French Rivieria
 

We are spending 5 days in the French Riveria. 4 of us - two 35 year olds w/o kids and two 22 year olds. We are looking for a beach hotel in Cannes, Juan les Pins or Antibes. I've read thru the forum and it looks like our best bet is Juan les Pins for a sandy beach and nightlife, but is St. Tropez better for beach people? Also, looking for a hotel on the beach with a pool that is affordable ($175 - $200/nt). Flying out of Nice on day 5. Any suggestions?

Juan les Pins has sandy beaches, right in town, and lots of restaurants and bars. Golfe Juan, in between Juan les Pins and Cannes, has lots of beachclubs too.
St Tropez has the best beaches, but they are out of town, and depending on when you go, St Tropez can be very difficult to get to, and traffic in town and to the beaches can be very bad too.
Antibes' best beach is at Cap d'Antibes; the Plage de la Garoupe is a small crescent of sandy beach. There is a public beach in town as well; this gets very crowded in the summer.
Cannes has good hotels, but is very expensive.
I doubt that you will find a hotel on the beach with a pool for that budget. There is nearly always a road between the hotel and the beach, even a railway sometimes. In Juan, there are the Meridien and Belles Rives, right on the beach. In Cap d'Antibes there's a very nice looking hotel called Baie Doree. But I suspect that rooms will be more than your budget.

ttt for Kelly

If you have to choose, would you opt for a pool or the beach?

You can find lots of options in your price range in Cannes that aren't beach front, but you can easily enjoy the sandy beaches - at a price of course. But, our beach day in chaises with bar service was one of the best days of our trip (sadly only one day). Lots of nightlife in Cannes.