Ultratravel - The Fab 50
January 2016

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, South of France.

A throwback to the F. Scott Fitzgerald era, this grand 19th-century mansion on Cap d’Antibes has 117 rooms and two villas with sumptuous Louis XV and XVI furnishings, gilded mirrors and chandeliers. The gastronomic Eden-Roc Restaurant has just been renovated and serves classics such as roasted sea bass and lobster with tarragon; the Grill offers Provençal-style gambas at the seafront pavilion. Set among nine hectares of landscaped gardens there are five clay tennis courts, a Sisley spa and a seawater pool cut into the natural rock. A seafront diving board and overwater trapeze launch bathers into the Mediterranean and there is a jetty for guests arriving by boat. Best of all are the 33 beach cabins where the illustrious and notorious come to hide: Marc Chagall used to paint on these clifftops, Roger Moore waterskied here and Johnny Weissmuller used to do his signature Tarzan yell as he dived into the sea.