NICE · CÔTE D’AZUR
The blue chairs, the bay, and the long coast road east.
Nice and the whole French Riviera, sorted into days you can actually book. The old town and the markets, the corniche to Monaco, perfume in Grasse, lavender over the Verdon, and the bay the Promenade is named for.
Only on the Riviera
Three things this coast does like nowhere else.
Pretty harbours and hill villages line the whole Mediterranean. A country you drive into for lunch, a town that taught the world to make perfume, and a canyon the colour of mint do not.
A country up the coast
Monaco and Monte-Carlo
Half an hour east along the corniche, Monaco folds a whole country into two square kilometres: the belle-epoque casino, a harbour packed with superyachts, the palace up on its rock, and a Grand Prix that still runs through the streets. Eze sits on the cliff between here and Nice, a stone village balanced 400 metres straight above the water.
- 1 From Nice: Eze, Monaco, & Monte-Carlo Half-Day Trip
- 2 Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze Village Small Group Half-Day Tour
- 3 Monaco, Monte Carlo, Eze, La Turbie 7H Shared Tour from Nice
The world's nose
The perfume capital
An hour inland, Grasse has made perfume for three centuries, and the jasmine, rose and tuberose behind the famous bottles still grow in the hills around it. At the old houses of Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard you sit at a perfumer's organ of little glass bottles and blend a scent to take home.
- 1 Monaco & Eze Small-Group Day Trip with Perfumery Visit from Nice
- 2 Fragonard Eze: Perfume Making Class and Factory Tour
- 3 Nice: Discovery Perfume Workshop
Turquoise and purple
The Verdon and the lavender
Inland the limestone splits open into the Gorges du Verdon, the deepest canyon in Europe, with a river the colour of mint at the bottom and roads that hang off the rim. By July the Valensole plateau above it has turned solid purple, row after row of lavender running clean to the horizon.
- 1 Nice: Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour
- 2 Nice: Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour
- 3 Gorges du Verdon Shared Tour from Nice
If you do one thing
The day out everyone takes from Nice.
More travellers book this than anything else here. If you lock in a single day before you arrive, make it this one.
The classics
Nice's Most Popular Tours & Day Trips
Monaco and Èze, a cruise across the bay, the open-top tour of the old town, the gorge and the lavender. The days most people book first.
Where to begin
The days a Riviera trip is built around.
Monaco and the corniche, Cannes and Antibes, the hill villages of Provence, the Verdon gorge, the vineyards and the bay. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best of each.
The big question
Which way out of Nice.
Nice sits in the middle of it all, so the real planning question is which direction to point the day. East along the coast, west to the film towns, or inland to the villages. Here is what each one gives you.
Vieux Nice
The old town, the market and the climb.
Behind the seafront, Nice goes Italian: tall ochre houses, washing strung over lanes barely wide enough for two, and the Cours Saleya market piled with flowers in the morning and dinner tables by night. Eat socca hot off the copper pan, then climb the steps of Castle Hill for the view straight down the curve of the bay.
Read the guide: old town and Castle Hill walks →Out on the water
The coast looks better from the sea.
The Riviera was built to be seen from a boat. Sail out of the port past the villas of Cap Ferrat into the deep blue horseshoe of Villefranche bay, anchor off a cove for a swim, or run the coast east to watch Monaco rise off the water. Sunset cruises leave as the lights come on along the shore.
See the boat tours and cruises →The coast road
Three roads to Monaco, all of them famous.
Between Nice and Monaco the cliffs are stacked with three corniches, one at the shore, one through the village of Èze, and one along the high ridge past La Turbie. Grace Kelly drove the middle one; the films still use the top. Whichever you take, the Mediterranean is a long way down and impossibly blue.
Take the coast road to Monaco →Wine country
Rosé where it was invented.
Provence has been making wine since the Greeks landed, and its pale dry rosé is now poured the world over. The vines climb right to the edge of Nice: the tiny Bellet appellation sits inside the city limits, and an afternoon west drops you into the rolling estates behind Cannes. Long lunches, cellar tastings, and a glass that tastes of the coast it grew on.
- 1 Nice Small-Group Walking Food Tour with Local Specialties & Wine Tasting
- 2 Nice: Provence Village Tour with Wine and Produce Tasting
- 3 Nice: Sunset Boat Tour with Wine and Local Snacks
Niçoise cooking
A kitchen of its own, caught between France and Italy.
Pressed right up against the border, Nice eats like nowhere else in France. Socca, the chickpea pancake blistered in a wood oven and eaten with your fingers; salade niçoise the way it is really made here; pan bagnat dripping down your wrist on the beach; pissaladière heavy with slow onions and anchovy. Walk the old town with someone who knows the good counters and you taste the lot.
See all 14 food tours →Out of Nice
Six day trips, one easy base.
Monaco for the glamour. Cannes and Antibes for the red carpet and the art. Provence for the stone villages. The Verdon for the canyon. Saint-Tropez for the port, and Villefranche for the prettiest bay on the coast.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
On foot through the old town. By boat across the bay. On two wheels along the Promenade. Plus a vineyard in the hills, a perfume to blend in Grasse, the markets to eat through, and the night tours when the light turns gold.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on the Riviera? A long weekend that gives you the city, the coast road and the towns to the west.
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