hotel Lemongarden – When a Favourite Place Becomes a Hotel

Some places are simply holiday destinations. With others, we already know during our very first trip that one day, we will return.

Before a trip, we usually have a pretty clear idea of what we want to see. We save beaches, look up restaurants and mark all the places we want to visit on the map. And yet, that is not always how we find our favourite places. Sometimes it simply happens: the next day, we find ourselves sitting in the same café, walking down the same street again or already wondering on the way home when we could come back.

Something very similar happened to Helena Ramsbacher on the Croatian island of Brač. She arrived in Sutivan, fell in love with the little seaside village and discovered an old, dilapidated stone house surrounded by an overgrown garden. She did not buy it to turn it into a hotel. It was meant to become her own place for the summer.

It all started with one house

The old house was restored, the garden came back to life and Helena began spending more and more time on Brač. Family came to visit, friends followed, and over time more and more people discovered this special place. When the opportunity arose, Helena bought additional old houses in the village. What had originally begun as her own summer retreat slowly grew into something entirely different. In 2016, Hotel Lemongarden opened as the first five-star hotel on Brač. More than 300-year-old Dalmatian stone houses were given a new purpose while preserving exactly what had made Helena fall in love with this place in the first place. And there is one small detail in this story that we particularly love: the house where it all began is still Helena’s own summer home today.

First came the favourite place

Helena Ramsbacher once described the story behind her hotels very simply: First came the favourite places, then came the hotels. At the Lemongarden, it is easy to understand what she means. There is no single large hotel building waiting for guests here. Old stone houses, gardens and little spaces blend into Sutivan’s historic streets. Step outside the door and you are already right in the middle of the village. In the morning, boats arrive in the harbour, people are already having coffee along the promenade, and just a few steps away are the Lemongarden’s restaurant, bar and gelateria. After a while, it becomes difficult to tell where the hotel ends and Sutivan begins.

A summer in Sutivan

Of course, all of this would still make a beautiful story if we were simply telling you about it. But we would much rather be there already. The day begins among the lemon trees before heading to the sea. The Lemongarden’s private beach lies in a bay surrounded by pine trees – and after a morning like this, there is probably no need for an elaborate plan for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, it is back to Sutivan. An ice cream by the harbour, a few streets that already feel familiar, followed by dinner close to the water. Somewhere along the way, those little habits begin to form that somehow become part of every really good holiday. We already know which way we like to walk. We have our favourite table. We know where we would stop for one more coffee. And if someone asked what we wanted to do tomorrow, the answer might simply be: exactly the same thing again.

Part of Sutivan

The centuries-old buildings were restored using local materials and the craftsmanship of people from the region, lemon and olive trees grow in the garden, and the cuisine takes its inspiration from Dalmatian and Mediterranean flavours. But the connection to the island goes much further. Many members of the team grew up on Brač themselves, while at the Marina Club hotel guests and people from Sutivan sit side by side. The harbour becomes just as much a part of our days at the Lemongarden as the garden or the pool. Almost as if, for a few days, we had been given our own key to Sutivan.

The place we would return to

Maybe that is why it is so difficult to know in advance which place will eventually become a favourite. It does not necessarily have to be the most beautiful beach. Nor the restaurant we saved months before the trip. Often, it is the most ordinary moments that decide: someone recognises us in the morning, we know the way to the sea without thinking about it, or we automatically head for the same table at dinner. Then the last day arrives, and suddenly we are no longer counting all the things we managed to see. We are thinking about what we are going to miss. Helena Ramsbacher’s story in Sutivan began somewhere around this point too. She was not looking for a hotel. She found a place she wanted to return to.

And maybe that is exactly how our own favourite places begin too. One day, we simply realise that somehow, we are on our way back there again.