The French riviera is a never-never land for many American tourists. Tales of outrageous prices, of extortion-type menus and hijacking hotel bills, have all combined to scare the more cautious traveler away. Any substance to these fears?
In resort towns !ike Juan-Ies-Pins or St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat, yes. These are the haunts of international high society-the Aristotle Onassis set-and prices are wondrous to behold. But Nice is different.
Endowed with all the beauty of the Riviera-the palm trees, the Mediterranean, the sun-Nice is nevertheless a city, and not simply a cluster of elegant hotels, snuggled around a small bay. If you’ll take time to learn the lay-out of that city, you can liye moderately in Nice, just as do many middle-class French citizens, who flock here for their summer vacations and live on costs that are less.
To understand the hotel situation in Nice, look at a map, and imagine that you are walking from the railroad station to the sea. As you near the water, hotel prices increase; arriving at the waterside, hotel prices become astronomic; if you stay near the railroad station, hotel costs are entirely moderate. While there are one or two outstanding exceptions to this role, the bulk of our hotel selections will be found in the station district.
Don’t assume, though, that staying in a hotel ne ar the top of the map will keep you from the all-important bathing and sunning facilities of the town. Nice is packed into a relatively small area, and the railroad station is only a short walk from the beach. Furthermore, the station section is as quiet and clean as any other in the city.
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