Alpes-Maritimes and the French Riviera: Curated Stays & Luxury Hotels

Anantara Plaza Nice Hotel: A Belle Époque Base in Nice

With its recent restoration, the Antara Plaza reclaimed its spot among the French Riviera’s grand dames, blending Belle Époque style with a much-needed cosmopolitan refresh. This landmark Riviera luxury hotel, posed elegantly on the seafront, offers panoramic views along the sparkling champagne waters of the palm-fringed Baie des Anges and the iconic Promenade des Anglais. The exterior is instantly recognisable, the facade a pale yellow like a sommergold rose, a remnant of its 19th-century past, while unique modern art brings bold colour to interior walls finished in pastels, woods and marbles.

Rooms at Anantara Plaza are elegant spaces in which to luxuriate and escape the Alpes-Maritimes crowds, some with terraces or balconies. The location means you’re well placed for exploring, but the hotel has the amenities of a small resort, with all of Nice on your doorstep. Furthermore, our local guides can enhance the experience, whisking you deep into the city for food tours of Niçois cuisine paired with Pastis and Rosé.

360 recommends: Anantara Plaza’s panoramic sea view room with a terrace big enough for sunbathing. Beautifully finished, exquisitely appointed, and all the Anantara luxuries one expects, elevated by a 5th-floor sea view.

Hotel du Couvent, Nice: An Old Nice Sanctuary

Walk the Italianate alleyways of Vieux Nice, and you’ll find Hotel du Couvent, a 17th-century former nunnery, which feels very much like it was plucked from a lavender-draped hill in the Provençal countryside. Enter the courtyard and the bustle of old Nice fades, replaced by a surprisingly understated luxury hotel, unique amongst its Niçois neighbours. The style is all functional beauty in natural tones, showcasing lavish simplicity. Nice’s typical luxury hotel glamour is shunned for an almost neo-monastic approach, with a sense of place replacing that characteristic Alpes-Maritimes sparkle. Importantly, the tranquillity of the monastery is retained, but the roomy public spaces are ornamented with antique glass and marble sculptures, beautiful spaces for meditative afternoons with a book. Indeed, in a city known for spectacle, Hotel du Couvent offers something much rarer: sanctuary and restraint.

Step outside your room and you’ll enter an oasis of gardens filled with poppies and orange trees, restaurants in private courtyards, and a terrace pool with sea views. There’s an onsite herbalist selling medicinal tisanes and a bakery adding comforting notes of roasted grain to the Riviera air. Go underground and you’ll find a Roman Bath circuit in a former crypt, perfectly modernised for the contemporary wellness ritual.

360 recommends: If you require extra space, opt for Hotel du Couvent’s Le Jardin Marguerite, set in a private garden. Otherwise, we recommend the romantic Terrasses du Cloître, with a private terrace and courtyard views.

Hôtel Belles Rives: The Literary Soul of the Riviera in Antibes

Perched above the coast of Cap d’Antibes, the iconic Hôtel Belles Rives is the Alpes-Maritimes region at its most timeless. The hotel was once the private villa where F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald spent iconic, history-making summers in the 1920s; as such, the property hums with the spirit of the Jazz Age. Its Art Deco interiors are at their best in the elegant piano bar, while the terraces, where the annual Fitzgerald literary award ceremony is often held, make for romantic golden hour cocktails paired with a coast curving towards the Lérins islands, cradling views of all that sublime blue.

Additionally, the Hôtel Belles Rives has Michelin-starred fine dining at La Passagère, a summer beach restaurant, and a pontoon for guests’ use only, from which you can zip away on a water ski or spend a beach day reading Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night… the beginning of which is rumoured to have been written here, when the hotel was called Villa Saint-Louis.

360 recommends: Hôtel Belles Rives’s best suite is the newest, the Zelda Suite, named after Zelda Fitzgerald, and boasting sublime views from a private balcony.

Château Saint-Martin & Spa: Provençal Charm with Oetker-Style Hospitality

A distinct proposition for Alpes-Maritimes, the hilltop Château Saint-Martin & Spa, perched above leafy Vence, was once a Knights Templar stronghold, and retains fragments of walls and a chapel, set within 34 acres of private grounds. The Château, surrounded by olive groves and rose gardens, offers a contemplative take on the typical Riviera retreat, set far enough back from the sea to feel entirely separate, yet close enough to enjoy it, should you wish. The view from here is breathtaking: tracing the hilltops as they sweep to the distant shimmer of the Mediterranean, blurring into a hazy horizon.

The experience at Château Saint-Martin & Spa is that of a refined countryside retreat. You can explore the sculptures and art in the gardens, rejuvenate in the Spa Saint-Martin by La Prairie, or sit back on a terrace made for rosé-soaked afternoons. Le Saint-Martin restaurant is a showcase for Provençal produce, while L’Oliveraie is a venue for summer dining: all open fire cooking and pristine service beneath the olive trees.

360 recommends: Château Saint-Martin’s rustic chic rooms and villas are all perfectly charming, but take L’Atelier Junior Suite to enjoy the outdoor stone shower and a private Loggia with unrestricted views.

Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel: An Icon at the Edge of the Sea

Perched at the edge of Cap-Ferrat, where the land slips quietly into the Mediterranean, Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat is Riviera legend: a palm-lined retreat, historically the Riviera hotel of choice for politicians, artists, and celebrities. Today, under the stewardship of Four Seasons, its timeless legacy endures with idyllic terraces, century-old pines, a spa steeped in ritual, and the lavish Club Dauphin, reached via a glass funicular. Private beach cabanas take the already notable privacy and tune it to the level of a whisper. And the infinity pool, with its unobstructed views of the sea towards Monaco, is, famously, one of the world’s most beautiful hotel swimming pools.

The suites at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat are chic, airy sanctuaries with enveloping windows framing this unspoiled corner of the Mediterranean as a living fresco. And the dining is spectacular with multiple locations to choose from, but our favourite is Le Cap. Set into the leafy grounds, the service is understated, allowing the food to shine, with dishes finished with ingredients plucked straight from the garden.

360 recommends: If your need for privacy is absolute, take the Villa Rose Pierre, a private residence with full staff, exceptional amenities and space for 10.

The Maybourne Riviera: The Modernist Riviera

Clinging to the cliffs above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the Maybourne Riviera is all clean lines, glass walls, and terraces that levitate above the Mediterranean. It’s a property that redefines Riviera luxury: daring and unapologetically modern. The structure feels as though it was sculpted from the rock or pulled out from it, and every angle frames a view: some across the mountains, others down the coast to Monaco. Interiors are minimalist but warm, a study in intentional understatement. Each room includes a private balcony, but some have impossible infinity pools that seem, despite their elevation, to blend seamlessly with the sea.

At the Maybourne Riviera’s heart is an impeccable culinary experience: a constellation of dining concepts, including summer takeovers by guest chefs, terraces overlooking the sea, beach clubs, a patisserie, and brunches cooked al fresco over fire. Float between the hotel’s chic pool, the spa’s meditative silence, and suites that feel like private residences.

360 recommends: Every room at the luxurious Maybourne Riviera is striking, but take the duplex suite with infinity pool to enjoy a private pool set into a glass terrace.

When to visit Alpes-Maritimes and the Riviera

The French Riviera has been a bastion of year-round glitz since the Murphys brought it out of its summer hibernation a century ago in the 1920s (before that, sun-starved Europeans used the Riviera as a winter resort, and many properties closed for the summer).

And while the Riviera dazzles in peak season, we think it shines even more in the shoulder seasons, particularly during the last breaths of summer, when the ambience takes on that of a prolonged sunset, with breezy days tempering the heat, crowds thinning to a well-heeled few, and a more subtle laidback rhythm takes hold.