Where to Go on the French Riviera Any Time of the Year

Aerial view of small bay with many small boats; red-roofed buildings surround shore — With a long shoulder season thanks to a mild Mediterranean climate, you can go sailing around Nice for much of the year.

The Mediterranean shimmers in endless shades of blue. In the distance, the snow-dusted Alps rise above pastel villages perfumed with jasmine. It’s no wonder the French Riviera can’t help but cast a spell. And as if this scene couldn’t get any more seductive, there are grand hotels and beach bars buzzing with the beau monde.

Immortalized on page and screen, this stretch of coastline has been drawing visitors since the 19th century, when the Russian and British aristocracy discovered the near-constant sunshine of southern France in the winter. Over time, the Côte d’Azur was the place to be, James Bond gambled at the Monte-Carlo Casino, and movie stars were born at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Nice Côte d’Azur Airport is the country’s second busiest, and the hotels are the toast of France. Yet the French Riviera doesn’t rest on its laurels. New attractions and a jam-packed cultural calendar keep visitors coming back for more. And with its mild Mediterranean climate, the French Riviera welcomes visitors year-round. Here’s what you’ll want to have on your radar.

The rise of Nice, now UNESCO-listed

This metropolis of nearly 1 million—first named by Greek seafarers for Nike, the goddess of victory—has long served as the gateway to the French Riviera. The charming Vieux Nice, its colorful Italianate facades surrounding the Cours Saleya flower market, was recognized by UNESCO in 2021 as a winter resort town of the French Riviera. Abutting the waterfront, the world-famous Promenade des Anglais was the site of the 2024 Tour de France finale.

In the past seven-odd years, a number of high-profile investments have sought to place Nice on equal footing with other luxe Riviera destinations like Cannes and Monaco. City improvements, like the extension of the “coulée verte,” or greenway, opened in October 2025, have been part of Mayor Christian Estrosi’s ambitious plans. Nice was designated the host of the 15-day U.N. Ocean Conference in June 2025, and a new conference center opened on the picturesque port, a destination as much for strolling as for boat excursions.

Rows of empty orange and white beach lounge chairs and folded sun umbrellas on sand (L); five-story white building with blue shutters and balconies (R) — Juan-les-Pins is well connected to the rest of the French Riviera and is walking distance to its neighbor, Antibes.

Where to stay in the French Riviera

Juan-les-Pins

The 43-room Hotel Belles Rives in Juan-les-Pins, one town east of Antibes, is an art deco mansion that was once home to Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The hotel has retained a number of original details, including its 1920s elevator. Slip right into the Mediterranean from Belles Rives’s private beach or from rows of chaise lounge chairs on a long dock.

Cannes

The March 2023 reopening of the Carlton after a colossal restoration was an event. The city’s oldest luxury hotel, this century-old Belle Epoque legend is where celebrities hold court during the Cannes Film Festival. Enlisting the country’s finest artisans like interior designer Tristan Auer for the long overdue makeover, the Carlton pulled out all the stops with a new fitness club, garden infinity pool, and restaurant concepts such as the Riviera and Rüya.

The first hotel in France for Mondrian, the trendy and art-focused lifestyle brand from California, also opened in 2023. Prior to an extensive renovation, the building was home to the Grand Hotel. The now 75-room Mondrian Cannes is set back from La Croisette behind a sprawling garden terrace, ideal for champagne-infused soirées under the stars. There’s no other building as high in Cannes—insiders call it “the smallest but the tallest"—and from the 11th-floor suites, the Mediterranean unfurls in a panorama. Some suites, like No. 114, include a terrace Jacuzzi for soaking up views, with property-wide amenities like a private beach club and a gym with yoga classes coming soon.

For a post-party detox, check out the destination spa Villa Belle Plage. Housed in a historic seafront villa in the old Suquet district, the spa is part of the adjacent Hotel Belle Plage and owned by the same group that operates Hotel Bachaumont and Hotel National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. It’s a sprawling space, nearly 11,000 square feet, with comprehensive wellness programs tailored by beauty, health, and fitness experts.

Small white boats docked in harbor lined with five-story buildings — If you cruise the French Riviera, you’ll likely dock in Nice.

Nice

Behind the golden-colored facade, grand dame Anantara Plaza Nice Hotel offers 151 rooms, including an array of balconied suites on the fifth floor. In-room perks include Green Coffee espresso machines with biodegradable capsules and a welcome pastry fashioned as a Niçois beach pebble. Locals flock to the rooftop restaurant, Seen by Olivier, which overlooks the Albert 1er gardens and the Mediterranean beyond.

A decade in the making, a centuries-old convent—abandoned for years—was given a new lease on life in 2024 as Hôtel du Couvent in the heights of Old Nice. Even many Niçois were not aware of the enormous garden that abuts the hilltop citadel. Summit the Old Town’s cobbled staircases (or ask the hotel to pick you up in a golf cart) and you’ll arrive at a discreet entrance that gives way to a courtyard planted with orange trees and terraced gardens. The 88 guest rooms, spread across four buildings, are styled in earth tones. Standouts include the two-bedroom Marguerite Suite—its garden even comes with a barbecue grill—and room P25 (in the Pertus building) with a balcony overlooking the garden.

Antibes

MGallery’s 1932 Hotel and Spa Cap d’Antibes made a splash when it opened in summer 2022 with a glorious rooftop and a Roaring Twenties vibe. The building itself dates to 1932 (hence the name) and the design by Laurent Maugoust is a contemporary celebration of art deco.

The 35-room Cap d’Antibes Beach Hotel, which closes each winter, will reopen on April 2, 2026. The hotel has direct sea access, a rarity in the Riviera. An institution since the 1940s, Les Pêcheurs restaurant has held a Michelin star since 2009. Outside on the terrace, the Baba restaurant serves sunny Levantine cuisine by Israeli chef Assaf Granit of Shabour in Paris. The spa is a collaboration with Paris-based Le Tigre, offering yoga, Pilates classes, and Holidermie treatments.

The Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, the iconic palace hotel on Billionaire’s Bay that’s a magnet for stars, has a Dior Spa. Indulge in signature treatments called Dioriginels Rituals in outdoor cabanas surrounded by Mediterranean gardens. For example, the Enfleurage Corporel Ritual is a massage incorporating shea butter infused with ingredients from the hotel garden.

Stained glass window designed by Matisse in chapel with wooden chairs in foreground (L); distant view of three-story terra-cotta villa, with palm tree in foreground (R) — A Matisse-designed chapel in Vence, 30 minutes northwest of Nice; the Matisse Museum in Nice is housed in a villa dating, in part, to 1695.

Museums and cultural events in the French Riviera

Before the paparazzi-hounded celebrities, the Côte d’Azur attracted avant-garde artists. The climate and luminosity were a lure; Henri Matisse wrote of his happiness in Nice, and Pablo Picasso spent the last decades of his life here. Today, you can find the rich artistic legacy in splendid art museums and even on the walls of ho La Colombe d’Or, a hotel in Saint-Paul de Vence, where artists left work as payment. The nearby Maeght Foundation, a modern art museum that’s a place of pilgrimage just above Saint-Paul de Vence, unveiled new galleries in summer 2024 to celebrate the venue’s 60th anniversary. And in neighboring Vence (10 minutes’ drive or 30 minutes on the bus) is the beautiful and peaceful Matisse Chapel, with stained glass designed by the artist.

In Antibes, the Picasso Museum is housed in the medieval Château Grimaldi, where the great artist worked in a studio after World War II; it has an expansive view over the coastline. You’ll find another Picasso Museum in nearby Vallauris. Known for ceramics, this village halfway between Antibes and Cannes is where Picasso first decided to dabble in clay.

For its small size, Nice has several excellent museums. These include the Marc Chagall National Museum, which was inaugurated by the painter himself in 1973 after his donation of 17 works depicting the Biblical Message. The Matisse Museum is housed in a handsome villa, parts of which date back to 1695. You’ll find many of his best-known works here, as well as temporary exhibitions such as one of paintings by Yves Klein, himself Niçois.

From the Jazz à Juan festival to the Nice Carnival, the festivals of the Côte d’Azur are almost as legendary as its beaches. The Garden Festival takes place every two years across several towns from late March to May 1 (a public holiday in France). The region’s horticultural tradition and floral history—Grasse is known as the world capital of perfumes—draws travelers to its green spaces. Leading landscape designers compete with ephemeral creations set up in 10 different locations, often sublime. In Cannes, for example, the neoclassical Villa Rothschild is a vestige of the Belle Epoque.

This article was originally published in 2023 and most recently updated on November 25, 2025, with current information. Sophie Friedman contributed to the reporting of this story.

Mary Winston Nicklin

Mary Winston Nicklin is a writer/editor based in Paris and Virginia. Her writing also appears in National Geographic, the Washington Post, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. A Lonely Planet author, she’s also the editor of Bonjour Paris, which is one of the oldest English language websites about the City of Light (online since 1995).