Nice 4 Day Itinerary

Nice has an identity problem in travel writing: guides flatten it into a beach town with a Promenade photo opportunity and use it as a base camp for Monaco. That misreads the city. Nice was Italian until 1860 and it still eats that way. Its Old Town (Vieux Nice) is a 17th-century Baroque district that has more in common with Genoa than with Paris. The socca, a chickpea flour flatbread cooked in wood-fired copper pans, exists nowhere else in France and is as culturally specific to Nice as cassoulet is to Toulouse. Four days here done properly is not four days of beach and day trips.

Getting from the Airport

Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) is 7 kilometres west of the city centre. Tram Line 2 connects the airport directly to the city centre for 1.70 euros, running every 10 minutes and taking 25 to 30 minutes to reach Place Masséna. This is the objectively correct choice for most visitors arriving with normal luggage. A metered taxi costs around 32 euros (fixed rate) and takes 13 to 20 minutes; the flat rate applies to trips within the municipal boundaries of Nice. Uber and Bolt operate here for similar prices. The single bus route (Line 12) also runs for 1.50 euros but has less frequent service than the tram.

For exploring the wider Côte d’Azur from Nice, the Pass SudAzur covers unlimited regional trains (from the Italian border to Théoule-sur-Mer), trams, and buses including in Monaco: 35 euros for 3 days, 50 euros for a week. If you are doing two or more day trips by train, the week pass pays for itself by the second excursion.

Day 1: Vieux Nice and the Colline du Château

Morning: Cours Saleya market runs Tuesday through Sunday from around 6am until 1pm. It is primarily a flower and fresh produce market with a few prepared food stalls at the eastern end. The practical move is to come here for breakfast: Chez Theresa at the market’s eastern end has been serving socca since 1925 from a window. Order socca (chickpea flatbread, blistered and served with olive oil), pissaladière (onion and anchovy tart on bread dough), and pan bagnat (the Niçoise tuna sandwich that is the ancestor of every composed sandwich in French cuisine). Eat standing. Total cost: 5 to 8 euros.

After the market, walk into the lanes of Vieux Nice. The layout follows a strict 17th-century Genoese grid and the colours of the facades, ochre, terracotta, yellow, dark red, are maintained by municipal regulation. The difference between Nice’s Old Town and a French Provençal village is immediate: this looks Italian because it was Italian.

Afternoon: The Colline du Château (Castle Hill) rises at the eastern end of the beach and Promenade and gives the best view of both the city and the Baie des Anges. The fortress that gave the hill its name was demolished by Louis XIV in 1706 (Nice was Savoyard, not yet French, and he wanted the defenses gone). Take the free elevator from the Quai des États-Unis or climb the steps from Vieux Nice; the gardens at the top have genuine trees and shade in summer. Thirty minutes is enough for the view and a walk through the gardens.

Evening: Chez Acchiardo (Rue Droite, Vieux Nice) is a family-run restaurant that has stayed resolutely local-facing for decades. The Niçoise dishes here, stockfish (baccalà prepared the Nice way with tomatoes and olives), daube niçoise (beef stew with olives), and the pasta with pistou, are not found at tourist-menu restaurants and repay the short walk off the main tourist circuit. Book ahead for dinner.

Walk the Promenade des Anglais in the early evening rather than during the day: the light over the water at 8pm in summer is the photograph the Promenade is famous for, and there are fewer people.

Day 2: Day Trip to Antibes and Eze

Morning, Antibes: The TER regional train from Nice-Ville to Antibes takes around 25 minutes and costs roughly 5 euros each way. Antibes has a different character from the other Riviera towns: it is a working port with a serious art museum. The Musée Picasso occupies the Château Grimaldi, where Picasso worked for several months in 1946 and donated the resulting work directly to the city. The collection is the only place where you can see, in one room, exactly what Picasso made during a defined period of his life. Entry is around 8 euros.

The old port and market hall at Antibes are worth an hour. The covered market on Cours Massena sells Provençal vegetables, olives, cheese, and prepared foods and is good for lunch assembled from stall to stall.

Afternoon, Eze: Return to Nice by train and continue east toward Monaco, getting off at Eze-sur-Mer (the coastal station, different from Eze Village above). Bus 82 climbs from the station to Eze Village in around 15 minutes. The perched village 430 metres above the sea is genuinely medieval and genuinely crowded in high summer; arrive after 3pm when coach tour groups begin to leave. The Jardin Exotique d’Eze charges around 7 euros and has good views if the main viewpoint terrace is packed. The Fragonard perfume workshop in the village offers free tours and is more about sales than education, but the industrial scale of perfume production it shows is unexpectedly interesting.

Return to Nice by bus 82 to Eze-sur-Mer and train back (or continue to Monaco for the evening).

Day 3: Monaco

The TER train from Nice-Ville to Monaco-Monte Carlo takes just over 20 minutes and costs 3 to 4 euros each way (or is included in your SudAzur pass). Trains run roughly every 15 minutes.

Morning: Monaco is not a city with a normal public life; it is a principality that functions partly as a tax haven and partly as a luxury tourism showcase. The Oceanographic Museum (Musée Océanographique de Monaco), perched on the cliff above the sea, is both a serious marine research institution and one of the best public aquarium displays in Europe. Prince Albert I of Monaco founded it in 1910 and the building itself is a spectacle. Entry costs around 20 euros.

The Prince’s Palace (Palais du Prince) occupies the old Genoese fortress on the Rock. The ceremonial changing of the guard happens daily at 11:55am and takes about ten minutes. Palace tours cost around 12 euros and run through summer months.

Lunch: Eating in Monaco costs Monaco prices. The most sensible approach is the food market on Boulevard du Jardin Exotique near the Condamine neighbourhood, where locals actually eat, rather than anything near the Casino. Alternatively, bring lunch from the Antibes market or a Nice bakery.

Afternoon: The Casino de Monte-Carlo charges entry fees to the main gaming rooms (from around 17 euros for the European rooms). The building’s Belle Epoque interior is worth seeing independently of any gambling intention. The surrounding square with the Café de Paris is where you can sit, order an overpriced coffee, and watch supercars and their owners in concentrated form. This is Monaco’s primary entertainment product and it is genuinely worth an hour.

Return to Nice by evening train.

Day 4: Nice Proper

The temptation on a fourth day is another day trip. The better use of the day is to stay in Nice and see what gets missed during the day-trip pattern.

Morning: The Musée Matisse (Avenue des Arènes de Cimiez) sits in the Cimiez neighbourhood above the city, surrounded by a Roman amphitheatre and Gallo-Roman ruins that most visitors to Nice never find. Matisse lived in Nice for the last two decades of his life and donated extensively to this collection; it is the largest single holding of his work. Take bus 15 from Avenue Jean-Médecin (about 20 minutes). Entry is free.

The Monastère de Cimiez next to the Matisse museum has a garden with views over Nice and the coast that no tour group bothers with. It is used by local families on Sunday afternoons as a picnic spot, which is recommendation enough.

Lunch: Flaveur (Rue Gubernatis, near the Jean-Médecin district) holds four Gault&Millau toques, which in the French critical framework means it operates at a level above most starred restaurants in the region. The brothers Gaël and Mickaël Tourteaux work with regional Mediterranean produce and the cooking is exact without being formal. Lunch is the value entry point. Book ahead.

Afternoon: The Promenade du Paillon is Nice’s urban park running inland from Place Masséna: 12 hectares of gardens, fountains, and open space installed in 2013 over a covered section of the Paillon river. It is where Nice residents actually spend summer afternoons and its contemporary landscape design sits interestingly against the Belle Epoque buildings on either side.

Evening: Le Bistro d’Antoine (Vieux Nice) is a reliable neighbourhood bistro that draws both tourists who research well and locals who return regularly. The wine list is serious and regional, the cooking is traditional without being stuck, and the prices are fair for the quality.

Practical Notes

Transport in Nice: The city tram runs frequently and covers the main corridor from the airport through the centre to the east. Single tickets cost 1.70 euros; a 10-trip carnet is cheaper per journey. The day after the tram opened in 2019 (Line 2 to the airport), the taxi overcharging problem at the airport dropped measurably, the official fixed taxi fare is the control on this.

Beach: Nice’s beach is shingle, not sand. Lounge chair rentals at private beach sections cost 15 to 30 euros for the day. The public sections (plage publique) between the private sections are free, have the same water, and require bringing your own blanket or towel.

Language: Nice is firmly French-speaking, with Italian understood in many family restaurants (given the historical connection). English is fine in all tourist contexts.

High season: July and August are very hot and very crowded. The Promenade becomes a slow-moving body of tourists by 11am. May, June, September, and October offer almost the same weather with significantly fewer crowds and better restaurant availability. The Nice Carnival in February is a legitimate reason to visit in winter.

The socca from Chez Theresa at the Tuesday morning Cours Saleya market is the best 4 euros you will spend in Nice. Start there and judge everything else against it.