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A Closer Look at Nice, Beyond the Promenade and Riviera Beach Clubs

Once the summer crowds thin, Nice invites a longer stay, with grand hotels, lively markets, Niçois restaurants and cultural treasures tucked into the hills above the Mediterranean.

Come September, Nice’s beach clubs pack away summer one striped mattress at a time. As the loungers leave the pebbles, the city returns to the season that first made it fashionable. British and Russian visitors seeking gentler air shaped the 19th-century resort that UNESCO calls the “Winter Resort Town of the Riviera.” British residents funded the coastal path that became the Promenade des Anglais, while villas and garden hotels spread inland toward the Russian Orthodox cathedral, its onion domes rising above the palms.

For many Americans, however, Nice has long been simply where the plane landed before the car continued on to Cannes or Monaco, a habit that, over the last few years, has looked increasingly dated. In 2025, the United States remained the largest foreign market for hotels and tourist residences in the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolitan area. Airlines have noticed: La Compagnie will continue its all-business Newark service through winter 2026-27, while American Airlines will add daily JFK service in summer 2027, creating a fourth direct connection between Nice and New York.

The appeal of staying longer becomes clearer a few streets back from the waterfront. In Vieux Nice (Old Nice), small workshops and wine caves occupy the ground floors, and lunch can be as simple as socca (a crispy chickpea pancake) eaten at a market counter. These are useful neighbors when you’re staying in a grand hotel, adding a welcome dose of informality to a few days on the Riviera. Around the port, newer restaurants and bars offer reasons to return to the same streets after dark. Cimiez warrants a separate afternoon uphill, where Roman ruins and Belle Époque villas tell a longer story than the beachfront alone suggests. With autumn taking the heat out of those climbs, there’s less reason to hurry between a museum and a dinner reservation. Where you unpack your luggage will shape how you get to know the city, whether your mornings begin facing the Mediterranean or stepping out into the Old Town, which is exactly where this guide begins.

An Insider's Guide to Nice

Hôtel Palais de la Méditerranée

Cours Saleya Monday Brocante

Read two millennia of Nice on Cimiez Hill 

Walk the roof gardens at Villa Arson

See L'Automne de l'Image at Le 109

Take the train to Eileen Gray's E-1027

1 rue Honoré Ugo, 06300 Nice, France

The lanes of Vieux Nice grow steeper and calmer before Hôtel du Couvent appears behind its old walls. Reopened in 2024 after nearly a decade of work, the 17th-century convent now holds 88 rooms and suites, with lime-plastered walls and terracotta floors warmed by oak furniture. Louis-Antoine Grégo preserved the architecture, and Festen made it comfortable to inhabit. Bread made from heritage grain starts the morning before the terraced gardens draw you down to a 66-foot lap pool. Later, step into the waters of the Roman-inspired baths, in a sequence that nods to ancient Cimiez. Once a month, local producers turn the grounds into a neighborhood market.

Hôtel Palais de la Méditerranée

13 Promenade des Anglais, 06000 Nice, France

After dark, the restored 1929 facade gives the Promenade a little of its old theater back. The Palais de la Méditerranée returned in June 2026 under Hyatt’s Unbound Collection with 145 rooms and 28 suites (173 accommodations in all). Linda Boronkay kept Charles and Marcel Dalmas’ surviving Art Deco shell in view, placing Olivia Cognet ceramics near Marion Flamand stained glass as Louis Cane paintings loosen the formality. Ask for a sea view, then swim in the indoor-outdoor pool once the beach clubs begin packing up. Downstairs, Zouzou takes its name from Josephine Baker’s 1934 film, a fitting reference for a hotel rediscovering its glamour.

37 Promenade des Anglais, 06000 Nice, France

Le Negresco is the Promenade’s grand eccentric, ideal for anyone who finds immaculate beige unimpressive. Across 102 rooms and 28 suites, Louis XIII furniture and contemporary art mingle with Jeanne Augier’s collection of roughly 6,000 works. Jean-Philippe Nuel made his boldest move upstairs, turning Augier’s former apartment into the 4,305-square-foot Jeanne & Paul Penthouse, with a terrace above the bay. Leave time to wander before dinner, because the restored 1913 façade is only the beginning of the tour. Even the indoor pool has a sense of humor, complete with an underwater sound system.

11 Quai Rauba Capeu, 06300 Nice, France

Where the Promenade bends toward the port, Hôtel La Pérouse slips into Castle Hill. The 53 rooms and suites climb the cliff through rock-cut corridors, and the best open onto private terraces above........

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