The best four-star hotels on the C?te d'Azur
An expert guide to the top four-star hotels on the C?te d'Azur, including the best for swimming pools, rooftop bars, luxurious spas, family-friendly rooms and suites with hot tubs, in Cannes, Monaco, Cap d'Antibes, Nice, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Menton and Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Okko has turned Cannes’ cosy hotel market on its head with a bargain all-inclusive business concept. Every resident gets access to the top-floor Club, a five-star departure lounge where you can sunbathe, catch a movie or pour a free glass of wine. It's like bedding down in a Parisian designer’s party pad here. Think bare concrete walls in some places; funky French wallpaper in others. Natural fibre beds are topped with organic cotton sheets, which are unpretentiously scrunched not starched to perfection. In-room screens are stocked with dozens of engaging movies: needless to say all are free to watch.
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An elite retreat – without the price tag – on one of the most sought-after stretches of coastline in the world. Housed in an old diving academy just a minute's walk from a golden beach, Villa Fabulite looks like the world’s most elegant surf shack. Laid-back yet clued-up staff deliver mojitos to the linen-shaded loungers dotted around the ancient olive grove gardens. The wooden-decked swimming pool (heated in April, May and October) welcomes happy families and couples who adore the serene style. Most rooms have a tiny garden terrace out front.
Though minutes from the centre, La Pérouse seems slightly withdrawn, in a private stretch of Provence where comfort, politeness and flowers hold sway. From the bright, light-wood reception throughout, the place appears to be staffed entirely by the smartest women in the sharpest suits. It’s just as well as you’re never going to find your room without help. Because built up and around the rocky headland, the hotel winds hither and yon to fool the brightest GPS. At some stage, it will release you to the loveliest hotel terrace in Nice where pool, bar and restaurant are found in a setting not unlike a Proven?al village square.
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This English-run design hotel in Roquebrune-Cap Martin is a natural for architecture lovers. Ground-breaking architect Le Corbusier is the inspiration behind its striking interior with crisp bold rooms, modern furniture and big sea views. All 32 rooms brandish the same striking look evocative of the sun, the sea and the purity of modernist living: deep blue walls, a bold wall drawing inspired by Le Corbusier, Fifties-inspired console and colourful striped rug underfoot. The hotel has no restaurant, but the bar in the bright and airy open-plan lounge-lobby serves light snacks and is open 24 hours.
? The best hotels on the Cap d'Antibes
Fabulous, fun and sun-kissed, across from a private beach. The Royal vaunts an imperious location astride Antibes’ ramparts and the Cap d’Antibes. Add salade Ni?oise on the sand and it’s a suits-all package par excellence. Unlike the plethora of faceless four-stars and indifferent guesthouses that ring Antibes, the Royal has atmosphere. It’s independently owned by a fun-loving Italian family. Staff are generously spirited. Minimalist décor is softened by living walls of plants. All-organic breakfasts are served against a backdrop of lapping sea. The beach club – a rarity in the Cote d’Azur – occupies the sandy peninsula opposite the hotel.
With style and panache, four-star Napoléon evokes everything that this privileged part of the Riviera, winter stomping ground of the English aristocracy in the mid-19th century, is about — sun, sea, tasteful dining and extraordinary modern art. The owner, Matthew Likierman, is English and it shows. There's a solar-heated pool, gym, and fabulous back garden planted with subtropical greenery reminiscent of the exotic gardens created by the British here in the 1880s. If you insist on an open window at night, ask for a mountain-side room overlooking the garden. Sea-facing rooms have a big blue panorama that only gets better the higher up the five-storey building you climb.
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A colourful four-star hotel in Cannes with multi-lingual staff and good breakfasts, in a central location near La Croisette. Recent renovation has given the place a civilised, Old South townhouse feel, with restrained colours and elements of elegance. It’s also bumped the America up to four stars. But the bounce, confidence and friendliness remain. This is, in short , a very satisfying refuge from the sometimes hectic state of affairs obtaining in Cannes itself. And it also has pleasing elements of elegance. The refurbishment has infused rooms with golds and browns and retro style reminiscent of a Fifties New York duplex.
? The 10 best hotels in the C?te d'Azur
Art lovers and the traditionally minded will appreciate the understated, old-school elegance of this historic hotel in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a picturesque fishing village on the French Riviera. Four generations of the Galbois family have run the Welcome and despite its imposing burnt-ochre fa?ade pebble-dashed with blue wooden shutters, it maintains a quaint intimacy inside. The visitor book is a rundown of Twenties avant-garde art on the Riviera and the presence of Jean Cocteau oozes out of every last nook and cranny. While staying here in the Fifties, he drew a picture for the hotel that hangs today in the bar.
A luxury hotel in Monaco for people who’ve had enough of the chandelier 'n' brocade brigade. Here you get modern, stripped-back luxury. Most rooms have whirlpool tubs as well as cracking views. Four suites have private hammams. The top-floor bar is perhaps the best (public) spot in Monaco from which to contemplate the principality in general. It’s also a good vantage point for the port-side stretch of the Formula 1 circuit. In conceiving this hotel, someone clever has studied the question of luxury hotels, kept what was needed and chucked out what wasn’t.