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APRIL 2020 businesstraveller.com

TRIED AND TESTED HOTELS

Hotel du

Cap-Eden-Roc,

French Riviera

BESTFOR

Intuitive,spot-onservice,old-schoolglamour

andstupendousviews

DON’T MISS 

People-watching by the pool and sipping Provençal

rosé as the sun sets at the Eden-Roc Grill

PRICE 

Internet rates for a flexible overnight stay in May

started from €850 for a Tradition room

CONTACT

Boulevard John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Cap d’Antibes;

tel +33 493 613 901; oetkercollection.com

If you have the means then

this is a place where you

cometoliveyourbestlife

BACKGROUND Immortalised in F Scott

Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night and

frequented by stars and statesmen, the

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc has long been

one of the most luxurious addresses on the

Cote d’Azur. It opened as a hotel in 1889,

although its grand main building turns

150 this year. The 2020 season, due to

begin this month, has been delayed. It is a

member of the Oetker Collection.

WHERE IS IT? On the southern tip of

the Cap d’Antibes, half an hour’s drive from

Nice airport and 20 minutes from Cannes.

WHAT’S IT LIKE? Corny as it may

sound, you do feel like a film star from the

moment you pull off Boulevard J F Kennedy

into the driveway. That feeling is amplified

when you descend its grand staircase

dressed for dinner, or lounge around its

legendary pool, blasted out of basalt rock

in 1914. If you have the means then this is a

place where you come to live your best life.

It’s about understated luxury rather than

screaming opulence, though. Helped from

my car by a typically charming member of

staff, I was welcomed warmly into the lobby

lounge of the main château, an airy space

in shades of cream and pale blue that

keep the focus on the sea views beyond.

A door at the far end leads down to the

179-metre Grande Allée – the property’s

“boulevard to the sea”, flanked by fragrant

pine and palm trees. At the seafront is

the Eden-Roc Pavilion, home to more

guestrooms and most of the food and drink

venues, and the pool. Walk left from here,

through more of the hotel’s nine hectares

of pine forest and gardens, and scattered

along the seafront are 33 private cabanas.

ROOMS There are 118 rooms and suites

across the main house, the Pavilion and

the Les Deux Fontaines building. Room

categories range from 25 sqm Tradition

to 40 sqm, sea-facing Deluxe, and suite

categories from 45 sqm Junior, some with

terraces, to the 100 sqm Eden-Roc suite,

offering fantastic views from its large

MEETINGS Most venues are in the

Pavilion and there’s a pontoon for access

from the water. The Iles de Lérins ballroom

divides in three and holds 200 guests for

a banquet or 220 for cocktails, while its

expansive terrace accommodates 150 for

dinner or 200 for drinks. The Eden-Roc

Restaurant and terrace can take 200 diners,

while the Grill hosts 50 to 100 diners or

cocktails for 200. The champagne lounge

holds 100 for drinks. Cocktail parties are

possible on the Grande Allée, and small

gatherings in the cabanas. The hotel can

be booked for exclusive hire, and as part

of this, drinks for up to 450 guests can be

held around the 700 sqm pool deck.

LEISURE Cut into the cliff, the heated

seawater infinity pool has direct access to

the sea. There’s also a La Prairie spa, a gym

and five clay tennis courts.

VERDICT A sensational property both for

a decadent retreat or a memorable event.

You won’t want to leave. Michelle Harbi

terrace. Restful and elegant, interiors hark

back to a bygone age, with floral prints and

pastel colours. My first-floor room, located

in the main building and overlooking the

Grande Allée and sea, was in tangerine and

cream and had a summery, classic feel.

Bathrooms have tubs, walk-in showers and

Bamford toiletries.

FOOD AND DRINK Aside from the main

building’s Bar Bellini, the restaurants and

bars are in the Pavilion. There’s the Eden-

Roc Restaurant for lunch, which, new for

2020, will transform into Louroc restaurant

for dinner, and the Eden-Roc Grill. Boasting

glorious terraces at the sea’s edge, they are

being redesigned for this season, with “a new

dimension [being added] to the gastronomic

experience”. For drinks, there’s also a bar

adjoining the Eden-Roc Restaurant and a

rooftop champagne lounge.