Travel Nice is undergoing a renaissance and at the heart of it is a painstakingly restored 400-year-old convent. It’s the place to be, says Katharine Sohn All eyes are on this corner of Le Sud, and it helps that one of the splashiest hotel openings of the year — one that focuses on history, design and, of course, exquisite hospitality — is right there in the centre. Hotel du Couvent is certainly the most extensive and painstakingly pretty hotel launch of 2024, given that the cool kids at the Perseus Group — formerly of Les Roches Rouge in Saint-Raphaël and Le Pigalle in Paris — took 10 years to restore the abandoned 400-year-old convent, surrounded by orange trees and terraced gardens, into a smart 88-room city stay.
But this is a chance for high-flyers and seasoned travellers to stop and stay put in Nice, in a wildly beautiful property, rather than scuttle along the rest of the Riviera. It helps that there’s so much magic on site you won’t want to leave. In the Old Town of this coastal city — sandwiched between the ancient ruins on Castle Hill and towering yolk-yellow homes of the Savoy kingdom — and about a 20-minute taxi ride from the airport (a destination that’s an easy hop-on, hop-off hour and a half-long flight from London).
Because of the narrow streets and people-filled alleys, there is no car access, so it does require a quick shuttle on a sophisticated bump-protected golf cart to get you and your bags to the hotel entrance. Or it’s a five-mi.