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Where to Go in 2026: Our Expert Picks
Our 2026 picks: Uganda, Kenya, Australia and Zambia, plus Guyana and Northern Albania. Places that cap visitor numbers and still feel wild if you plan them well.
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Paris and the French Riviera make one of the easiest two-center trips in Europe. You get museums, long dinners and walks in the city, then a week of sea, pine gardens and hill villages in the south, with a short flight or a fast train in between. Here is how we would put it together: where to stay, how to get south, what to do once you are there, and which weeks to avoid.
Le Bristol Paris is our choice in the city. It opened in 1925 on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and in 2011 it was the first hotel in France to receive the official Palace distinction. The rooms wrap around a large courtyard garden, which makes it calm in a busy part of town, and there is a pool on the top floor with views across the rooftops. The restaurants, led by Epicure, hold four Michelin stars between them, and 114 Faubourg and Café Antonia are there for easier meals.
From the hotel you can walk to the Tuileries, the Champs-Élysées and the shops of the Faubourg. The 8th arrondissement is quieter at night than the Left Bank or the Marais, so plan dinners across the river on some evenings. Three or four nights is the right length for a first or second visit: one big museum day at the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay, a day walking Saint-Germain or the Marais, and time left over for markets, gardens and lunch.
Both work, and the choice comes down to how you like to travel.
High-speed trains leave Paris Gare de Lyon for Nice Ville, and the fastest take about five hours and 40 minutes. Some services also stop at Cannes and Antibes, which saves a transfer if you are staying on Cap d'Antibes. The train is relaxing, and you watch Provence and then the coast go past the window, but it uses most of a day. Book first class early for summer dates.
Flights from Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle to Nice take around an hour and a half in the air, with Air France and easyJet on the route. Nice Côte d'Azur is the third-busiest airport in France and sits on the coast about 7 kilometers west of the city center. From there, Antibes is about 21 kilometers, or roughly 25 minutes by car when traffic is light. Door to door, flying is usually faster, though the train avoids airport security and luggage limits.
For most of our travelers we suggest the flight and a private car from the airport, unless the train itself is part of the appeal.
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc stands at the tip of Cap d'Antibes, roughly halfway between Cannes and Nice. It has been a hotel since 1870, when Antoine Sella opened the Grand Hotel du Cap, and it is now run by Oetker Hotels, like Le Bristol. The 111 rooms are spread across the Villa Soleil, the Eden-Roc Pavilion and the Les Deux Fontaines residence, with a few private villas. A path runs from the main house through about nine hectares of gardens to the Eden-Roc pavilion and the heated seawater pool cut into the rocks.
On site there are several restaurants, including Eden-Roc, Louroc and The Grill, plus the Dior Spa, clay tennis courts and a kids' club in high season. Many guests barely leave, which is part of the point.
The hotel is strictly seasonal. In 2026 it opened on 20 April and closes on 18 October, and it is shut for the rest of the year. Dates for 2027 have not been published yet, and they tend to shift by a few days each year, so we confirm them before building a trip around the hotel. A Paris and Riviera trip in November or March needs a different plan on the coast.
The old town of Antibes is a short drive from the hotel. The Musée Picasso is in the Château Grimaldi, where Picasso stayed for several months in 1946, and the museum has carried his name since 1966. Port Vauban, below the ramparts, is the largest marina in the Mediterranean by the tonnage of the boats moored there. On the cape itself, the Tire-Poil coastal path is an easy walk of about two hours over the rocks. Part of it, below Villa Eilenroc, is closed until May 2027, and the path shuts in bad weather.
Inland, the villages perched above the coast make a good half-day or full day with a driver.
Monaco is about 20 kilometers past Nice airport. Trains from Nice take a little over 20 minutes, a car takes longer in summer traffic, and a helicopter from the airport takes about seven minutes. In Monaco-Ville, the changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace is at 11:55 every day, and the Oceanographic Museum, opened by Prince Albert I in 1910, sits on the cliff above the sea. The palace State Apartments are open for tours from spring until mid-October. Lunch in Monte-Carlo and an afternoon at the museum make an easy day.
We would not split the Riviera between two hotels on a trip this length. From Cap d'Antibes, everything above is within an hour's drive.
Late May, June and September are the months we like most. The sea is warm or warming, the hotel is open, and the coast roads are calmer. Early October also works, as long as you leave before the hotel closes. July and August are hot and busy along the coast, traffic slows every drive, and many Parisians leave the city in August, so some smaller restaurants and shops close for part of the month.
If you want to be part of either event, book well ahead. If not, aim for the week after the festival, or the middle of June once the Grand Prix has passed. Our guide to Europe in the shoulder season has more on timing, and our France page covers Provence and the Alps if you want to add them. Heading on to Italy along the coast is the other natural extension.
If you would like help planning Paris and the Riviera, get in touch.
Every itinerary begins with a conversation. Tell us what you're dreaming of, and we'll design a journey tailored entirely to you.
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