Where to stay on the French Riviera: the best towns and hotels

Nice is the obvious base for a first visit. The Promenade des Anglais sweeps around the Baie des Anges, lined with Belle Époque façades and pebble beaches, and behind it Vieux Nice is a maze of ochre lanes, Baroque churches and the flower market on the Cours Saleya. It has the region's main airport, the best choice of hotels and trains along the coast in both directions.

Splurge at the Negresco, the pink-domed palace hotel on the Promenade, or at the Palais de la Méditerranée with its heated pool looking out to sea. For a more modest stay, the Nice Garden Hotel occupies a 19th-century townhouse with a garden of orange trees, 300 metres from the beach, and the family-friendly Victor Hugo is a four-minute walk from the Promenade.

A few kilometres inland, Saint-Paul-de-Vence crowns a hilltop behind its ramparts: a car-free village of cobbled lanes, fountains and galleries, where Chagall spent his final years. The Fondation Maeght's modern art collection is in the woods just outside, and neighbouring Vence has a charming old town and the chapel Matisse designed. Down by the sea, Cagnes-sur-Mer has a medieval hilltop quarter, a long pebble beach and Renoir's former home.

This is the place for a romantic escape. Le Domaine du Mas de Pierre is a luxury resort of Provençal bastides in Mediterranean gardens near the ramparts, and Les Vergers de Saint-Paul is a chic small hotel 900 metres from the village entrance. Above Vence, the Château Saint-Martin occupies a hilltop once chosen by the Knights Templar, with sweeping views. In Cagnes, the Château le Cagnard is a characterful hotel in the medieval village.

Antibes is one of the Riviera's most likeable towns: an old quarter of narrow lanes and a covered Provençal market inside sea walls, the Picasso Museum in a castle on the ramparts, and a harbour full of some of the biggest yachts in the Mediterranean. The wooded Cap d'Antibes beyond is a peninsula of grand villas and rocky coves. Next door, Juan-les-Pins has sandy beaches, nightlife and a famous summer jazz festival in its pine park.

The hotels here are among the most romantic on the coast. Belles Rives, an Art Deco classic right on the water at Juan-les-Pins, has its own private beach, and the Juana overlooks the pine park a few minutes from the sand. On the Cap d'Antibes, Villa Miraé is an elegant Relais & Châteaux hideaway where every room has a private terrace, and The 1932 Hotel & Spa has been renovated with Art Deco flair.

Cannes is the Riviera at its most polished. The Croisette, a palm-lined boulevard of grand hotels, designer boutiques and private beaches, curves around the bay to the Palais des Festivals, where the film festival rolls out its red carpet every May. Above the old port, the hilltop quarter of Le Suquet has cobbled lanes and views, and boats run out to the peaceful Lérins Islands.

Some of the most appealing stays are just outside the city. In the hills behind, the village of Mougins, where Picasso spent his last years, is famous for its restaurants, and Le Mas Candille is a luxury hideaway in four hectares of gardens with an infinity pool. The Royal Mougins Golf Resort has a spa beside its course. To the west, in Mandelieu, the Pullman Cannes Mandelieu Royal Casino looks over the bay, and Ilot du Golf is a chic small hotel close to the beach and two golf courses.

Saint-Tropez still looks like the fishing village it once was, with pastel houses around a little harbour, but now the boats are superyachts and the quayside cafés are for people-watching. Shoppers browse the boutiques, locals play pétanque on the Place des Lices, where the market is held, and the citadel looks down over it all. The famous beach clubs line the long sands of Pampelonne, a short drive south.

Hotels are small, stylish and expensive. The Hôtel de Paris is right in the village, with a suspended swimming pool and a Clarins spa; La Ponche is a five-star by the little beach of the same name; Le Yaca has a poolside restaurant and a free beach shuttle; and La Tartane offers cottage-style rooms in a two-hectare garden, a few minutes from the centre. In summer, traffic into town is notorious, so consider the boat from Sainte-Maxime across the gulf.

Saint-Raphaël and Fréjus have grown into one another around a broad bay halfway between Cannes and Saint-Tropez. Saint-Raphaël is a Belle Époque resort with a marina, a TGV station and the red rocks of the Esterel massif tumbling into the sea just east of town, while Fréjus has Roman ruins in its old centre and long sandy beaches by its port. Both are more relaxed and better value than the big names.

For a treat, Les Roches Rouges is a 1950s modernist beauty right on the water facing the Île d'Or, and Le Touring is a Gatsby-inspired boutique hotel of just ten rooms overlooking the port. For families, the Mercure Thalasso & Spa at Port Fréjus has direct access to a sandy beach and a heated seawater pool, and the Mercure Saint-Raphaël Centre Plage is on the beach in the town centre.

Squeezed between the mountains and the sea at the Italian border, Menton is the Riviera's gentlest resort. Its old town of ochre and pastel houses climbs steeply to a Baroque basilica, its gardens are full of exotic plants, and it is famous for its lemons, celebrated every February at the Lemon Festival. There's a museum devoted to Jean Cocteau, beaches on either side of the old port, and Monaco a few minutes along the coast.

Hotel Napoléon is a boutique hotel with sea views and rooms inspired by Cocteau's art, and the Royal Westminster occupies a 19th-century Riviera palace right on the beach. The Prince de Galles, a former barracks of the princes of Monaco, has welcomed guests since 1865, and the Best Western Méditerranée is 50 metres from the beach, with a panoramic rooftop terrace.