Luxury hotel holiday Hôtel du Couvent Nice

Hôtel du Couvent occupies a magnificently restored 17th century convent in Vieux Nice, where the Visitandine nuns once lived, worked, and tended their gardens above the mediaeval town. The ten-year restoration, culminating in 2024, by visionary hotelier Valéry Grégo has transformed the abandoned monastery into an 88-room luxury retreat that honours its past through the fitting and distinctive design of Festen Architecture and Studio Mumbai. The property’s greatest treasure may well be its 2.5 acres of terraced gardens that rise of the hillside, planted with lavender, rosemary, myrtle, and sage, alongside productive vegetable beds, orchards, and olive groves that supply the kitchens daily. The Roman Baths form the atmospheric heart of the hotel’s wellness services, carved into the hillside beneath vaulted stone arches where candlelight flickers across ancient walls. Guests move through the traditional thermal circuit of tepidarium, caldarium, and frigidarium, alongside a swimming pool and relaxation areas, whilst treatments incorporate bespoke oils and tinctures created by the hotel’s own herbalist using plants from the gardens. Two outdoor pools nestle among the gardens, including a heated 20 metre lap pool with views across Old Nice to the sea, and a smaller pool near La Guinguette garden restaurant. Dining celebrates the rhythms of the seasons and the hotel’s connection to its own farm, Ferme Notre-Dame, in the countryside above Nice. Le Restaurant du Couvent serves breakfast and dinner in the stunning cloister, with dishes built around daily deliveries from the farm and bread from the hotel’s own bakery, where flour is stone-milled and loaves are baked throughout the day. La Guinguette offers relaxed lunches under vine canopies among the vegetable terraces, whilst Bistrot des Serruriers opens onto the street as a neighbourhood gathering place. The hotel’s cultural programme includes monthly farmers’ markets in the orange-tree courtyard, breadmaking workshops, herbalist sessions, and art activities, reinforcing the sense that this is not merely a hotel, but a living piece of the community.