Nice: Coastal Train Day Trips
Nice is the best base on the Riviera for one practical reason: the coastal TER train runs a continuous line from Menton to Cannes and beyond, cheap and frequent, so you never need a car for a day out. Book most of these one-way for 6 to 10 EUR at a station machine or through SNCF Connect. Here are the trips worth taking, roughly in order of ease.
Villefranche-sur-Mer, 8 to 14 minutes
The closest and easiest. A deep natural harbour with calmer, clearer water than central Nice, a genuine old town, and a citadel, all a short train hop east. It functions almost like a Nice neighbourhood, and it is the pick if you want a half-day with actual swimming rather than sightseeing.
Èze village, about 30 minutes by bus
The one that is not a train trip. The hilltop village sits at 427m, well above the coastal rail line, so take bus 82 or the regional 602 from the Vauban terminus on Tram Line 1; the 602 does not run on Sundays, so check first. Èze delivers the classic hilltop-Riviera postcard, and for a first-timer it edges out Monaco: less crowding, no casino dress code, and the view down to the sea is the whole reward.
Monaco, 7 to 25 minutes
A separate sovereign country, not part of France, and small enough to walk end to end. Go for a full day rather than a rushed half: the palace, the old town on the rock, the Oceanographic Museum, and the harbour. If you want inside the Casino de Monte-Carlo, bring a passport or national ID, dress the part, and note the 18+ minimum. Plenty of visitors only photograph the exterior.
Cannes and Antibes, 35 and about 20 minutes
Easily paired on the same line. Cannes is La Croisette and the old town of Le Suquet, roughly 10 EUR one way; from January 2026 it caps cruise arrivals, a live overtourism move worth knowing if crowding is your worry. Antibes, closer in, has a Provençal market, the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, and old ramparts.
Menton, 30 to 35 minutes
The last town before Italy, gentler and less crowded than Nice or Cannes, roughly 7 EUR one way. Its February lemon festival overlaps Nice’s Carnival season if your dates line up.
The Train des Merveilles, into the Alps
For something wilder, this scenic line climbs from Nice-Ville past hilltop villages toward Tende, over 1,000m up, on the same regional network. It runs daily in summer with reduced service the rest of the year, and a bilingual guide narrates the morning departure.
Read more: keep it in the city with our Nice guide , or spread the coast across a week with the 7-day itinerary .