4 Days on the Riviera from Nice
Four Days: The Same Base, Now With Three Trips Instead of One
This runs the same spine as our 3-day itinerary , Nice on arrival day, Villefranche, then Monaco, and adds a fourth day for Èze, the perched village most three-day trips never have time for. Book your hotel near Nice-Ville station or Vieux Nice; both put you a short walk from where every one of these trips starts and ends.
| Day | Focus | Biggest cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nice orientation | Free, plus socca |
| 2 | Villefranche-sur-Mer | EUR2-3 train |
| 3 | Monaco, full day | EUR20 Oceanographic Museum |
| 4 | Èze village | EUR7-8 Jardin Exotique |
Book these before you go
- A Nice hotel room for your nights in the city, since Vieux Nice and Carré d’Or book out fast in summer.
- Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum ticket if you’re visiting in peak season, when the ticket line gets real.
- An Èze village half-day tour if you’d rather not plan the bus connection yourself.
Day 1: Arrival and Nice orientation
Tram Line 2 covers the 6km from the airport in 20-30 minutes; the airport machines only sell a €10 round-trip fare rather than the €1.70 single, so on a trip this length either buy the round trip or get the Lignes d’Azur app sorted before you land if you want the cheaper fare.
Spend the afternoon in Vieux Nice, socca lunch included, and climb Castle Hill via the free lift for sunset, no admission fee either way. Dinner in the old town, a street or two back from the Cours Saleya terraces, which coast on the view rather than the cooking. Worth knowing before you plan any museum time later this week: the Matisse and Chagall museums are two separate buildings in Cimiez, not a combined stop, and MAMAC, Nice’s contemporary art museum, has been closed for renovation since 2024 and won’t reopen until roughly 2028, so it’s off the table regardless of what an older guide says. Full detail on all of that in our Nice guide ; this trip is built around what’s outside the city instead.
Day 2: Villefranche-sur-Mer
Five to ten minutes by train , roughly €2-3 one-way. This is the low-effort trip and shouldn’t be treated as a lesser one: Villefranche’s harbor is one of the deepest natural anchorages on the Mediterranean, which is exactly why the water here stays clearer than Nice’s own beaches. Wander the covered lanes of the old town, see the Chapelle Saint-Pierre (decorated inside by Jean Cocteau in 1957, small entry fee), and climb the free Citadelle Saint-Elme courtyard. Have a long lunch by the water; this is a half-day trip, so you’ll have the afternoon free back in Nice for the beach (pebble, not sand, water shoes recommended) or a slower second look at whatever the first evening rushed.
Day 3: Monaco, the full day
7 to 25 minutes by train (23 minutes average), roughly €6-7 one-way, 55 or more trains a day. Walk the old town and palace square; the changing of the guard runs at 11:55am daily, free to watch. The Oceanographic Museum (around €20), directed by Jacques Cousteau for over three decades, is worth the admission for anyone with a passing interest in marine science; stacking it with the palace apartments is cheaper on the French Riviera Pass . The Casino de Monte-Carlo charges roughly €17 to enter the gaming rooms and requires a passport or ID, a real dress code, and an 18+ minimum, a detail that surprises people who show up assuming they can just wander in; skip it and admire the Belle Époque exterior for free if gambling isn’t the point. Dinner back in Nice, since Monaco’s prices near the casino square run noticeably higher for the same quality a few streets back would give you.
Day 4: Èze village
No direct train; the village sits at 427m above the coastal line. Take bus 82 (Lignes d’Azur) or the regional 602 from Nice’s Vauban bus station on Tram Line 1, about 30 minutes, running every 30-45 minutes on weekdays (the 602 in particular can drop to little or no Sunday service, so check before you go). The alternative is the train to Èze-sur-Mer at sea level, then bus 83 uphill, or the steep Chemin de Nietzsche footpath if you’d rather hike it.
Give the village itself two to three hours: medieval lanes barely wide enough for two people, a free Fragonard perfume factory tour, and the Jardin Exotique at the summit (roughly €7-8), a cactus garden built into the ruins of the old château with the best cliffside view on this stretch of coast. Here’s the opinion worth acting on: for most first-time visitors, Èze beats a half-day in Monaco outright. It delivers the classic hilltop-Riviera-village photo in a fraction of the time, with no casino dress code and no queue for a palace tour. Go in the morning; that climb from Èze-sur-Mer in August midday sun is miserable, not scenic.
Come back to Nice for a final dinner in Vieux Nice, and watch your bag specifically at the Grand Arénas tram stop on the way to the airport tomorrow; it’s a known spot for pickpockets working the ticket machines.