Earlier this month, travel experts Mouden Marketing invited Live Group’s Anthony Henry to join a group of UK-based event professionals on an Educational Experience to Nice, France. Anthony shares some of the highlights of his trip.
Why the Côte d’Azur could be your next destination
Located on the French Riviera, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Nice is well-positioned for business travel.
With the second largest airport in France, the seaside city of Nice is 12 miles from Monaco and less than 20 miles from the French-Italian border.
We flew out as a group of 20 from Heathrow Terminal 5 and stayed at the Hotel Aston la Scala. The trip began with a fantastic lunch on the beach at the stunning Restaurant Plage Beau Rivage, before heading out in teams to explore the charming old town of Nice with a treasure hunt. I was in the winning team and the prize was a goody bag of delicious French treats.
That evening, we were given a tour of the iconic, five-star Hotel Hyatt Regency Palais de la Méditerranée. Located centrally on the famous Promenade des Anglais, the historical luxury hotel has uninterrupted views over the Mediterranean Sea, with a beautiful terrace restaurant and lounge bar serving tapas and cocktails. Dinner and drinks on the first evening were further along the Promenade des Anglais at La Terrasse, a rooftop restaurant at Le Meridien Hotel with panoramic views of the sunset over the sea.
The second day started with local supplier meetings. It was good to meet so many interesting people and to learn more about the possibilities for events and incentive travel in the south of France. For lunch, we headed east to Villefranche-Sur-Mer, where we enjoyed lunch at a waterfront restaurant called Le Mayssa Beach. The afternoon’s activity was sailing on the Mediterranean; we could choose from a sailing boat or a catamaran and it was fun, if not a bit choppy(!) to get out onto the water. Our evening meal was at the impressive five-star Royal Riviera Hotel on the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula, six miles south east of Nice and nine miles from Monaco.
For our third and final day, we ventured 20 minutes west of Nice, to the Medieval hilltop village of Haut de Cagnes, where we played the famous game of ‘Boules Carrés’ (pétanque with square ‘balls’). Lunch was at the 13th century Château Le Cagnard, an intimate, stone-built boutique hotel & restaurant which was once the home of French impressionist artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The final destination was the Hotel Radisson Blu Nice, a stunning hotel with an attractive garden, luxurious rooms and amazing views. There we enjoyed farewell drinks and canapés before heading back to the airport for our flight home.
I had an absolutely fantastic three days. The group was made up of a range of like-minded individuals from a wide variety of roles across the events community and it was great to see a selection of the event spaces and activities on offer in and around Nice, all with the promise of 300 sunny days per year. A huge thank you to Moulden Marketing for inviting me!
