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An expert guide to the best luxury hotels in Nice, including the top places to stay for Michelin-starred restaurants, stunning sea views, beach access, historic buildings, designer interiors and sumptuous spas. 

The Palais de la Méditerranée is a landmark hotel in France’s fifth city, commanding a prominent position on the Promenade des Anglais. Behind its iconic façade sits a splendidly seamless five-star hotel. Style is nonetheless modern, with taupe carpets and mauve cushions aplenty. The Palais de la Méditerranée started life in the roaring Twenties as a casino and 1,000-room theatre where the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier would play. Guests can lounge in luxury in the private beach club opposite (for €27/£23 a piece). The smallest Queen rooms overlook the courtyard, while King rooms are a bit larger and boast private terraces.Read expert reviewFrom£191

• The best hotels in Nice

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.Read expert reviewFrom£286

• The best Côte d'Azur hotels

The seafront Hotel La Perouse boasts startlingly pleasant views, top-class beds and a good restaurant, where guests eat Mediterranean fare beneath the shade of lemon trees. It's also home to the loveliest hotel terrace in Nice, where pool, bar and said restaurant are found in a setting not unlike a Provençal village square. Though minutes from the centre, La Pérouse seems slightly withdrawn, in a private stretch of Provence where comfort, politeness and flowers hold sway. Only Superior and Deluxe rooms have balconies or terraces and bear in mind that the higher up the hotel you are, the better the view.Read expert reviewFrom£182

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Built in 1860 (the year Nice became part of France), the Beau Rivage has long been a cornerstone of beachfront class. It has been restyled by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the French architect who redesigned the Elysée Palace apartments, and is now a contemporary temple bedecked with wide spaces and clean lines. Such style and heritage renders it a cut above the city’s crop of luxury chain hotels. Unique shared spaces are decorated with Livingstone pebble cushions designed by French stylish Stéphanie Marin and lamps by global artisan Céline Wright. The big pull is the Beau Rivage Plage beach club.Read expert reviewFrom£92

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With not a hair out of place, this chic Italianate pad of five-star luxury in downtown Nice is well beyond the ordinary. Historic belle époque architecture blends seamlessly with dazzling contemporary design. The extraordinary natural light that lured Matisse, Picasso and other artists to Nice and the Riviera in the early 20th century is the inspiration. And the sweeping all-white lounge with five-metre-long chaise-longue, extravagant floral arrangements, and blue sky blazing through a domed glass ceiling hits the spot perfectly. In the basement, the Deep Nature spa complex has a gym, steam room, essential oil showers and treatment cabins, including one for couples. The Zen swimming pool is so dimly lit that guests practically swim in the dark.Read expert reviewFrom£178

• The best beach hotels in Nice

Step back into the Belle Époque with a stay at this historic hotel. Everything from the royal-blue furnishings to the feather headbands worn by reception staff nod at the Riviera’s Jazz Age and the hotel’s namesake, Caroline Otero, a notorious beauty and courtesan. 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. If you book a Superior Room with Terrace, be sure to request one that's at least on the fourth floor. Read expert reviewFrom£61

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• 9Telegraph expert rating

  On a rocky promontory looking down upon the curving Baie des Anges, Hôtel Suisse commands the bes...Read expert review

• 9Telegraph expert rating

  The scene-stealing location of this small, luxurious, Mediterranean-chic hotel must be the best i...Read expert review

• 9Telegraph expert rating

  This 18th-century townhouse in the heart of Nice Old Town oozes 21st-century style. Palais Saleya...Read expert review