Nice,France - last minute hotel help
 

I just booked the flight from
Montreal to Nice for my wife, daughter and I. Arriving on August 15.

Not the best timing, I know, but with school and work constraints there was no way around it.

I'd appreciate any hotel recommendations for 3 nights... convenient to the
train and in the 200 euro a
night range.

Thanks!

Rob

Try the lastminute.com web site.

Good luck finding ahotel in Nice this time of the year. Check venere.com.

I recommend the Hotel Regence.

We really liked the Hotel le Grimaldi in May 2006:

"Our Hotel le Grimaldi (http://www.le-grimaldi.com/) was a short cab ride from the train station. It was 10EUR for myself, my daughter, my gargantuan bag, and her two small ones. We were greeted graciously at the hotel, which immediately struck us as a good find.

The hotel is actually two Belle Epoque buildings back-to-back. One side is much prettier to enter, as it faces a nice church. The other side is fine, too, but a bit boring. I think the side on rue Grimaldi is the plain one, and the other side on rue Maccarani is prettier.

The man at the front desk carried my bag to the room, and showed us around. There’s a business center on the ground floor, with free internet use on their two computers, and a free printer to use. (Also wireless in the lobby, I think for a fee.)

Our room was a ‘classic’, twin-bedded room, which was large enough, had a little balcony, a sparkling tile bath with fluffy bright yellow towels, and nice toiletries. It was 150EUR, plus tax and 10EUR per person if we opted for the hot/cold breakfast buffet. They suggested we check out the buffet (served till 10:30a.m.), and if we were interested the next morning, we could sign on for it. Their deal is that you have to buy it everyday to get the 10EUR rate. Otherwise, per day, it’s 15EUR.

So the next morning, we were happy to find hot eggs, proscuitto, yoghurts, cereals, cappuccino, assorted croissants, juices, etc. We thought it a good deal and quite convenient, so we enjoyed it each morning."

Thanks for the link PeaceOut..
sounded good... the site looked good but fully booked.

I never thought this would be easy! ;^)

Rob

Rob, would you consider renting an apartment for the 3 days? You can look for availability at nicepebbles.com or rivierapebbles.com. It may be possible and you may find more availability by staying just outside of Nice. Search this forum as there are good recommendations for staying outside of Nice. Although, it it August when most of Europe is on vacation and I understand your situation.

Good luck to you.

jdc

When I was on a RS tour, we stayed just outside Nice in Villefranche-sur-mer, just a short bus ride or train ride. Much quieter with great beach and restaurants.
We stayed at the Hotel de la Darse which is near the marina - they have double, triple and even quadruple rooms available. You might be more likely to get accommodation there.

New York Habitat dot com has some listings for Nice,

also try Cybevasion.com for good photos of what's available

And TripAdvisor.com I think automatically tells you what's available, gives you maps, and review.

Hope it helps

M

Just thought of something else, too bad you already booked hotel, but if you go
to "Go-Today dot com" they have flights and hotel with different selection, usually a bit above the price of air fare...but they will also book the hotel without the airfare. You might click and look at the hotels online and then give them a call.

sorry, I meant too bad you already booked airfare...

they will still book hotel without airfare

that's what happens when one is in a hurry -

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I ended up using
booking.com and got a triple at the Massena for 3 nights
for just over 700 euros. Far from cheap but rooms are hard to get on short notice in August in Nice.

On the other hand, although we were delighted with our apartment on Ile St Louis last year we ended up snagging a room at the Hilton
Paris (I can't bring myself
to word it the other way round!) by the Eiffel Tower
through Priceline for just
$141 US a night.

The SNCF site provided us with 3 first class Prem's for
135 euros... about half what
was quoted by Rail Europe.
But the SNCF site is an excellent example of how not
to do a web page!

3 days till takeoff!

Rob

Sorry, but you got porked by booking.com and the Massena. There must have been an apartment/place nearby for less....!

One more case in point for early planning....

You probably know this, but August 15 is a holiday. Some things will be open, as Nice is a large city, but regular shops are probably closed that day.

Thanks Viajero... I have neither the inclination nor
the luxury of being able to
plan a trip well in advance
and can live with a higher
price knowing we'll have somewhere to stay when we get there.

But not booking far in advance does have its plus side as well... I would bet I couldn't have got the rate I did at the Hilton in Paris by booking 6 months ahead. So it all evens out.

Our low airfare would also not have been so low several
months back.

Rob

Thanks for the reminder on
Assumption Day Tulips!

I'm not too worried about it this time but 22 years ago, long before ATMs, we were caught almost cashless in the
hills of Ardeche with no banks open and a fuel guage nearly on empty!

Rob

Did you try the Hotel Windsor? Some fodorites recommend it.