A Look at ‘French Riviera’ by Highlife
High Life Destinations has been a stalwart in the SL Hotel and Resort scene, their speciality being large-scale closed resorts (you need to pre-book—click here for an explanation) with a heavy emphasis on RP.
French Riveria is their latest destination, open for the Summer 2024 season, and I was keen to take a look, so I took Maya (my partner) on a two-night stay. Here are my impressions.
Check-in
You arrive at an 'airport', which is the preliminary check-in area. I noticed that Highlife Destinations has added a Korean restaurant here, which is a nice addition and good for photographs.
After that, you go upstairs and are processed. Maya and I came on a Sunday night, and even though it was the end of the weekend, several couples were ahead of us waiting to check-in. This shows that Highlife Destinations resorts are once again popular and in demand.
The process felt more rushed than previous visits to Highlife Resorts (note you need to have voice enabled as they voice check you in). However, we received a room key and a travel HUD with links to various places in the resort, and we were on our way.
Overall look and feel
French Riveria is a multi-region experience with three centres - "Cannes", "Nice" and "St Tropez." Does it actually look like these places? Maya aptly commented that she felt like she was in Disney - in a film or theme park. That's a good way to think about it; French Riveria, like other Highlife Resorts, has a theme park vibe, complete with hotels, entertainment spots and even amusement park rides.
So, no it won’t be an exact replica of your last trip to the South of France, but do come if you want to spend a few days in a fun, extensive destination.
There's plenty here - beaches, a marina, restaurants, cafes, a town centre, a spa. You won't run out of things to see and do.
One drawback is the backdrop—a painted scene of hills and villages I've seen in other European-themed sims. It looks artificial and reminds you that you're in SL, potentially detracting from the experience.
The rooms
Prices range from 2500 to 4000L. We stayed in the Rêve Suite at 2500L. The website description says it can fit eight, but that seems unlikely as it's one of the more compact suites from Highlife Destinations that I've seen.
There's the entrance, a small bedroom with the bed taking up most of the space, a balcony, and a bathroom.
The bed has a choice of engines, a trend in SL resorts. Options here are Ruckus (generally the default in SL hotels), Darkfold, Cuming Soon and Lalou. All these different engines are built into a PG Castel Bed.
Unfortunately, the animations didn't work well for us; we were buried inside the mattress and had to alter our hover height, yet even then, it still wasn't quite right. I don’t think we are of abnormal / height proportions, and I wonder if this was pre-tested before being installed.
However, the bathroom is a highlight. It's modern, has a clean design, and features an NH Adult shower.
The facilities
These include a spa, restaurant, hang glider, hot air balloon, wine-making centre, beaches, watersports areas, and a cafe. There’s also a golf course and a theatre - I assume that just like they did in their Las Vegas destination in 2022, there will be live shows.
You can use the HUD to navigate, but it's better to walk around and discover it yourself.
Other considerations
Prices are 2500-4000L
The destination is moderate; adult anims are in the rooms
Lag was a minor problem on a Mac, but a bigger issue for me is that textures took a long time to load on both Firestorm and Alchemy, making taking pictures tricky. You really need to increase your draw distance to 250+ to get the most out of the destination
Overall
We did experience a few glitches during our stay, but we also saw lots of couples clearly having fun and enjoying the experience. Overall, the scale of French Riveria is very impressive, and the facilities are extensive. Recommended.
Airport and booking terminals - SLURL
