Villefranche or Antibes?
 

Boy, life is tough when you have to decide between staying in either of these cities! I've heard great things about both towns.. can anyone shed any light on which might be better? We are considering staying at Hotel Welcome in Villefranche.. since that seems to be the best hotel in town. As for Antibes?? Does anyone have any suggestions?

I stayed at the Hotel Royal(e) in Antibes and liked it very much. It overlooks the harbor, is clean, nothing luxurious but quite pleasant. I've never been to Villefranche, but Antibes is great.

Villeffanche was wonderful! We were there in September, 2005, and spent 3 nights at Hotel Welcome. The hotel itself was a perfect location, right on the harbor, and you could walk up and down the waterfront to the restaurants and beach. The staff was very friendly and professional, and the room was perfect. We had a sea view with balcony, and waking up in the morning and looking out into the harbor was breathtaking! I would definitely recommend Villefranche and the Hotel Welcome.

Access to Villefranche is easier than to Antibes, where the traffic into and out of town can be murder.

Both has its own charm. I visited both last November based in Nice. I prefer much smaller port town of Villefranche-sur-mer, itself charming + it makes a nice walk to Cap Ferrat/Beaulieu-S.-M. or bus service is convenient and very cheap (€1.30 on bus No.100 between Nice and Menton for any distance). Antibe seemed almost a city (it actually may be). I liked Piccaso museum and the provençal market.

You might be interested to see the photos I took last November.

Villefranche-Sur-Mer
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Antibe
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Cap-Frerrat (La Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild) & Beaulieu-Sur-Mer
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Eze-Villages
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Sounds like you need to decide if you want to be in a city (Antibes) or a smaller town. I haven't been to Villefranche, but I loved Antibes -- lots of variety (beach, harbor, museums, restaurants, market, history). We stayed in a wonderful old mansion with lovely gardens in a residential section of town. If the Picasso Museum factors into your decision, you might want to see if it's open this year -- I think I read that it's under renovation.

Last November the renovation was already going on. I did not notice where but due to somewhat limited expositon, the entrance price was reduced, €5 or less.

lhopp-- Thanks for your input on Hotel Welcome. Since the hotel is right on the water, I've heard that it might be a little noisy. Is that true or did that bother you? Were there enough restaurants in town to choose from.. or did you eat elsewhere?

kappa-- Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful pictures! That was incredibly helpful to see those towns up close! And the view from Eze is just breathtaking! Since we will probably visit all of those towns you did, can you recommend certain sites that you went to? If you went back, would you stay in Nice again or Villefranche?

abbydog-- I had no idea that Antibes is more of a city.. hmmm... it doesn't really make a difference to me.. did you find getting in and out of town difficult from Antibes? We may drop our rental car off and just take the train and bus because it sounds so convenient..

Lavaflow, glad you liked my photos.

The following thread will give you some ideas by the posts including mines.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34722128

re : Hotel Welcome. I cannot tell for sure but it did not look so noisy staying there. Interesting thing to note is : one side of the hotel faces a square and when we visited there Saturday morning, there was an antique market which gave certainly a lively atmosphere (but not noisy). Facing the same square there was also the Jean-Cocteau chapel that was closed (for the season?). It must have another name but due to the fresco paiting by Cocteau inside, I call it like this. I will be back to see it.

Whether I will stay in Nice again and do day trips? I'm not sure but it is likely. I have done this way since some time now. Last November was like my 7th stay in Nice (including twice partcipating a volleyball tournament organized by Nice Telecom). I like doing day trips in the day and back in a big city in the evening for many dinner choices. For this, Nice is a perfect hub, lots of public transportation possibilities, air, train and bus. I fly from Geneva and do everything by train and bus and especially on foot. There is this long omnibus line No.100 from Nice to the east till Menton (Villefrance, Eze, Monaco, etc inbetween) on th coast which I found very convenient and very scenic for those trips. I'm not sure about the following but West from Nice (to Antibes, Cannes), the bus lines may not be that well served. There are less frequent motorcoach(autocar) servcies but not frequent omnibus type. For Antibe I took a train. Due to those Corniches, the landscape is more spectacular from Nice to the east, it seems to me.

The problem with geting into and out of Antibes is that there's really just one major route into the town, with quite a lot of stop-and-go traffic. You can avoid that by taking either of the two coastal roads, but it's still something to factor in--you don't want to waste precious time just sitting in the car.

Hotel Welcome was definitely not noisy--it was extremely peaceful at night. We slept with our balcony door open a couple nights and didn't hear anything, and I'm a pretty light sleeper.

For restaurants, there were plenty to choose from right on the harbor or up the little sidestreets--no need to go elsewhere.

Villefranche seemed like an older retired population to us. We preferred Antibes.