Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc France

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc France

2020-03-15

Tucked into the pine groves on the southern tip of the Cap d’Antibes, this secluded property offers the dreamiest setting of any old-school Riviera palace hotel. Facing the hotel are the wild Lerins Islands, with consumerist Cannes hidden behind the next bay. Arty Antibes is a 10-minute drive away, with Nice airport and Cannes reachable in 25 minutes. Closer to home awaits a magical walk around Cap d’Antibes, with the Med unfurling before you. Posers can even arrive by boat, movie-star style, stepping from the teak dock towards a dazzlingly retro pool carved into the rocks.

This is the seaside for the smart set. Yet, paradoxically, the Cap is made for simple pleasures, from the 22 acres of pine groves to the playful trapeze suspended over the sea. Turned into a hotel in the 1880s, Le Cap grew to fame at the same time as the Cote d’Azur itself. The spirit is the languid, old-school glamour Scott Fitzgerald immortalised in Tender is the Night, inspired by this 'rock of paradise'. The centrepiece chateau has been beloved by Windsors, Kennedys, Churchills and countless screen stars. It was here that Rita Hayworth fell in love with the Aga Khan. A catwalk of an alley sweeps down to the sea and is still the place to party during Cannes Film Festival. Marble halls reveal the loveliest of floral arrangements on the whole of the Riviera.

Double rooms from €680 (£595) in low season; and from €1400 (£1,224) in high, including breakfast. Free Wi-Fi. This is a movie-star haunt flaunting movie-star prices – fully justified by the silky staff, service and sense of buying into a myth.