The best French Riviera resorts
An expert guide to the best French Riviera resorts, including the best for private beaches, Olympic-sized swimming pools, incredible spas, tennis courts, watersports, Michelin-starred restaurants, gardens and champagne bars, in St Tropez, Antibes, Eze and Monaco.
Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort
Monaco
9Telegraph expert rating
The French Riviera meets Vegas at the exuberant Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort. It’s a year-round playground, complete with its sandy-bottomed lagoon, endless sun terraces bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and even a casino with 150 slot machines. The indoor pool and whirlpool tub is enclosed inside a gigantic glass-panelled conservatory. There’s a plush spa, a gym and yoga classes. There’s also a gin bar, Michelin-starred restaurant serving Caribbean and Mediterranean cuisine, and a snack eatery famed for its ice cream trolley. Read expert review From £225per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Château de la Chèvre d’Or
Côte d'Azur, France
8Telegraph expert rating
Few hotels are wedged between the sky and the sea. Five-star Château de la Chèvre d’Or is. Up high in the eagle nest village of Èze on the French Riviera, this luxury address is paradise on earth. The coastal panorama from the heated outdoor pool is otherworldly and the terraced grounds cocoon hidden terraces and sundecks for guests to lap up 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. There are four restaurants climaxing with — drum roll — the mythical, Michelin twin-starred La Chèvre d’Or. Read expert review From £200per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Monte-Carlo Beach
Monte Carlo, Monaco
9Telegraph expert rating
This five-star hotel has been on Monaco's society scene since the Twenties, despite sitting on the French side of the border. Show-offs arrive by boat to this ultra-luxurious Art Deco hotel private jetty, and golden-heeled guests dine upon Michelin-starred cuisine after a day by the Olympic-sized pool. There’s a long private beach that’s tailor-made for water sports fanatics with everything from parasailing to FlyFish rafting. There’s also a La Prairie spa. Luxurious bedrooms have frescoes inspired by Matisse and Cocteau. Read expert review From £216per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best quieter resorts on the Côte d'Azur
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc
Cap d'Antibes, Côte d'Azur, France
9Telegraph expert rating
This grand 19th-century mansion on the Cote d’Azur is set among nine hectares of landscaped gardens, with a guest list that reads like the credits of a Hollywood movie. There is a heated infinity pool, five clay tennis courts, 33 cabanas and a boutique. The Sisley spa has four treatment rooms, as well as a sauna, steam room, gym and beauty salon. Gastronomy options include a champagne lounge overlooking the Mediterranean, Eden-Roc Restaurant for lobster with tarragon, and an ice cream cabin in the garden. Read expert review From £850per night
Cap Estel
Eze, Côte d'Azur, France
9Telegraph expert rating
Château-like gates seal this most exclusive of five-star villas from the hoi polloi. Just 50 guests enjoy an ethereal playground serenaded by birdsong and scented by botanical grounds. A-list guests are habituées in a private hideaway. There’s a private beach, tennis courts and a literature-stocked library. Faultless French cooking, all edible flowers and foaming desserts, are on offer in the Michelin-starred restaurant too. Suites are carved into the rockface above the private beach. Read expert review From £360per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best family-friendly hotels in the Mediterranean
Hotel Byblos
St Tropez, Côte d'Azur, France
9Telegraph expert rating
The most famous hotel in the world's most famous resort has, for half-a-century, been hosting both the fire-cracker festivities and discreet family holidays of the astoundingly rich, the truly celebrated – and normal people who have saved up a lot of money. The hotel's focus of attention is the heated outdoor pool. Somewhere nearby is France's first Sisley spa. You'll maybe need it after a night in the Caves-du-Roy, France's most celeb-filled night-club. Don't miss Rivea restaurant beneath lantern-lit trees. It's a creation by super-chef Alain Ducasse majoring on Mediterranean simplicity. Read expert review From £380per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
