Top 10: the best five-star hotels on the Côte d'Azur
An expert guide to the best five-star hotels on the Côte d'Azur, featuring the best places to stay for first-class service, luxurious settings, Michelin-starred dining, elegant interiors, glamorous pools and historic connections, in locations including Saint-Tropez, Cannes, Nice, Cap d'Antibes and Monte Carlo.
Think of it as an exceptional private villa in a billion-dollar location that just happens to welcome paying guests. Contemporary art decks the rooms. The entire written works of Churchill (in first edition) grace the shelves. Such extravagant displays of taste are splashed by sunshine and a heated saltwater swimming pool, allowing guests to feel as at home in a pair of Oxfords as a pair of Havaianas. The establishment doesn’t do watersports or yoga classes, rather there’s tennis, a literature-stocked library and sub-tropical gardens. Most importantly, an aura of absolute privacy and nature-bound tranquillity pervades every corner.
A 45-room boutique hotel in the centre of Cannes, two steps from La Croisette and the beach beyond. VIP access to a private stretch of sand, a serene and well-furnished spa, and a stunning rooftop terrace – with bar and pool – complete the hedonistic concoction. Five Seas may not boast the extensive facilities of nearby mega hotels, but it nevertheless punches above its weight in terms of what it offers. The serene Cinq Mondes & Carita Spa boasts a hammam, two saunas and four treatment rooms, as well as a high-tech gym. Rooms are alluringly fashionable: large, light and, in the case of some suites, with private terraces featuring hot tubs.
The Grand-Hôtel is a real jewel in the South of France's crown and since a Four Seasons takeover, benefits from the group's exceptional service standards. It's famous for Club Dauphin, with its Olympic-sized infinity ocean pool, and has a Michelin-starred restaurant. A fresh and contemporary aesthetic combines with enough wonderful Art Deco touches (including a charmingly antique lift) to ensure the whole place still oozes proper old South of France glamour. Large windows at the front of the hotel allow light to flood the lobby and lounge areas, where white marble is set off by gold detailing. Upon descending to the basement spa, you’ll pass a wall adorned with signed pictures of celebrity guests past and present – and almost feel the lingering presence of Elizabeth Taylor et al, who stayed at the hotel in its 1950s heyday.
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A charming little princess rather than a Grand Dame, which sits on the water’s edge, betwixt Cap d’Antibes and Juan-les-Pins. This unique Art Deco hotel is chock-full of original features, a stylish living monument to its former residents, the Scott Fitzgeralds, and the glamour of The Roaring Twenties jazz age. The 42 sunny rooms and suites boast king-sized beds, balconies, Pierre Frey fabrics, Penhaligon products, Ruhlmann-style carpets and original pieces of Art Deco furniture in each room. There are also two beaches: one rocky, one of gentle sand which slopes into a natural seawater bay. Beach staff helpfully procure the best sun loungers: pole position is front row of the jetty, from which you can water-ski across Golfe Juan Bay, the birthplace of water-skiing.
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Michelin-starred dining, sea views and a wealth of antique furniture make this a popular choice among European royalty and holidaying celebrities, bang on the Med in Nice, close to Place Masséna. No other luxury hotel in France delivers a similar cultural charge. The wealth of authentic antique furniture, of art and artefacts, and the eclectic taste with which they are disposed, lends the place an air of grace and sophistication. Le Relais bar is London-club-meets-Spanish-galleon: bags of walnut panelling, bright colours and a fine way with cocktails. Everyone, from Khrushchev to Richard Burton, has drunk slightly too much here.
The Cap d’Antibes Beach Hotel offers five-star luxury on the sandy sea shore, topped by a Michelin-starred restaurant. Hotel USPs are service and sunshine. Barring absence, every guest is met by general manager Franck Farneti then escorted to their room through arcades decked with tropical plants. Every conceivable space – private balconies, public breakfast terraces – soaks up the Cap d’Antibes microclimate. Naturally, rooms shout suntans and champagne buckets.
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Since 1967, the Byblos has come on like the Med's poshest seaside village. A series of what look like fisherman's houses - all ochre and harmonious - unwind round the pool, and are themselves inundated with Med greenery. The cottages are, though, façade only. Behind all is unshowily sumptuous, explored by haphazard corridors, studded with art, and quietly flattering of one's sensibilities. Here's an elegant village within the village, casually subscribing to the highest standards. In powder blue and grey, the young staff ensure that, if you're not Bill Gates, you're treated as if you were. In few other places have I felt quite so keenly that my appearance made the staff's happiness complete.
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No, it is not a hallucination. This medieval chateau, revamped in the 1920s, does teeter on a cliff edge, making it a glorious address for escaping the tourist hordes. The coastal panorama from the heated outdoor pool is other-worldly and the terraced grounds cocoon hidden terraces and sundecks for guests to lap up the extraordinary luminosity and colours of the French Riviera in total Adam and Eve privacy. The fragrant gardens, scented with jasmine, roses and a wealth of Provencal herbs, are a lesson in Mediterranean flora. The hotel's opulent interior works hard to evoke the grandeur and elegance of yesteryears, with sufficient original features to enchant and inspire. Dress up or stand out.
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This Belle Epoque palace, the discreet sibling to neighbouring Hôtel de Paris, is a favourite for jetsetting cognoscenti and celebrities pretending to stay under the radar, not least due to the Michelin-starred Vistamar restaurant, Monte-Carlo's destination of choice for seafood. A line of Lamborghinis and Bentleys greet you at the entrance, but what else would you expect in Monte-Carlo? Bedrooms feature Louis XV-style chairs and colourful wallpaper panels, while marbled bathrooms contain monogrammed towels and generous-sized bathroom products by the legendary Parisian perfume maker Francis Kurkdjian.
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This grand hotel is situated at the centre of the Cote d’Azur’s exclusively chichi resorts of Beaulieu, Villefranche and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Behind the ice-cream pink and vanilla Victorian facade, conceptualist-designer Grace Leo has created uber-stylish neo-hellenistic interiors, with Doric columns, Grecian friezes and sumptuous velvet furnishings, mirroring the Villa Kérylos (a recreated fifth-century Athenian villa) across the Baie des Formis. Tranquil pathways through fragrant tropical gardens, designed by Jean Mus, lead to guest rooms and suites in Provençal-style Villa l’Orangerie, which come with their own private terraces.
