Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc

The house · 1870

Where it begins

Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc holds the very tip of Cap d’Antibes, on the French Riviera, halfway between Cannes and Nice. From Nice airport it is about 16 miles, some 45 minutes by car with no traffic; from Cannes, about 8 miles.

You arrive at the top, at a white house among the pines. The Antibes tourist office lists a car attendant and night arrivals among the hotel’s services. The hotel dates the house to February 26, 1870, when it opened as the Grand Hotel du Cap, and says the Oetker family has owned it since 1969.

The hotel counts 111 rooms in three buildings: the house, the Eden-Roc Pavilion down by the water, and Les Deux Fontaines, plus a handful of villas to rent. The house keeps its Deluxe Rooms with a sea view; the hotel says there are only ten of their kind.

The park

Twenty-two acres, downhill

Between the house and the sea lies a park of about 22 acres that runs all the way down. Stone steps climb between blue agapanthus and clipped cypress. The tourist office lists five clay tennis courts, the Dior Spa, a hammam, a beauty salon and what the hotel calls its Fitness Village.

Walk it at least once, down and back up. It is the length of the hotel’s story: the house of 1870 at one end, the pool of 1914 at the other.

The pavilion

The top floor of the pavilion

At the bottom of the park, the Eden-Roc Pavilion sits low on the rocks. This is where to sleep.

Ask for a Deluxe Eden-Roc Junior Suite. The hotel’s site puts them on the top floor of the pavilion: 527 square feet each, with a private terrace and a sea view. The Eden-Roc Suite, it says, has a terrace on the roof.

If you would rather wake up in the old house, take one of the ten sea-view Deluxe Rooms there, and walk down for the water. You trade the sea under your terrace for the pines and the walk.

The rock · 1914

A pool cut into the cape

By the hotel’s own history, Antoine Sella built a tea pavilion at the water in 1914, the first Eden-Roc, and the swimming pool was carved into the rock as its extension. It was redesigned in 1931 and became an infinity pool in 1975. Its edge now lines up with the sea, and it holds heated seawater.

Swim early, before lunch fills the terrace above it. The Eden-Roc restaurant sets its tables on that terrace, so at noon you eat over the water you swam in.

At Eden-Roc, the pool is cut into the rock and filled from the sea.

Below the rock

The cabanas, the terrace, the bars

The tourist office’s listing counts thirty-three cabanas, a private pontoon and waterskiing. The hotel dates its first cabanas over the sea to the summers of 1923 to 1929, when Gerald and Sara Murphy brought their writer friends here, F. Scott Fitzgerald among them.

Lunch is on the Eden-Roc terrace, over the pool. There are three restaurants, all facing the sea: Eden-Roc, Le Grill, and Louroc, which the town’s tourist office lists with one Michelin star. Keep Louroc for one dinner of the stay. For another table on this coast, Mirazur, in Menton, sets its menu by the moon.

For a drink there are five bars: the Eden-Roc Pool Bar, the Bellini Bar, the Eden-Roc Lounge, the bar at Le Grill, and La Rotonde, a piano bar. Children get their own counter, a juice and ice cream bar.

The cape

Two hours on the coastal path

Beyond the hotel, the cape has its coastal path, the Sentier de Tire-Poil. It starts from the large car park on Avenue André Sella; about 660 feet on, the houses stop and you look out over Nice and the Bay of Angels.

The Antibes tourist office counts two hours, in good shoes. From the belvedere, it says, you may see dolphins, and it points out the Château de la Croë, built in 1927 and for a time the home of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson. The stretch below Villa Eilenroc is closed until May 2027, and the path shuts in bad weather, gales included: check before you set out.

Before April

The season, and the price

The hotel closes in the cold months. The 2027 season runs from April 18 to October 17, according to the hotel; the Antibes tourist office gives April 19 as the first day, so confirm the date when you book.

For 2026, the tourist office listed rooms from €1,140 a night and suites up to €18,300. Book on the hotel’s site or by phone at +33 4 93 61 39 01; ask for the room by its category and its floor, and have both written on the confirmation. The tourist office lists the hotel as five-star, classified on June 24, 2025. Families should know that the Kids Club runs only in high season, with activities for children aged three to six and six to twelve.