French Riviera: Nice, Monaco, Èze, Antibes and Menton

1. Day 1: Arrive in Nice

   Nice Côte d'Azur Airport to your hotel in central Nice

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE), which sits on the shore about 7 km west of the city centre, and a driver meets you in arrivals for the short ride along the Promenade des Anglais to the hotel. Pick-ups run at set group times through the day; Nice-Ville station is just as easy if you come by train. Check in, unpack once for the whole week and rest. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the lobby for a short briefing: how the trains and buses work along the coast, which days are on foot and which use our minibus, and what to wear for churches and the boat. Then we walk down to the sea for the last light on the Baie des Anges, the long curve of pebble beach and pale blue chairs that gave Nice its winter-resort fame, and sit down together to a welcome dinner of Niçois dishes in the old town.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE) or Nice-Ville station at set group times
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Sunset walk on the Promenade des Anglais
   • Welcome dinner in old Nice

   Free time: Free until the early-evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the briefing; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

2. Day 2: Old Nice, the Cours Saleya and Castle Hill

   Old Nice on foot, Castle Hill, then Cimiez

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 2 details

   We are at the Cours Saleya by about 8:30, when the flower and produce stalls are full and before the cruise-ship groups come up from the port. A licensed local guide takes us through Vieux Nice: the baroque Cathedral of Sainte-Réparate, the Palais Lascaris, the narrow lanes where washing still hangs between the shutters, and a stop for socca, the chickpea pancake baked in a wood oven and eaten hot with pepper. Then up to Castle Hill, by the lift or the steps, for the view over the red roofs, the port and the whole Baie des Anges. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the old town, and you cross Place Masséna on the way back. The afternoon is free: a swim, a nap, or the shops of the Jean-Médecin area. At about 3:30 the guide takes anyone who wants to go up to Cimiez for a timed entry to the Musée Matisse, with the painter's late cut-outs, and the Roman ruins beside it.

   Included

   • The Cours Saleya market at about 8:30
   • Walking tour of old Nice with a licensed local guide: Sainte-Réparate, the Palais Lascaris and the old lanes
   • Socca tasting in old Nice
   • Castle Hill (Colline du Château), by lift or steps
   • Sit-down lunch in old Nice
   • The Musée Matisse in Cimiez, timed group entry at about 3:30 (optional to join)

   Easier option: Take the Castle Hill lift both ways, and skip Cimiez for a free afternoon by the sea.

   More active option: Walk up Castle Hill by the steps from the seafront, and walk on from the Musée Matisse to the Musée Chagall (on your own, about 20 minutes downhill).

   Free time: Afternoon free; the 3:30 Musée Matisse visit is optional to join; evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot in the morning on cobbles and steps; Castle Hill is about 90 m above the sea.

   

3. Day 3: Èze in the morning, Monaco at midday

   Nice to Èze village by bus, then by train to Monaco and back to Nice

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 3 details

   We leave the hotel at about 8 am, the earliest start of the week, for the bus up the Moyenne Corniche and reach Èze, a village of stone lanes wrapped round a rock about 430 m above the sea, at about 9 am, before the coaches and cruise excursions. Walk up through the old gate and the vaulted passages to the Jardin Exotique, the cactus and succulent garden built in the ruins of the castle, for the view down the coast to Cap Ferrat. From Èze we go on to Monaco by bus, or by train from Èze-sur-Mer for those who walk down. On the Rock of Monaco a local guide takes us to the Prince's Palace square for the changing of the guard at 11:55, then through the old town to the cathedral, where Grace Kelly is buried. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the Rock. The afternoon starts at the Oceanographic Museum on its cliff, then is free in Monte-Carlo, round the Casino square and the harbour. The train back to Nice takes about 20 minutes, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Èze village and the Jardin Exotique d'Èze
   • The Rock of Monaco with a local guide: the changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace and the cathedral
   • Sit-down lunch in Monaco
   • The Oceanographic Museum
   • All bus and train tickets for the day

   Optional experiences

   • The State Apartments of the Prince's Palace (open from about April to October)

   Easier option: Take the bus both ways between Èze and Monaco, and use the public lifts in Monaco to avoid the steepest climbs.

   More active option: Walk down the Nietzsche path from Èze village to Èze-sur-Mer, about an hour and roughly 400 m steeply downhill on a rocky path, and take the train to Monaco.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Monte-Carlo; evening free in Nice

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot, with steep stepped lanes in Èze and on the Rock of Monaco. Bring your passport.

   

4. Day 4: Antibes and Saint-Paul-de-Vence

   Nice to Antibes, then Saint-Paul-de-Vence and back to Nice

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 4 details

   Our own minibus takes us 35 minutes west to Antibes, a walled port town that has looked across the bay to the Alps since the Greeks founded it. The morning starts at the covered Provençal market, then a walk along the sea ramparts to the Château Grimaldi, where Picasso worked in the autumn of 1946; the Musée Picasso inside holds the paintings and ceramics he made there. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the old town, and there is time to see Port Vauban and its yachts. In the afternoon we drive half an hour inland to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a small walled village on a ridge that Matisse, Chagall and many other artists knew. We go first to the Fondation Maeght in the pines just above the village, a museum of 20th-century art with its sculpture garden, then walk into the village in the late afternoon, when the day-trippers are leaving, along the ramparts to Chagall's grave in the little cemetery. Back in Nice by early evening.

   Included

   • The Marché Provençal and the ramparts in Antibes
   • The Musée Picasso in the Château Grimaldi
   • Sit-down lunch in Antibes
   • The Fondation Maeght
   • Saint-Paul-de-Vence village and its ramparts

   Easier option: The minibus drops you at the village gate of Saint-Paul instead of walking up from the Fondation Maeght, about 15 minutes uphill.

   More active option: In Antibes, walk out along the sea path towards Cap d'Antibes for 45 minutes while the group sees Port Vauban.

   Free time: Evening free in Nice

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on cobbles and gentle slopes; the walk from the Fondation Maeght to the village is uphill.

   

5. Day 5: Menton and the Italian border

   Nice to Menton by train, with the option to go on to Ventimiglia in Italy

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 5 details

   A slower start, then the coast train east: about 35 to 40 minutes past Villefranche, Monaco and Cap Martin to Menton, the last French town before Italy. Menton has the mildest winters on this coast, which is why it is known for its lemons and its gardens. We walk up from the covered market through the old town's stairways, the houses painted ochre, yellow and pink, to the Basilica of Saint-Michel-Archange on its square above the sea, then back down to the Musée Jean Cocteau, where the drawings of the poet and film-maker who loved this town hang near the harbour. Lunch today is your own choice: the guide suggests places in the old town and along the seafront. In the afternoon you can go back to Nice with the guide, stay by the sea in Menton, or take the ten-minute train across the border to Ventimiglia in Italy for an Italian coffee and a walk in its old town. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Train from Nice to Menton and back
   • Walking tour of old Menton and the Basilica of Saint-Michel-Archange
   • The Musée Jean Cocteau

   Optional experiences

   • Train to Ventimiglia, Italy, about 10 minutes each way (ticket on your own). Its big Friday market does not fall on this day with our departure pattern.

   Easier option: Stay on the level along the seafront and the market while the group climbs to the basilica.

   More active option: Walk the coastal path around Cap Martin to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin station, about 1 hour 30 minutes, and take the train back to Nice.

   Free time: Lunch on your own; afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot, with long stairways in old Menton. Bring your passport if you go to Italy.

   

6. Day 6: A boat along the coast and Villefranche

   Nice port by boat along the coast, then Villefranche-sur-Mer and Cap Ferrat by minibus

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 6 details

   In the calm of the morning we board a scheduled coastal boat at the port of Nice and head east past the Cap de Nice into Villefranche bay, one of the deepest natural harbours on the Mediterranean, and round Cap Ferrat, with the villas behind their pines. The scheduled cruise is a loop that returns to Nice port, so the minibus then takes us ten minutes over the hill to Villefranche-sur-Mer; if the operator can set us down in Villefranche, we land there instead. We walk the Rue Obscure, a vaulted street that has run under the houses since the Middle Ages, and step into the Chapelle Saint-Pierre on the quay, painted by Jean Cocteau for the town's fishermen in 1957. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the harbour. In the afternoon we cross to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat for the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a pink Belle Époque villa with nine themed gardens on the ridge between two bays. Back in Nice by late afternoon, with time to rest before the farewell dinner. If the sea is too rough for the boat, we take the coast train to Villefranche instead.

   Included

   • Coastal boat trip from Nice port past Villefranche bay and Cap Ferrat
   • Villefranche-sur-Mer: the Rue Obscure and the Chapelle Saint-Pierre
   • Sit-down lunch on the harbour in Villefranche
   • The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its gardens
   • Farewell dinner in Nice

   Easier option: Stay on the minibus between the villa entrance and the gardens' lower terrace, or rest on the harbour in Villefranche while the group visits the villa.

   More active option: Walk the coastal path around the tip of Cap Ferrat, about 1 hour 15 minutes, and meet the group at the villa.

   Free time: Late afternoon free before the farewell dinner

   Activity: The boat trip takes about an hour; bring a light layer. About 2 hours on foot, mostly level.

   

7. Day 7: Departure from Nice

   Central Nice to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   A last breakfast, and if your flight is in the afternoon there is time for one more walk through the Cours Saleya market, a coffee on the square, or a swim from the beach below the Promenade des Anglais. The guide is around in the morning to help with left luggage, late questions and ideas if you are staying on, perhaps a night in the Provence hill villages or a few days in Italy along the same coast railway. Drop-offs at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE), about 20 minutes from the hotel, leave at set group times through the day, the first at about 8 am; you can also take your bags to Nice-Ville station a few minutes away for a train to Marseille, Paris or Italy. Because the hotel is the same all week, nothing needs to be packed until this morning, and the airport is close enough that a flight from about 10 am works with the first drop-off.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE) or Nice-Ville station at set group times

   Free time: Free until your transfer

   Activity: The first drop-off leaves at about 8 am and suits flights from about 10 am; book a flight after about 1 pm if you want a last morning in the old town.

Wildlife and weather: April to June and September to October are warm, with sea breezes and fewer crowds than July and August. Spring evenings can be cool and a rainy day is possible; the boat trip depends on the sea and is replaced by the coast train if it cannot run.

• Nice6 nights