The 16 Best Places to Stay and Do in Nice

A 17th-century convent on the Cimiez hillside above Nice's old town, converted into an 88-room hotel where the nuns' cells now come with lime-plaster walls and Italian antiques, and occasionally a La Cornue range cooker. The cloister gardens slope toward a lap pool with Med views, and the subterranean spa draws on Roman bath logic. The restaurant leans into Riviera produce with minimal drama. Ranked 27th on the World's 50 Best Hotels list and holding a Michelin Key.

1. The 50 #27 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

The pink dome is visible from halfway down the promenade, which suits Le Negresco just fine. This grand hotel on the Promenade des Anglais has been hosting royals and film people for as long as anyone can remember, and the rooms still look it: bold colors, lavish ornament, art spanning several centuries on the walls, doormen in uniforms that could stop traffic. Modern comforts are tucked in discreetly, so as not to spoil the atmosphere. It holds a Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

A Belle Époque building a short walk from the Promenade des Anglais, reworked by David Collins Studio into a five-star hotel with an earthy, minimalist interior that somehow makes the ornate bones feel calm. Rooms come with coffered walls and sleek bathrooms; suites get terraces over the water. The rooftop bar with curved leather banquettes and sea views is where everyone ends up, and the private beach club looks like a postcard someone mailed from 1962.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Belle Époque bones on Nice's main boulevard, but step inside and the Boscolo has gone full Mediterranean minimalism, with spare sunny rooms occasionally interrupted by an ornate rococo headboard, as if the renovation ran out of nerve at the last moment. The spa leans almost futuristic. The restaurant handles fresh seafood against weathered floorboards, and the bar has become a reliable stop on the local nightlife circuit with the old town a short walk away.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A honeycomb motif woven through the interiors is the quiet nod to the name, "the bee," but nothing else here is quiet. These boutique apartments in Nice's old port district go full Pop: raw concrete, naked timber, and primary colors cranked to maximum saturation. Each unit comes with a Carrara marble bathroom, a proper kitchen, and a Bang & Olufsen system. The garden outside supplies herbs to a nearby Michelin-starred restaurant, which feels like a very good neighbor to have.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Built into a cliffside above the Baie des Anges on a site that was once a prison, La Pérouse is a hotel that earns its position the hard way. Most of its sixty-three rooms face the sea, and the brochure apparently tells you in no uncertain terms to book a sea-view room. A pool sits at the cliff's base, ringed by lemon trees, and candlelit terrace dinners happen when the weather cooperates. The old town is a short walk away.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The slate-topped dome and Belle Époque moldings place this family-run hotel squarely in Nice's musicians' quarter, the neighborhood named for composers including its own street. Inside, the aesthetic goes Art Deco: gold accents, chocolate browns, high ceilings with original details intact. A rooftop bar opens in the evenings for city views, and guests can use the pool, sauna, and spa at the Splendid nearby. Breakfast leans organic and local.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The rooftop pool is pink, which tells you most of what you need to know about this boutique hotel. A couple of streets from the beach, Hôtel Amour trades Riviera grandeur for something looser: colorful rooms with a mid-century bohemian streak, a restaurant with a Parisian café sensibility, and a private beach club for when the pool gets old. Nice suits it perfectly, a city that's never quite bought into its own glamour.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Art Deco facade on the promenade des Anglais is original; everything behind it was rebuilt from scratch, which is a neat trick if you can pull it off. This hotel sits right on the waterfront in Nice, with sea-view rooms, generous bathrooms with separate tubs and showers, a colonnaded courtyard pool that functions as its own social event, an indoor pool, and a casino. The crowd tends toward people who knew what they were booking.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Three historic buildings in the Riquier district near the Old Port, decorated as if Matisse and Picasso had a say in the paint colors. This design hotel runs on the Mama Shelter playbook: rooms graded Small to XXL, pink-tiled bathrooms, whimsical carpets, and a central bar open all day. Weekend DJs migrate to the pergola-shaded rooftop when the weather cooperates, and summer unlocks an outdoor pool, a relative rarity around here, ringed with rainbow daybeds.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels