La Perouse or Le Meridien In Nice
 

I have to make a choice. I'm leaning towards La Perouse. Any thoughts?

There was a thread in the last week about choosing between the Negresco and La Perouse. The answer was overwhelmingly in favor of La Perouse. If people would choose La Perouse over the wonderful Negresco, then there is no doubt they should choose it over the rather bland and boring Le Meridien.

We've stayed at both and preferred the La Pérouse, which is much more charming. Le Meridien has pretty rooms with nice baths, but they're nothing special, especially given the high prices. La Pérouse is also right next to the Cours Saléya, which is very convenient.

As for the Negresco, the public rooms are beautiful, and I imagine the bedrooms are as well. However, it's a bit of a hike back to Vieux Nice.

We were at La Perouse in summer of 2002. I loved it. I loved the location, the smell of oranges and Jasmin, the view from the front of the hotel is very pretty and it is very close to Vieux Nice and the Chateau.

I think it is important to understand what your husband wants before you make your decision. We understand he is quite a nice fellow.

La Perouse... definitely. As for the Negresco, the rooms are beautiful, but I found the staff a bit stuffy. La Perouse is closer to Vieux Nice which is more interesting than the area around the Negresco.

La Perouse, breakfast under the lemon trees was wonderful as is the location but to be fair, I don't know Le Merieden.

La Perouse is perhaps one of the nicest places I've stayed at.

Get one of the rooms with the private terraces and panoramic views of the ocean (on the 5th floor). There is nothing quite like it. You're on the ocean, with a full private sun deck, and there is no traffic noise because of the interesting way the hotel is situated and built into the cliff.

Plus, you're right at Old Nice.

You don't want to get the 1st floor rooms. And the rooms with balconies are okay, but for a few Euros more per night you need to step up to a 5th floor room. If possible, get 501 or 504. 502 and 503 are excellent. The other rooms have the private balconies, but the rooms themselves don't have the same view -- looking out to a wall or cliff.

The 6th floor rooms are pretty neat -- though you have to walk up and across the rooftop sundeck to get to the rooms and they're set back.

Whatever room you're in, be sure to follow the path back to the top of the promontory from the rooftop sun deck for some terrific views of Nice and the Mediterranean.

Oh, and, yes, I've stayed at Le Meridien and it's basically got the charm and appeal of a big skyscraper (that doesn't scrape the sky).

-- BFH

Alas, the rooms with balcony and vue at La Pérouse are now starting at 285€, which (like Le Meridien) scrapes the sky for us. So we're settling for a standard double (221€ from Orbitz) on the theory that we can always go up to the terrace level and look at the view there.

We're still keeping our ocean-view room reservation at the Mercure Promenade des Anglais (135€/discount) just in case I change my mind about seeing the Med from our room.