Back in December a big group of friends and I headed to Nice for a winter weekend! Our reason for choosing Nice was because we had a lunchtime restaurant reservation at the Best Restaurant in the World for 2019. A few people just flew in for the day, but a bunch of us stayed there for the whole weekend to make the most of some winter sunshine. It was my second time in Nice, and it turned out to be the perfect winter getaway and was absolutely dreamy in every way possible.
We landed late Friday evening after a few little hiccups with the French strikes and cancelled flights, and checked in to the Boscolo Exedra. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the hotel, it was very tired and desperately needed a refresh (especially considering the high price), but it was fine for what we needed it for and the location was great!
I woke up super early Saturday morning so headed out for a morning walk before meeting the others in the hotel lobby to get the taxi to the restaurant. It felt so incredible to just be by the ocean again and I relished just breathing in the fresh sea air.
The last time I was in Nice I didn’t see much of it because Caitlin and I were roadtripping along the French Riviera. I made a massive error and thought we had two nights in Nice at the end of our trip, so we had two nights booked in a hotel…then half way through the trip we realised our flights were 24 hours earlier than I thought…so we actually only had one evening in Nice before an early morning flight. Oops! Anyway, so this time around I finally got to see the city, and was actually really impressed – it exceeded all my expectations!
The streets are so cute, it’s the perfect size to walk around, and I just adored the colourful buildings and pretty architecture. Naturally I got a croissant for breakfast from a tiny little bakery on a backstreet. It was full of locals so I guessed that that was a good indicator of it’s legitimacy! It was a pretty good croissant to be fair.
I slowly walked back to the hotel and then twelve of us bundled into two maxi-taxi’s and had a mini-roadtrip to Mirazur via Monte-Carlo! We stopped off en-route at this beautiful view point…
And then we continued on to Monaco where we drank hot chocolate at Cafe de Paris, wandered around the town for an hour, and went to see the Christmas lobbies at Hotel Metropole and Hotel de Paris!
Mirazur was naturally incredible, but you can see the photos and read all about our Mirazur experience here! After lunch our taxi’s drove us back to Nice where we all enjoyed drinks and live jazz at Le Negresco, and then a night out at Boston Bar which was loads of fun!
We all had a very lazy morning the next morning in the spa, and then we went for lunch at Le Meridien’s rooftop restaurant, La Terrasse – the view was absolutely stunning!
We had an afternoon flight home, so headed to the airport after lunch and landed in London just in time for dinner. Our weekend was pure bliss and if you haven’t been to Nice before, I’d recommend it so much for a weekend away! It just has absolutely everything you need for a city break; sunshine, beautiful views, great food, and the prettiest architecture. If you’re searching for a winter holiday to Nice, The Voyageurs Collection can create tailor-made holidays to Nice where every detail is curated to you and your needs!
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
