Hotel Beau Rivage Nice

We stayed at Hotel Beau Rivage in Nice from April 25th to April 27th 2008 on a weekend trip to this city on the Frence Riviera. The hotel is located along the beach between Promenade des Anglais and Quai des Etas-Unis and it is practically in the old town of Nice. Our taxi only took like 15 minutes to get to the hotel and it cost us about 25€.

The check in at the hotel was pretty smooth and we got room 204. Our first impression of the room was that it was not that big…but bigger than some of the cheap hotel rooms that we have had in other European cities. Big or small…the room was decorated in a smart way and it looked pretty slick.

The floor was covered in a brownish carpet and the walls were painted in a light purple color. The walls was in need of a bit of make over as there was a few scratches long the walls. We had a window to a street leading to the beach so we could actually see the ocean if we leaned out of the window. The main part of the room contained a king size bed (made up of two separate beds) and work desk with a chair. In the desk there was a mini bar with a standard selection of drinks…they even had Voss water from Norway at 6.5€ a bottle. The desk had lots of network points and I’m not sure that anyone needs 6-8 points :-) There was also a small keyboard and I assume this was to be used to get online on the flat screen TV hanging on the wall in front of the beds. The device the TV was hanging on was pretty huge so it calling it “flat screen TV” is stretching it. Due to this device there was not a lot of space between the bed and the TV. We never did get to test out the TV as it never worked. We did call the front desk to ask them to take a look at it and they said they would fix it but they never came to look at it.

By the entrance door there were 3 wardrobes with quite a lot of hangers and shelves and a small safe. The bathroom had light, tiled walls and a fancy “pebbles” tiled floor. The amenities included shampoo (that looked like it was half used), body wash, lotion, shower cap, cotton pads etc. One thing I can’t understand is why they hand out a bar of soap when there is no where to store it. The sink was one of those new, square ones and there was absolutely no where to keep the bar of soap. The bathtub could also be used as a shower and there was a glass wall to protect the water from splashing but as usual it was a bit too short so there was a bit of water splashing on the floor. It was also a bit tricky to find the right temperature as there was two separate knobs for the hot and cold water.

The bathroom and bedroom was separated but at the top of the wall there was a small window separating the two rooms. This looked pretty stylish but it is not a great option if one wants to sleep in bed and the other wants to turn on the light to take a shower.

The breakfast was served on the ground floor in a restaurant as stylish as the rooms. The breakfast included scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and beans. There was also a selection of cereal, yogurt, bread, pastries, fruit juice, fruits etc. All in all a pretty good selection. The coffee we got served at the table was dark and strong…just the way we like it in the morning.

The location of the hotel is very good as I have already mentioned. Right outside the door it was only a 5 minute walk to Place Massena and here it was possible to take the tram around town (to e.g. the train station). It was only a couple of hundred meters to Cours Saleya…the market in the old town and from here it was only a short walk to Castle Hill.

Conclusion
This was a company trip so I’m not sure what the rate for the room was but according to the hotel homepage a classic room is about 280€ per night. The hotel was not bad at all and you can’t beat the location. But the room was not very big, our TV didn’t work and they never came to fix it and the walls in the room could do with a new layer of paint. But all in all I wouldn’t mind staying there again and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending the hotel to others…as long as you get it for a better price than the rate listed on the hotel homepage (see http://www.nicebeaurivage.com/)