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French Riviera Family Vacation: 5 bedroom villa in Antibes, well priced, great location, amazing views

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Want to share this fantastic villa find in Antibes. This villa is well priced, 5 bedrooms with a lovely & spacious outdoor patio, heated pool and beautiful views and is in a 10/10 location. It's the perfect (and reasonably priced) spot for a family trip to French Riviera with a home base of Antibes.

I did this booking for a client via A&K, which I was a bit wary of and while they definitely have their downsides (I can elaborate on that more), it ultimately was a great experience for the client.

Rates for peak season (summer) is ~$2,800/night for $23,800 total with all taxes and fees for a week - that's for 5 bedrooms - so that's $580/night per room...

You can book it direct with A&K or use a TA - in both cases it's the same price.

Background of this booking is that the client is a family of 5 plus a nanny. Kids are young, between 1 and 6. They needed a minimum of 4 bedrooms, but ideally 5. They wanted somewhere with sufficient space to eat breakfast in the mornings and great outdoor space with views and a heated pool. They planned to be out and about each day checking out various beaches/beach clubs/restaurants/boat days in Antibes, Nice, St. Tropez, Eze & Monaco so didn't need to account for much in the way of lunch & dinner at the villa.

They are definitely a family that can afford to stay at FS Cap Ferrat / Hotel du Cap & the like but really just came to the conclusion that those spots, while beautiful and amazing for some trips - aren't the right fit for their family - the space and set up isn't nearly as good for them as a villa would be and while they can afford it, paying $3k/night for 4-5 rooms felt frivolous. After all...ChubbyTravel is all about luxe travel but while keeping value for the $ in mind - and this was a key example of that.

Why stay here?

• If you want the amazing location in Antibes to serve as a jumping off point to explore the surrounding area of Antibes/Nice
• If you want a villa with plenty of space and fantastic views but don't care as much about the interior being pristine
• Family with kids, multi gen trip or friends trip (can easily sleep 5 couples)
• If you want somewhere to have easy breakfasts but plan on spending most of the time exploring outside of the villa
• Great beach access - this villa has great beach access - the same beach that guests from Hotel du Cap get shuttled to when they want to go to the beach!

Why not stay here?

• If you're super keen on very refreshed interiors
• If you want to do a ton of cooking in the kitchen
• If you want the full service amenities of a resort...stay at a resort! You could get this villa staffed but frankly - it's not big enough to support the full staff you may want so in that case, if you want all the support either stay at a bigger villa or just stay at a resort
• Couples trip - for any small group, the cost/benefit of staying at a staffed resort is such that it makes much more sense to stay at the resort over an unstaffed villa
• If you don't like to plan activities and just want to go somewhere to chill for a week - in that case you're much better off at a full service resort that has various things to do on property and staff / concierge, etc

Notes

• Comes with daily housekeeping services
• You can always add on a driver or chef to this experience, tbh I think both are unnecessary - as my client put it "why would I want a chef in here such that I feel compelled to eat in every night when there are so many amazing places to check out and explore?"
• And for the driver...that's personal preference. It's easy enough to drive yourself but some people like the luxury of not driving and not having to think about it
• Definitely add on boat days - it's so easy to get to places like Monaco & St Tropez via boat which is an amazing and quick day trip. You can bop up and down the coastline and stop in at tons of amazing spots. WAY better than driving.
• A&K Concierge kind of sucks - so this type of booking does require you (or your TA) to do some leg work on bookings and logistics

Top Comment: This is such a spoiled American question but does this have A/C? With most hotels / resorts (especially the higher end properties that cater to some segment of Americans) I can usually rely on the a/c being decent but i get nervous with houses where I am unsure. This is very much a “me” problem but I struggle sleeping when it is warm and have a lot of anxiety around that. This looks gorgeous but that is always my worry when booking private homes.

Forum: r/chubbytravel