Top 10: the best boutique hotels in Nice
An expert guide to the best boutique hotels in Nice, including the top places to stay for period and quirky interiors, courtyard gardens and terraces, cool pools and rooms with balconies and sea views.
Hôtel Rossetti
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Ancient meets modern at this sought-after residence in the heart of the pedestrianised Old Town with its maze of cheek-by-jowl streets. Hôtel Rossetti’s minimalist interiors are a stylish contrast against the backdrop of the neighbouring Baroque-style cathedral. An inconspicuous grey door with the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it lettering marks the entrance to this miniature place that feels more like a luxurious bed and breakfast than a hotel. Decoration in rooms is strictly minimalist with pale fabrics, large artwork canvases and angular furniture. Read expert review From £113per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Villa Les Cygnes
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
In more stylish times – when ladies wore crinoline and gentlemen blazers – everyone stayed in spots like Les Cygnes. From the stone gate-posts to the garden, via a snug lobby of marble and stained glass, the little hotel is an outpost of forgotten courtesy, subdued good taste and polite conversation. The sense is of being amid generations of well-bred calm. Vintage features – an odd fireplace or chandelier – remain in rooms but the clutter has gone, victim of a lady with an eye for space, light, dashes of colour and contemporary art. These are good places in which to wake up. Read expert review From £60per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Windsor
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
7Telegraph expert rating
No façade is as deceptive as this 19th-century townhouse in Nice. Who would imagine the riot of artistic creation that enlivens its boutique interior? Highly individual rooms are decorated by contemporary artists and the exotic restaurant garden is an art work in itself. The eye-catching art exhibition in the lounge-lobby is a visual feast and the artistic excitement continues in the hotel lift — a spacey sound installation created in 1998 by French artist and actress Ultra Violet who hobnobbed with Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol in 1970s New York. When calm and tranquility beckon, retreat to the hotel spa with hammam, sauna and some truly lovely beauty and relaxation packages. Read expert review From £68per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Villa Rivoli
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Tucked a few blocks back from the sea in Nice’s Quartier des Musiciens is this flower-filled, 24-room hotel overseen by German owner, Barbara Kimmig. It exudes a civilised and welcoming atmosphere. There’s no restaurant, but plenty on the doorstep, and breakfast is served the garden on fine days. The lounge (also a breakfast room for those less fine days) has the civilised feel of a home where people read books, with deft touches of class and prettiness throughout. There are toile-de-jouy-style hangings, nicely-aged furniture and an air of refinement throughout the bedrooms. Read expert review From £42per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Le Grimaldi
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Le Grimaldi hails from a time when visitors to Nice went to elegant townhouses that reflected the tastes of equally elegant hostesses. This quintessential Belle Époque hotel upped its game with a top-to-toe renovation that replaced old interiors with wooden floors, richly coloured wallpapers and fresh fabrics. The two lounges are warm with rich reds and dark wood. You could be in a plump and sumptuous Provençal salon, overlain with a sharp feminine sensitivity. It’s terribly welcoming in a well-mannered sort of way. Not all 46 bedrooms are huge but, whatever the size, they’re an appealing mix of French style and comfortable furnishings. Read expert review From £113per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hôtel Suisse
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
9Telegraph expert rating
On a rocky promontory looking down upon the curving Baie des Anges, Hôtel Suisse commands the best sea views in Nice. With its cherry and cream façade, this boutique hotel stands proudly at the foot of the promenade des Anglais. This chocolate-box-pretty hotel is popular with couples and single travellers who want to explore the Old Town and port on its doorstep. Up a small flight of stairs, you enter the miniature reception area and glass-fronted lobby that’s flooded with light, as this Italian-style hotel is happily south facing. The ground-floor public areas have pale wooden floors and Louis XVI-style chairs in mauve and rose. Read expert review From £160per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Villa Otero
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Since its takeover by Happy Culture, this Belle Époque hotel has been brought back to life through a top-to-bottom renovation overseen by Parisian interior designer Stephanie Cayet. Primary colours, exotic wallpapers and black-and-white floor tiles set off the lobby area with its comfortable leather sofas and club chairs providing a comfortable place to curl up with a book from the shelves lined with leather-bound volumes of Victor Hugo, and art and wine guides. Retro touches abound in rooms, from the rotary-dial telephones to the black-and-white photos recalling Nice’s Golden Age heyday. Behind the bed are gilded wall murals emblazoned with birds of paradise. Read expert review From £87per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hôtel Nice Excelsior
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
This conventiently located boutique hotel combines 19th-century architecture with 21st-century interior design. The travel-inspired wall murals and vibrant Hermès-style leather trunks recall Nice Excelsior’s roots as a coaching inn providing recuperation for noblemen and their horses. The 19th-century cream façade complete with pretty sculpted details sets the scene for an elegant stay. Inside, this old four-star hotel has been transformed by the talented Parisian interior designer Sandrine Alouf. The best views are from the fourth floor rooms. Read expert review From £117per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Hotel Villa Victoria
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
From the pale apricot townhouse façade to the unexpected, glorious gardens at the back, the Villa Victoria (VV) has the civilised air of an earlier age, yet is also quite as fresh and sharp as the 21st century requires. The open-plan ground floor sweeps, via lobby and lounge, arches and big pictures of white flowers, to the garden full of real flowers and Med trees. There are fewer lovelier places in central Nice in which to linger over breakfast or while away an afternoon. If possible, go for the rooms overlooking the garden. Read expert review From £65per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hôtel du Petit Palais
Nice, Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Weary travellers looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the Old Town and the chock-a-block promenade often end up in the leafy suburb of Cimiez. Here they can unwind at a Belle Époque palace with enviable rooftop views, mini-spa and plunge pool. The best thing about this hotel is a sea-facing room with a panoramic rooftop view over Nice. Not every room has a sea view so it’s worth booking early and splashing out a little extra on a Sea Standard. The most distinctive room feature is an individually designed coffee table: everything from a clock face to a tree stump. Read expert review From £101per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
