Hôtel Belles Rives

We have stayed at Belles Rives every summer for several years. We can’t wait to go back every year! The hotel is beautiful with a gorgeous view of the sea! We usually select a sea view room which never disappoints but have stayed in others with lovely views. The beds are comfortable and the decor charming. The staff are always warm and welcoming from arrival to check in , beach and restaurants . The concierge is always helpful to make restaurant reservations, beach chair reservations and car services. We love the restaurant La Passagère with interesting local fish, cheese and wine. My favorite part of Belles Rives, in addition to the staff( now I feel friends) is sitting on the jetty , swimming in the sea and watching the people water ski ! Belles Rives is a must stay! It’s a special place with many special people .

What makes this hotel : the people who work there-always smiling, happy to serve , working hard ; the views- they are incredible.; the food is also excellent here, we ate at 3 restaurants and loved absolutely everything. On arrival me and my husband were really seduced by the vibe of the hotel- having dinner on the terrace, listening to a pleasant quiet music surrounded by respectable well dressed people. Unfortunately, this vibe is only in the morning for breakfast and late in the evening for dinner. During the day there is a different story…the hotel allows anyone from the street on their very small beach as long as they pay for the sun loungers. We encountered quite unpleasant local people with lots of small badly behaved kids who came for the day and quite frankly didn’t give a damn. There are also salesmen with sunglasses and other cheap rubbish who come and bother guests. Not something I would expect from an upmarket hotel with a private beach. Unfortunately we also encountered a wedding during our stay. This meant that the bar area was completely closed off for the part of the evening ( it is quite small) and the guests were shuffled to one corner and had to put up with a party atmosphere for the rest of the night. There was no fashioned vibe that evening in the hotel. The beach bar closes at 5.30pm (!) , exactly when we wanted to sit on the beach and have a drink. Not for the convenience of the guests, clearly. Upon our departure we also noticed a strange” boat trip” added to the bill worth over €1000. Surely if someone had a boat trip they would have had to sign for it , not just give a room number? The receptionist did not bother to check any records and just removed it from the bill . This was not a mistake I would expect from an upmarket hotel.

Overall a good experience, however it started badly. I was put into a tiny room with little or no space to move. After the first night I spoke with the excellent Christophe on the front desk and he sorted out a much better room. Zero drama and zero fuss. The next room was better. Thank you! Overall the hotel is classic French, staff are brilliant and the setting second to none. Parts are a little dated but that oddly adds to its obvious charm!

Best hotel for a south of France trip. We loved our experience at Belle Rives. The Management and staff were committed to making a vacation special. Thank you to Christina, the concierge team, the waiters in the bar and bell staff for your superb service! From backgammon on the veranda to a dip in the sea, our memories are so special. Great location also!!

I am writing this review as a reaction to the comments posted by the Belles Rives in regards to my husband’s negative review. First of all, the hotel never warned us of their change in plans. We were never contacted by the hotel. We discovered it ourselves and completely by chance! My husband wrote on August 31 and received an automatic reply that the hotel had received his mail. After several more emails to the hotel, they finally replied about two weeks later. We chose to go on this trip in order to experience the Belles Rives, and that area and had booked airfare. We were obviously very disappointed. We requested a comparable hotel, that is with five stars. The person with whom we were in contact did, indeed, offer to book us in at either the Negresco, Martinez, or Carlton. We wrote back that all of those hotels would be fine. We are familiar with the Negresco and wrote we would like to be transferred there. He replied that there would be building work and we would not be happy there. After that we were given the choice of La Pérouse in Nice — take it or leave it. No mention of the other hotels, nor of the Chateau Eza mentioned in the Belles Rives’ reply. It is true that we asked for an upgrade at La Pérouse as some rooms face a cliff wall. We did not request an upgrade elsewhere. Nor did we ask for a seaview room at the Negresco, this is nonsense! In the end, we have accepted La Pérouse as they assured us we would not get a room facing the cliff wall. Couldn’t the Belles Rives have done that??? Considering all the trouble they have caused, that would be the least they could do! The shocking thing is the rather rude mail we have received from the Belles Rives when my husband posted a negative review. In fact, he removed that first Tripadvisor review because he felt pressured to do so. On top of that, the hotel is clearly very poor at planning. After this experience and all the trouble we have gone through I would not trust them.

We stayed for 10 nights in July with our two daughters aged 4 and 7. The hotel is superbly located, both with respect to the stunning sea views and beach access, and also a short walk into Juan-Les-Pins. The hotel staff were warm, friendly and very helpful with all our requests. In particular the lovely ladies at breakfast on the terrace made our daughters feel very welcome and became friends with them. Our 4 year old keeps asking to go back to the hotel... For us it is essential that the hotel is family friendly, and the Belles Rives certainly is in our experience. We are all looking forward to visiting again!