Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur · France
A working Mediterranean city with an Italian accent, and the only stretch of the Riviera you can explore properly without a car.
Photo: Uhooep · CC BY-SA 4.0
The French Riviera has a reputation problem. Mention it and people picture superyachts at Monaco and €30 cocktails in Saint-Tropez, which describes maybe five miles of a hundred-mile coast. Nice itself is nothing like that: it is a real city of 350,000 people with a fish market, a tram network, students, and an old town where the laundry still hangs across the alleys.
It also has the single most useful piece of infrastructure on the Mediterranean — a local railway that runs the length of the coast, stopping at Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu, Èze, Monaco, Menton and half a dozen other places, for two or three euros a journey. Almost every other beautiful coastline in Europe requires a rental car and a fight for parking. This one does not.
Nice was Italian until 1860, and it still is in the ways that matter most: the food is closer to Ligurian than French, the old town's houses are ochre and terracotta rather than limestone, and the accent softens. It makes for a strange and very likeable hybrid, and a better base than any of the prettier villages nearby — which are lovely for three hours and short of dinner options after that.
Why visit
The case for Nice is not that it is the most beautiful place on the Riviera — it is not. It is that Nice makes the whole coast accessible while still being somewhere you would want to spend an evening.
The TER line between Cannes and Ventimiglia hugs the shore, calling at village after village, several times an hour. A day exploring three coastal towns costs about €10 in fares and no parking stress at all. This is the single strongest practical argument for basing yourself here.
Matisse moved here in 1917 and stayed for the rest of his life; Chagall, Picasso, Renoir and Bonnard all worked along this coast for the same reason. The clarity of Mediterranean light against the sea is not a marketing claim — it is why there are four significant art museums within thirty minutes of the old town.
Nice averages 13–15°C in January with a great deal of sunshine, which is why the English aristocracy started coming here in the first place and why the seafront is called the Promenade des Anglais. Hotel rates halve, restaurants stay open, and the light is at its sharpest.
Socca, pissaladière, pan bagnat, petits farcis and a salade niçoise that contains no cooked vegetables whatsoever. It is chickpea flour, olive oil, anchovy and tomato — poor food, done extremely well, and unlike anything else in France.
The Alpes-Maritimes rise almost straight out of the sea. The Train des Merveilles climbs from the seafront into alpine valleys in under two hours, and the perched villages of Èze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence sit a few hundred metres above the water. You can swim in the morning and be in the mountains after lunch.
Main attractions
Nice's own sights fill about a day and a half. The rest of your time belongs to the coast either side of it.
The old town is a dense grid of narrow lanes between the castle hill and the sea, unchanged in layout since the 1700s. Its spine is the Cours Saleya, a long market square that sells flowers and produce Tuesday to Sunday, antiques on Monday, and turns into a solid run of restaurant terraces at night.
Tip The market packs up around 13:00. Go before 11:00 and eat socca from one of the stalls rather than sitting down anywhere on the square itself.
The wooded hill at the eastern end of the bay, where the medieval castle stood until Louis XIV demolished it in 1706. What is left is a park with an artificial waterfall and the definitive view along the Baie des Anges — the whole two-mile curve of the Promenade in one frame.
Tip A free lift runs up from the eastern end of the Promenade, next to the Hôtel Suisse, saving the 200-step climb.
Four miles of seafront walkway built with English money in the 1820s, lined with palms, the blue chairs that have become the city's emblem, and a run of Belle Époque hotels including the pink-domed Negresco. The beach below is pebble, not sand — bring or buy the rubber shoes everyone else has.
Tip Best at either end of the day. Sunrise from the eastern end and sunset from the west are the two good hours.
Both sit in the leafy Cimiez district on the hill above the city, ten minutes apart by bus. The Matisse collection spans his whole career including the late cut-outs; the Chagall museum was designed around its seventeen Biblical Message canvases and is one of the most coherent single-artist museums anywhere.
Tip Cimiez also has Roman ruins and an olive grove. Do both museums in one morning and walk between them.
Six minutes by train from Nice and arguably the prettiest deep-water bay on the coast — a tumble of ochre houses down to a fishing harbour, a 14th-century covered street, and water clear enough to see the bottom from the quay. It is the easiest possible half-day trip.
Tip The beach here is sand rather than pebble, and much calmer than anything in Nice itself.
A medieval village welded to a rock 427 metres above the sea, with a cactus garden at the summit and views that on a clear day reach Corsica. It is undeniably a tourist village now, but the setting is extraordinary and the walk down the Nietzsche Path to the shore is a genuine highlight.
Tip Go early or late. Between 11:00 and 16:00 the coach parties make the single main lane almost impassable.
The last town before Italy, half an hour by train, with a pastel old town stacked above the sea, subtropical gardens and a microclimate warm enough for lemon groves. It is noticeably quieter and less expensive than the coast west of Nice.
Tip The Lemon Festival in February fills the town; outside that fortnight it is one of the calmest places on the Riviera.
Twenty minutes by train. A curious, vertical, extremely wealthy half-square-mile with a good oceanographic museum, the old town on its rock, and the Casino square. Worth half a day for the strangeness of it; not worth staying in.
Tip The train station is deep inside the rock with several exits — take the one marked for the Port or the Palace, not the first one you reach.
Things to do
The Riviera rewards a slow rhythm: one thing in the morning, a long lunch, swimming, then something in the evening.
Buy a few single tickets and get off wherever looks good. Between Nice and Menton the line calls at Villefranche, Beaulieu, Èze-sur-Mer, Cap d'Ail, Monaco, Roquebrune and Carnolès, and almost every one of them is worth an hour.
Tip Sit on the right-hand side heading east for the sea views. Trains run every 20–30 minutes until late evening.
Nice's public beaches are crowded pebble. The better swimming is at Villefranche's Plage des Marinières, the rocky coves below Cap Ferrat, or Plage Mala at Cap d'Ail — a small sandy cove reached by a steep staircase, and worth every step.
Tip Water is warmest in September, around 24°C, and still perfectly swimmable into October.
The sentiers du littoral run around the headlands where roads cannot go. The circuit of Cap Ferrat is about two hours of easy walking past villa gardens and hidden coves; the Cap d'Ail path links Monaco to Plage Mala in forty minutes.
Tip Start early in summer — these paths have almost no shade.
A thin pancake of chickpea flour and olive oil, baked in a wood oven on a huge copper disc, scraped off in ragged pieces and eaten hot with black pepper. It costs a couple of euros and it is the definitive Nice street food.
Tip It must be eaten immediately — it goes leathery within minutes. Buy it where you can see the oven.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Vence are 40 minutes inland by bus and feel like a different region — ramparts, galleries and the Fondation Maeght's sculpture park, one of Europe's best modern art collections in a purpose-built setting among the pines.
Tip Matisse's Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, which he considered his masterpiece, opens only a few days a week. Check before going.
A regional service that climbs from Nice up the Roya valley to Tende, crossing viaducts and spiralling through tunnels into the mountains. Two hours each way on an ordinary ticket, and one of the most dramatic rail journeys in France.
Tip The morning departure has a guide on board in summer. Sit on the left going up.
Local food
Niçoise cooking is Mediterranean peasant food that stayed put — olive oil, chickpeas, anchovies, tomatoes and vegetables, with very little cream or butter in sight.
A single large pancake of chickpea flour, water and olive oil, baked at fierce heat until blistered, then cut roughly and served on paper with a heavy grind of black pepper. Crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, and gone in five minutes.
Where to try it The stalls and hole-in-the-wall bakeries of Vieux Nice, and the Cours Saleya market in the morning.
The real thing contains no cooked vegetables at all: tomatoes, raw broad beans or small artichokes, spring onion, olives, anchovy or tuna, hard-boiled egg and olive oil. No potatoes, no green beans, no vinaigrette. Locals are firm about this.
Where to try it Traditional restaurants in the old town — the ones that advertise cuisine nissarde.
A thick flatbread base under a deep layer of onions slow-cooked to jam, latticed with anchovies and black olives. Sold by weight in bakeries and eaten warm, standing, at any time of day.
Where to try it Bakeries throughout Vieux Nice; usually sold alongside socca.
A salade niçoise packed into a round loaf and pressed until the olive oil soaks the bread. It is designed to be made in the morning and eaten at the beach in the afternoon, and it improves in the interim.
Where to try it Any bakery or market stall. Buy one before catching the coastal train.
Small vegetables — courgettes, tomatoes, onions, peppers — hollowed out, stuffed with seasoned meat and breadcrumbs, and baked. A classic home dish that appears on almost every traditional menu in the old town.
Where to try it Family-run restaurants in Vieux Nice, usually as a starter or a light main.
A sweet chard tart with pine nuts, raisins and apple, dusted with icing sugar. Vegetables in a dessert sounds unlikely and it works completely — an entirely local speciality you will not find elsewhere in France.
Where to try it Old-town pâtisseries. Sold in wedges by weight.
Accommodation
Nice divides into three practical zones: the old town for atmosphere, the New Town grid behind the Promenade for value, and the seafront for views at a premium. All are walkable to the station and the tram.
Transport
Nice has the busiest airport in France outside Paris and sits at the end of a fast rail line, so arriving is easy from almost anywhere in Europe.
Nice is compact and flat along the seafront, with two tram lines covering everything else. You will not need a car and will barely need a bus.
When to go
The Riviera has the most forgiving climate in France, which means the question is less about weather than about crowds and prices. September is the standout: warm sea, warm air, and the August crowds gone.
Warm, green and uncrowded, with everything open by Easter. The sea is still cold until about mid-June — swimmable but bracing. May and early June are ideal for the coastal walks, which are punishing in high summer.
The busiest and most expensive weeks on the whole French coast. Hotel rates double or more, the beaches are shoulder to shoulder, the coastal roads gridlock and inland temperatures hit the mid-thirties. The sea is lovely; everything else is a compromise.
The best window of the year. The sea peaks around 24°C in September after a summer of warming, the crowds vanish after the first week, and prices fall sharply. October is quieter still, with warm days and the first real rain towards the end.
Viable, which is unusual in France. Days average 13–15°C with a lot of sun, the museums are empty and rooms cost half. Swimming is out and some seasonal restaurants in the smaller villages close, but Nice itself stays fully open.
Worth planning around: The Cannes Film Festival in May and the Monaco Grand Prix in late May both push accommodation prices up sharply across the whole coast, even in towns nowhere near the events. Check the dates before booking.
Itinerary
Two days in the city and two on the train, with swimming built into both. Assumes a base in Nice and no car.
Get the geography straight and eat your way through the old town.
The easiest and prettiest half-day trip on the coast, extended into a full one.
Three very different places in one eastbound run along the line.
Either the Cimiez museums or a trip up into the hills behind the coast.
Travel tips
Riviera-specific things that are not obvious from a map.
FAQ
It is the best one. Nice sits in the middle of the coastal railway, so Villefranche, Èze, Monaco, Menton, Antibes and Cannes are all 6 to 40 minutes away for a few euros each. It also has the airport, the widest choice of hotels at every price, and enough restaurants to eat well every night — which the prettier villages nearby do not.
Four to five. The city itself fills a day and a half — the old town, the market, castle hill and the seafront — and the remaining days are best spent on the coastal train exploring in both directions. Fewer than three days and you will only see Nice, which misses the point of being here.
No, and it is usually a hindrance. The coastal railway covers the whole shoreline frequently and cheaply, parking in Nice and Monaco is expensive and scarce, and the old towns are pedestrianised. A car only becomes useful if you plan to head inland to the Verdon gorge or across into Provence.
No — Nice's beaches are large smooth pebbles, which surprises many first-time visitors. The water is beautiful but walking in and out is uncomfortable without rubber shoes. For sand, take the train six minutes to Villefranche-sur-Mer, or go west to Antibes and Cannes.
Mid-June through October, peaking around 24°C in late August and September. June is swimmable but noticeably cool at about 20°C. September is the best month for water temperature, and the sea stays pleasant well into the first half of October.
It depends entirely on where and when. Monaco, Cannes and Saint-Tropez in August are expensive. Nice in September or February is comparable to any mid-sized French city — €140–240 a day mid-range, less in winter. The train fares along the coast are the cheapest part of the whole trip.
Yes, more so than most European coastal cities. January and February average 13–15°C with a lot of sunshine, hotel rates fall by half, the museums are quiet and the light is at its clearest. You cannot swim, and some seasonal restaurants in the smaller villages close, but Nice itself functions normally all year.
Keep exploring
Places that pair well with Nice, whether you have a few spare days or are building a longer route.
Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
A landscape of ochre cliffs, perched stone villages and vineyards between the Rhône and the Alps, with the best-preserved Roman monuments outside Italy on its western edge.
Don't miss The Pont du Gard, a three-tier Roman aqueduct that has stood for two thousand years without mortar.
Explore Destination — Provence & the LuberonÎle-de-France, France
France's capital packs more world-class museums, monuments and neighbourhood restaurants into six square miles than anywhere else in Europe. It rewards walking more than ticking off a list.
Don't miss The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and Sainte-Chapelle — three of Europe's great collections within one Métro ride of each other.
Explore Destination — ParisGironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
An 18th-century city of pale limestone facades along a curving river, transformed over two decades from soot-blackened port to one of France's most liveable cities.
Don't miss The Miroir d'Eau opposite the Place de la Bourse: the world's largest reflecting pool, and the best free show in France.
Explore Destination — BordeauxLiguria, Italy
A UNESCO cultural landscape on the Ligurian coast where vines are grown on cliff terraces, no cars reach the villages, and the local train is the bus.
Don't miss Walking the coast path between the villages, four hundred metres above the sea on walls built by hand over eight centuries.
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