My girlfriend are looking to go there on our final stop before moving to Florence. We'd be going from from August 30th to September 2nd. From what i've seen august is 'high' season and 'september' the rates drop a good bit, which could help us save a little bit of $$.
I need help finding some places to stay in Nice and Cannes - we don't need anything nice, but we want something comfortable, safe, and in a good location. We plan to relax on the beaches and be out and about almost all of the day.
Rick gives quite a few sleeping recommendations for Nice in his book. For Cannes, go to the viamichelin.com website, click the hotel tab, input the town name, fill out the rest of the boxes and hit search and it will come up with about 30 Michelin recommended accommodations.
A couple of years ago I stayed at the Windsor hotel in Nice and loved it. It's 2 blocks from the beach, has a lovely courtyard where they serve breakfast and dinner, fabulous food and great staff. My room has a tiny balcony over looking the courtyard and garden. Also the best pastry shop on the next corner.
We just came back from Nice and we stayed at the Hotel Lafayette. It was clean and comfortable and reasonably priced. It was about a 5 minute walk to the beach. We loved Nice as there was so much to do with such easy and cheap accessibilty to the small towns around there.
Hotel La Splendid - about two or three blocks from the water...Very Nice. I was there in September of 2007 and highly recommend it. Excellent restaurant nextdoor!!
We stayed at the Mecure in Nice directly across from the Promenade des Anglais (it was well located, it was cheap and it had parking for our car...). It next to the park and very close to old town Nice (where we ended up spending a lot of time). While in Nice, make sure to try socca (a Nicoise specialty)..it is a flat bread that you eat as a snack...it's much better than it sounds, and only available in Nice. We stayed in Cannes as well but found it to be sterile in comparison to Nice.
If you are not committed to Nice you might try Cassis...it's a smaller town on the FR, (near Marseilles) with a beautiful small harbor, good restaurants and nice beaches nearby. As to the rate drop in between Aug 30 and Sep 2...not likely...that's still prime time for most S. France.
I stayed at the Hotel Star, very good location, nice people working there, very helpful, rooms a bit small but very good price. you should try booking.com I found all my hotels there and comments are very accurate
