Nice France 4 Day Itinerary

Nice Côte d’Azur Airport sits just 7 kilometres west of the city, but how you cover those 7 kilometres sets the tone for your whole trip. Tram Line 2 costs €1.50 and reaches Place Masséna in about 25 minutes. A taxi should cost a fixed-rate €32 to the city centre, a fare the city imposed precisely because Nice taxi drivers had earned a reputation as the worst in France for padding bills on tourists. Get in only metered or pre-agreed cabs, and if a stranger at the ticket machine offers to help you buy a tram pass, politely decline and keep your wallet in a front pocket.

Day 1: Arrival and Old Town

Book a room in or immediately around Vieux Nice. The neighbourhood around Rue Droite and Rue du Collet puts you within ten minutes on foot of almost everything worth seeing in the city, and you will not need transport for the first two days. Mid-range options run €120 to €200 per night. If you want a genuine splurge, the Hotel Negresco on the Promenade is the correct choice: its pink dome has been a Nice landmark since 1913, it houses one of the finest restaurant tables in the south of France (Chantecler, two Michelin stars), and the art collection scattered through the corridors is worth a wander in itself.

After checking in, walk straight to Cours Saleya in the Old Town. The famous flower market runs there Tuesday through Sunday mornings, but even in the afternoon the square fills with café terraces where you can order a glass of Bellet, the local AOC wine grown in the hills above the city that almost no one outside Nice has heard of. Skip the overpriced tourist-facing restaurants on the square itself. Instead, walk two streets back to Chez Acchiardo on Rue Droite, a family-run spot that has been passing the kitchen between generations for over ninety years. Socca (thin chickpea-flour pancake, eaten hot with black pepper), daube niçoise, and a carafe of house red. Main courses run €15 to €22.

In the evening, stroll the Promenade des Anglais. The most interesting stretch is east of the Hotel Negresco toward Castle Hill, away from the busiest beach clubs. The light on the Baie des Anges at dusk is genuinely one of the better free sights in Europe.

Day 2: Castle Hill, Matisse, and Socca at the Source

Start early at Colline du Château (Castle Hill). Despite its name, no castle survives: Louis XIV ordered the fortress demolished in 1706 after his forces captured Nice, and the ruins were cleared long ago. What remains is a 92-metre hill with a panoramic terrace looking out over the port and the curve of the bay. Go up from the port side rather than the tourist-facing Old Town steps for a quieter path, and find the artificial waterfall built in the late nineteenth century that most visitors walk straight past. The lift from the east end of the Promenade costs €1 each way if your legs are tired. There is no admission fee.

Afternoon belongs to the Musée Matisse in the Cimiez neighbourhood, a fifteen-minute bus ride from the centre. Admission is €10 (reduced €5), covered by the city’s multi-museum pass (€15 for four days, worth buying if you plan to visit two or more municipal museums). Matisse lived and worked in Nice for much of his life and is buried in the nearby Cimiez cemetery alongside Raoul Dufy, a genuinely peaceful and crowd-free spot. The museum opening hours are 10:00 to 18:00 Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesday.

For lunch before or after Matisse, walk to Chez Pipo near the port on Rue Bavastro. It has been serving socca and pissaladière (onion and anchovy flatbread) since the 1920s and is where the locals go rather than the tourist-adjacent René Socca on Rue Miralhet. The difference in atmosphere is noticeable.

Evening dinner at La Merenda in Vieux Nice is worth planning around. The former chef Dominique Le Stanc gave up his two Michelin stars to run this tiny room with no telephone and no credit card machine. You book by turning up in person. The menu changes with what is available. If you cannot get a table, Olive et Artichaut on Rue Sainte-Réparate is a very good second option with proper Niçois cooking and a more relaxed booking process.

Day 3: Day Trip to Monaco and Eze

The TER train from Nice Ville to Monaco Monte-Carlo runs every 15 to 30 minutes and costs around €6 each way, with a journey time of roughly 23 minutes. Buy tickets at the station or on the SNCF Connect app. This is a far better option than renting a car: the Corniche roads are spectacular but parking in Monaco is expensive and the principality is small enough to walk.

Monaco is worth about half a day. The Oceanographic Museum (€20 adult admission) is genuinely excellent, founded by Prince Albert I in 1910 and still one of the best marine science institutions in Europe. The Monte-Carlo Casino (€17 to enter the gaming rooms, mornings reserved for residents) is best visited in the evening if you plan to play, but the Belle Époque exterior is worth seeing regardless of when you arrive. The Prince’s Palace opens for guided tours in summer for around €13. Skip the Formula 1 Museum unless you are a dedicated fan.

Eze is a detour worth making. The hilltop village sits on a 427-metre spike of rock visible from the train between Nice and Monaco. Get off at Eze-sur-Mer, then take Bus 83 (the Grande Corniche bus) up the hill. The village is small and the tourist shops are genuinely not the point: the views from the ruined château garden (€6 admission) over Cap Ferrat and the sea are among the best on the entire Riviera. Come down by the steep Nietzsche Path on foot if your knees are up to it (about 45 minutes down to the lower village and train station).

Return to Nice for dinner. Le Rouvigo on Rue Rossini in the new town side of Nice does solid Provençal cooking at fair prices (mains €18 to €28) and is less hectic than the Old Town options on a busy summer evening.

Day 4: Musée Chagall, Beach, and Departure

The Musée National Marc Chagall in the Cimiez district opens at 10:00 and closes at 18:00 (closed Tuesday, and also closed January 1, May 1, and December 25). Full admission is €12 during temporary exhibitions, €10 outside them. The seventeen large canvases of the Biblical Message series were made specifically for this building and cannot be seen anywhere else. Book online in advance during peak summer months; the museum draws significant crowds from around 11:00.

After the museum, take the afternoon at one of the beaches. The pebble beaches in central Nice are free public ones (Plage des Ponchettes near the Old Town, Plage du Centenaire further west) or you can pay for a lounger at one of the private beach clubs (roughly €15 to €25 for a chair and umbrella in high season). The private clubs are worth it in July and August when the free sections become very crowded. For something quieter, the beach below Castle Hill at the port end is shorter and less popular with visitors.

Getting Around Nice

The city tram network (Lines 1, 2, and 3) covers the centre, the airport, and most of the tourist-relevant areas. A single ticket is €1.50 and stays valid for 74 minutes including transfers. The 4-day pass costs around €15 and makes sense if you are using public transport regularly. Walking is genuinely the best option within Vieux Nice and along the Promenade, where the distances are short.

Practical Notes

Nice is warmest and most crowded from June through August; hotel prices peak then and the beaches are packed. May and September offer better value and comfortable temperatures. The city is expensive by French provincial standards: budget €60 to €80 per person per day for food and activities excluding accommodation. French is expected; switching immediately to English is considered rude in many older restaurants, but a few words of effort go a long way. Service charge is included in French restaurant bills; tipping 5 to 10 percent for genuinely good service is appreciated but not obligatory. The evening street harassment around Rue de France has been a known issue for solo travellers; staying on the well-lit main streets after midnight is sensible.