Hotel Windsor

Arty but affordable hotel in central Nice, with weird and wonderful rooms designed by contemporary artists

Don’t be fooled by the bland name or the unassuming 19th century façade. You step off Nice's busy shopping streets and into an exotic oasis of art and colour. There’s an ancient Chinese throne in the lobby, a giant bamboo mobile, Tintin posters on the walls and, best of all, a tropical courtyard garden with towering rubber trees, yuccas, bougainvillea, palms, singing birds and a small pool.

The hotel is a veritable style museum, with 24 of the 57 rooms decorated by contemporary artists in bold and eccentric ways, from minimalist-conceptual to wacky-whimsical. You might find hanging street signs, witty graffiti, comic-strip frescoes, a ray of painted sunshine, a gold-walled cube with a pure white bed. But this is no snobby, hard-edged design hotel. It's affordable and unpretentious, comfortable and welcoming: one of the few remaining family-run places on the Riviera. And for the less design-conscious, 'standard' rooms offer a more sedate (though still stylish) option.

Highs

• Fabulous and fun interiors, as far removed from chain hotels as can be
• Wonderful garden patio for a lingering breakfast or al fresco dinner
• Superb Moroccan-style hammam on the top floor, with herbal oil massages
• Friendly, helpful staff and free wi-fi
• You're in the heart of town, amidst cool shops and restaurants, 5 mins from the Promenade des Anglais; and you can easily hire bicycles for exploring the city

Lows

• The pool is small, unheated and not always totally clean
• No reserved car spaces, only metered parking or expensive car parks
• They cannot guarantee specific rooms - it depends on what's free when you arrive
• Street-facing rooms get some traffic noise; and recent reports say some rooms are looking tired