THE NICI, Newquay

THE NICI, Newquay opened on 15 June 2026 in the former Hotel Victoria, the Victorian landmark on the clifftop above Newquay's beaches, as the Nicolas James Group's third NICI hotel. The 82-room property keeps the building's restored bathing lift down to the cove and adds a spa with a 20-metre indoor pool, a clifftop pool club, a cinema and a kids' club.

The place

On the clifftop above Newquay's beaches, in the building of the former Hotel Victoria — a landmark of the Cornish resort since the Victorian era, with its own bathing lift running down the cliff to the cove beneath the hotel.

The concept

THE NICI, Newquay is the rebrand of the Hotel Victoria, the Victorian clifftop hotel that had anchored Newquay's seafront for more than a century. It opened on 15 June 2026 as the third address of the Nicolas James Group's NICI brand, after Bournemouth — where the group turned the old Savoy into THE NICI in 2022 — and ahead of the nine-storey Southampton scheme approved in 2025. It opened on the same day as the group's New Forest property at Lymington, a double launch the company had trailed since spring 2026. The redevelopment restored rather than erased the building's period features, the most unusual of them the Victorian bathing lift that drops from the hotel down the cliff face to the cove below and gives guests private access to the water. The interiors follow the reference the brand has used since Bournemouth, pairing Cornish coastal materials with an Italian Riviera register. The 82 bedrooms and suites are spread across the clifftop frontage, many with private balconies and wide sea views. Two of the announced food and drink venues were not open at launch: an Italian restaurant called Amalfi, and an all-day venue named Tucker Rock flagged for 2027.

Dining & wellness

The clifftop pool club carries an all-day restaurant, a bar and a sauna. The spa is built around a 20-metre indoor pool with a thermal suite and seven treatment rooms, alongside a gym, a cinema and a kids' club. An Italian restaurant, Amalfi, and an all-day venue named Tucker Rock have been announced, the latter for 2027 — neither was open at launch.