Recommend a decent hotel in Antibes?

Yes, we will pick up the book today as my husband spotted it yesterday at a local bookstore. Rick's books never disappoint but I was hoping for a leg up on hotel recommendations. We are flying to Paris and plan on spending a couple of days there before heading south. We are thinking Antibe could be good
for a few days to visit the Cinque Terre, etc. then we will most likely move north. Have car, kids with the folks and have freedom type of thing.

Regards, Emily

Emily: Regarding your idea to drive from Antibes to the Cinque Terre in June as a day trip, two challenges you will face are: 1) It's a minimum of 4 hours of road time only, each way, and that doesn't include the pit stops along the way you'll have to make for the kids and everyone to stretch--so that's approx 5 hours each way x 2 = 10 hours of driving time. Add to the 10 hours another hour or two to try to find parking in the CT and walk from the remote parking lot to the CT towns. Thus a total of 11 to 12 hours of travel time to do a day trip from Antibes to the CT.2) Parking: Very limited day parking in the CT in the summer--this has been recently discussed here. I haven't stayed in Antibes. Even if I had, some of us here are reluctant to make hotel recommendations because we're not professional hotel reviewers, we may have stayed once at the same hotel you're considering, hotels change over time and our experience in the same hotel may be different than yours. That's why some of us believe you're not well served getting possibly one or two recommendations here, where you could get thorough professional reviews of a large number of possibilities from organizations that focus on providing on-going reviews of a umber of hotels, such as Rick's book, Rick's organization, Michelin, Tripadvisors.com, etc.Please get back to us if you want further advice on alternatives to 12 hours of travel time and no parking.To determine travel times for road trips in Europe, click here

Ten years ago, I spent a week in Antibes. From looking at photos on tripadvisor, I am almost positive that I stayed at Le Relais du Postillon. Since it has been so long, I really can't comment on the quality of the hotel. Back then it was really basic and inexpensive. A lot can change in 10 years. You might check tripadvisor.com for the reviews. These days, I use tripadvisor almost exclusively to choose hotels.

However, I did want to mention that I really enjoyed staying in the old section of Antibes. This part of town has a lot of character. There is a very nice pedestrian street through the old town. However, with a car this may not be the best choice. If you stay in this area, you do need to be prepared to park in another area and carry your luggage a bit. I used Antibes as a base to take day trips to Cannes and Nice; I used public transportation (train and bus) to get around. Antibes would probably be a bit too far for a day trip to Cinque Terre.

If you have a car try Etap Hotels. they have 2 locations. I stay here as they fit my budget and are good locations. however you need a car. www.etaphotels.com