Raffles
Mar 29, 05, 2:27 am
We spent 3 nights in an Executive Room (a junior suite in all but name) over Easter.
If you have been to Nice at any point in the last 15 years, you will remember a gutted shell of a building on the Promenade des Anglais which looked a bit like a theatre. This shell (which had always been a hotel, despite the theatrical architecture) has now been fully restored by the Taittinger family as a luxury five star hotel.
I have stayed at many places in Nice over the years, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that this is the poshest. Massive amounts of money have been sunk into this project.
Apart from a small lobby on ground level, the bulk of the hotel is on the third floor. Here there is a very pleasant bar, a restaurant with Michelin-star pretensions, a large function room used for breakfast and a large terrace area with sun loungers. There is also a novel 'half inside, half outside' heated pool. There is also a sauna / hamman and a small fitness room.
Rooms - the seaview rooms (70 out of 188) are certainly the ones to book. The six sea-view Executive Rooms are directly in the middle of the building (one per floor) and have the broadest views. The Executive Rooms are also about 50% wider than the standard rooms and so have a far larger balcony - only the Exec Rooms have a sun lounger as well as a table and chairs.
The room itself was very well decorated, with a totally separate toilet. The bathroom had a separate shower cubicle and bath, with a heated towel rail. Toiletries were average - no toothbrush, no razor and we had to request conditioner.
The in-room facilities are excellent. A very calming pale blue and cream colour scheme. Frette (I think) linens. A Krups capsule-based coffee maker. A flat LCD TV. A CD player with a jazz compilation. Lighting was as bad as all European hotels (there were no ceiling lights at all!) but there were two powerful bedside spotlights so you could still read.
The sea-facing wall was all glass, comprising two sets of doors opening onto the balcony. There was no traffic noise despite the Promenade des Anglais passing outside.
We never ate in the main restaurant - very expensive, with even the set menu being Euro 75. There is Mattisse-themed brasserie in the casino part of the hotel which was very good and well priced, but oddly you have to walk out of the front door of the hotel to get to it - there is no internal link.
The biggest problem was breakfast. They serve the buffet breakfast in the main function room. The chairs are function chairs (ie the sort you sit in at a conference). Service is useless - on all three days we never got any drinks until we accosted a member of staff. There is no facility to order any cooked items not on the buffet. To be honest, you are 100% better off having a room service breakfast on your balcony - we would have done this if our rate had not included a free buffet breakfast. The food from the buffet is good quality, however - its just service that grates.
Pricing - we paid Euro 384 for an Executive Room with breakfast through the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts plan. Booking directly it would have been Euro 450. On a strict value-for-money basis, you are better off booking a standard sea view room since they are 2/3rd the size and only 40%-50% of the cost!
For quality of room and general service (apart from breakfast), this hotel is easily the best we have ever stayed at in Nice.
HOWEVER .... if your aim in Nice is to sit by a pool and sunbathe, my recommendation remains La Perouse. This is a boutique hotel (60 rooms) with a big pool and LOTS of sun loungers. The ratio of pool and sun loungers to number of guests is far, far worse at all of the big hotels, including the Palais. The rooms are a lot worse, though.
If you have been to Nice at any point in the last 15 years, you will remember a gutted shell of a building on the Promenade des Anglais which looked a bit like a theatre. This shell (which had always been a hotel, despite the theatrical architecture) has now been fully restored by the Taittinger family as a luxury five star hotel.
I have stayed at many places in Nice over the years, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that this is the poshest. Massive amounts of money have been sunk into this project.
Apart from a small lobby on ground level, the bulk of the hotel is on the third floor. Here there is a very pleasant bar, a restaurant with Michelin-star pretensions, a large function room used for breakfast and a large terrace area with sun loungers. There is also a novel 'half inside, half outside' heated pool. There is also a sauna / hamman and a small fitness room.
Rooms - the seaview rooms (70 out of 188) are certainly the ones to book. The six sea-view Executive Rooms are directly in the middle of the building (one per floor) and have the broadest views. The Executive Rooms are also about 50% wider than the standard rooms and so have a far larger balcony - only the Exec Rooms have a sun lounger as well as a table and chairs.
The room itself was very well decorated, with a totally separate toilet. The bathroom had a separate shower cubicle and bath, with a heated towel rail. Toiletries were average - no toothbrush, no razor and we had to request conditioner.
The in-room facilities are excellent. A very calming pale blue and cream colour scheme. Frette (I think) linens. A Krups capsule-based coffee maker. A flat LCD TV. A CD player with a jazz compilation. Lighting was as bad as all European hotels (there were no ceiling lights at all!) but there were two powerful bedside spotlights so you could still read.
The sea-facing wall was all glass, comprising two sets of doors opening onto the balcony. There was no traffic noise despite the Promenade des Anglais passing outside.
We never ate in the main restaurant - very expensive, with even the set menu being Euro 75. There is Mattisse-themed brasserie in the casino part of the hotel which was very good and well priced, but oddly you have to walk out of the front door of the hotel to get to it - there is no internal link.
The biggest problem was breakfast. They serve the buffet breakfast in the main function room. The chairs are function chairs (ie the sort you sit in at a conference). Service is useless - on all three days we never got any drinks until we accosted a member of staff. There is no facility to order any cooked items not on the buffet. To be honest, you are 100% better off having a room service breakfast on your balcony - we would have done this if our rate had not included a free buffet breakfast. The food from the buffet is good quality, however - its just service that grates.
Pricing - we paid Euro 384 for an Executive Room with breakfast through the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts plan. Booking directly it would have been Euro 450. On a strict value-for-money basis, you are better off booking a standard sea view room since they are 2/3rd the size and only 40%-50% of the cost!
For quality of room and general service (apart from breakfast), this hotel is easily the best we have ever stayed at in Nice.
HOWEVER .... if your aim in Nice is to sit by a pool and sunbathe, my recommendation remains La Perouse. This is a boutique hotel (60 rooms) with a big pool and LOTS of sun loungers. The ratio of pool and sun loungers to number of guests is far, far worse at all of the big hotels, including the Palais. The rooms are a lot worse, though.