1 Med Hotel

Decent 2* hotel near the beach and town centre

My girlfriend and I spent 4 nights at Med Hotel during our visit to Nice in May 2009.

We paid 99 Euros per night for a double room with en-suite facilities, with no breakfast included.

I would say that the price was a little too high for this basic 2* hotel, but our stay coincided with the Grand Prix weekend in nearby Monaco and consequently much of the accommodation in Nice was either fully booked or prohibitively expensive. In fact, the rack rate at the time of our visit was 200 Euros per night and we even came across hostels asking for 100 Euros+ per night during the Grand Prix. After plenty of searching, Med Hotel proved to be the best value hotel that we could find.

We booked our stay through www.booking.com, which meant that, if we had found a better option, we could have cancelled our booking up to one day before our arrival without incurring a charge. It also meant that we didn’t have to pay a deposit at the time of booking, we just paid the whole amount once at the hotel. The receptionist was happy for us to pay at the end of our stay, but we chose to pay upfront so as to avoid carrying the cash around with us.

Location

Med Hotel is located on Rue de France, a road which runs parallel to the seafront Promenade des Anglais. The hotel is located just behind the famous Hotel Negresco and is just a couple of minutes walk from the seafront and pebbly beach.

A 5 minute walk along Rue de France in the direction of the city centre brings you to a host of restaurants, cafes and shops, while the impressive Place Massena square can be reached on foot in around 10 minutes.

The Cours Saleya market is about 15 minutes walk away, Colline du Chateau is around 20 minutes walk away, the bus station is 15-20 minutes away and the port is approximately 25 minutes away. The train station is a 10 minute walk away, inland along Boulevard Gambetta.

Prior to our visit we used Google Street View to locate the hotel, so we knew exactly what we were looking for. The hotel has bright orange signs out front, but the entrance is down the side of an electrical goods store and the rooms are located above the store, so you could potentially miss it.

During our pre-trip research we read some reviews of the hotel that mentioned guests feeling uncomfortable by the seedy areas around the hotel, but any apprehensions that we might have had were totally unfounded. It is true that we passed several prostitutes plying their trade along Rue de France each night, but the area felt perfectly safe and far from seedy.

Bedroom

Our room was medium sized and had a cool, airy feel to it despite the hot temperatures outside. The shuttered windows could be safely left open during the day time to let air in and the room had an air-conditioning unit, but we were never given a remote control to operate it. The room was never hot enough to require its use, otherwise we would have requested a remote control from reception.

The double bed was comfortable, there was adequate wardrobe space and a small TV set broadcasted a handful of local channels. To be honest, we didn’t even turn the TV set on until we were departing and only then so that I could make mention of what channels were available in my review!

A small table, one chair, a couple of mirrors and lamps and a telephone completed the room’s relatively sparse furnishings. There was no fridge in the room, nor any tea and coffee making facilities. A couple of drinking glasses were provided.

One small problem with the room was a lack of power sockets. In fact, the only sockets were the one which the TV was plugged into and another one in the bathroom. We therefore had to unplug the TV to charge our mobile phones and camera batteries. This wasn’t a huge problem as we didn’t use the TV, but it might provide difficulties for anybody travelling with several electrical devices.

The en-suite facilities were extremely small and cramped. The toilet was housed in a separate cupboard-sized room; it was so small that it was almost impossible to close the door when sitting on the toilet. The shower room was only marginally more spacious and showering proved to be something of a tight squeeze.

The shower room, as well as the bedroom, was clean and was serviced daily. The water was always hot enough for showering, we each received two clean towels each day and a few basic toiletries were provided (apparently, I’m more impressed by the presence of free soap and shower gel than my girlfriend is!).

General

No breakfast was included in the room rate, but we could have purchased a Continental breakfast for 7 Euros per person, per day by letting the receptionist know the night before. We didn’t do so, so I can’t comment on what it included. The price was comparable to that of a Continental breakfast in the cafes around the hotel, but we found that we could grab a cheaper breakfast at the Cours Saleya market. Breakfast is served on the first floor dining room and the breakfast room was always fairly busy when we passed by in the morning.

The hotel has no lifts, so be prepared to drag your luggage up at least one flight of stairs upon arrival…or two flights of stairs in our case.

Upon checking out of the hotel, we were able to store our luggage for the day in a storage room behind reception for no charge.

A basic 2* hotel with clean and airy rooms and a good location close to the seafront and the centre of town. Don’t expect any luxuries, but you’ll get a decent enough room, a comfortable bed and a hot shower. We probably paid over the odds due to the Grand Prix; I’d say 50-60 Euros per night would be a fair price.

• Opinion of Price: about average

1 Med Hotel Photo: Med Hotel, Nice

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