A guide to Nice, France
“Nice? It’s flipping lovely!”
Posted by: Josh, 16 July 2026
Before we started planning our holiday in Nice, I had a certain picture of it in mind. High-end shops, azure seas, fine French and Italian foods, beautiful neoclassic buildings on old town squares where you can rest over a drink, a meal, or a gelato.
By the time we came to leave, we’d found all of those things. But we’d also discovered historic old towns full of character and insights into the French Riviera’s past, relaxing scenic coastal walks, pretty green spaces scattered throughout the city, and easy access to the Alps without needing to rent a car.
This is our guide to visiting to Nice.
Contents
Introduction to Nice
Nice is quite a large city. As of 2024, it was expected to welcome around 2.2 million tourists to stay in its hotels and apartments, and that number is only likely to have increased. Many more people come to visit on days out while staying in Cannes, Monte Carlo, and the dozens of picturesque towns and villages along the Cote d’Azur, and only 570,000 people who call Nice home. It’s a city geared towards tourism, is what I’m saying.
If that sounds bad, just remember that you are a tourist. A good tourist, since you have the taste and discernment to be reading this website, but a tourist nonetheless. That means you’ll benefit from the excellent city-wide tram network, the bountiful choice of restaurants, bakeries and bars just itching to part you from your Euros, and from the fact that many of the locals you meet can speak some English.
And besides, so many of the things that make Nice a tourist destination are authentically Niçoise things: the architecture of the old town and Place Masséna; the excellent food with its mix of French and Italian influences; and the beautiful and historic old towns and villages within a short train journey’s reach which are still home to castles, churches and other sights built long before Nice became part of France in 1860.
If you’re a high-flying business type with money to burn, or an inherited-wealth type with money to burn, or a just-won-the-lottery type with money to burn… my gosh, are there a lot of places for you to burn that cash in Nice. It’s a wealthy shopper’s paradise, with great restaurants, bars and designer shops aplenty for you to spend your hard-earned-or-otherwise cash in.
Or, so I think. As lower flying types (we're perhaps a little higher than the Wright brothers ever managed, but not by much), we didn’t over-indulge in Nice or the equally billionaire-friendly playgrounds of nearby Cannes and Monte-Carlo.
But you don’t have to splash the cash to have a wonderful holiday in Nice. Outside of the peak summer holiday months, we found decent-quality accommodation was available at reasonable prices. Food isn’t cheap, but it’s a little cheaper than in London or Paris, and there are a lot of enjoyable things to do without spending any money at all.
Castle Hill
Let’s start our journey through Nice at Castle Hill, or Colline du Château in French, from where you can see very lovely views of the Bay of Angels and stroll around the ruins of the old castle in a park at the top of the hill. Getting to the top is easy, with the peak of the hill less than 100m above sea level, though on a windy day – and there are plenty of them, this close to the sea, it can be a bit of work staying upright in the breeze on the paths at the peak.
Every day, at midday, a cannon is fired. If you believe the commonly told story, the cannon was fired at midday every day at the request of a Scotsman, Sir Thomas Coventry-More, to remind his wife to quit her socialising and come home for lunch.
Should I ever have a cannon installed to tell Liz what time she needs to stop doing her own thing and to come home and lunch with me, I hope she’ll have me fired out of it.
Whatever the actual story behind it – it’s proving hard to find an alternative tale, so perhaps I’m wrong to doubt it as much as I do – the cannon fire is at least one fun quirk in a city which, for all its many, many other qualities, felt a bit short of them.
Should you be visiting in summer months, when temperatures can soar beyond 35 degrees Celsius, you’ll be able to cool off by the Cascade du Château, the Castle waterfall which the breeze whips up into a cooling mist to stand, relax, and not realise you’re still getting sunburned in. It’s a very pretty place, though you’ll have to get there very early to avoid crowds of tourists getting in the background of your dream holiday picture.
While there are some even more stunning views of the coastline to be found elsewhere – you can click here to scroll down to our section on day trips from Nice if you can’t handle the suspense – I’d consider it a missed opportunity to visit Nice and not make the trip to the top of the hill.
The Old Town
Down the hill, in what you might think of as the centre of Vieux Nice, sights to see include the Palace of Justice and Nice Cathedral. As Western Europeans accustomed to seeing countless Baroque churches on our close-to-home travels, we preferred the architecture of the Russian Orthodox Saint-Nicolas de Nice Cathedral a few kilometres away in the North-West of the city, but visitors from further afield may appreciate the experience more.
You may also want to visit the Marché aux fleurs, or flower market to English speakers, which is held from Tuesdays to Sundays on Cours Saleya between the Promenade des Anglais and Place Pierre Gautier.
Should you be feeling peckish, we found that the restaurants and bars generally served good quality food and drink at slightly elevated prices. Skip ahead if you want to see a short list of suggestions for where to eat and drink in Nice and, if you find any others worth recommending while you’re there, please let us know in the comments. We’d love to add a few more suggestions with your help.
How long you eventually end up staying in the old town will vary depending on your interests and how long you want to spend looking at the views from Castle Hill. Liz and I happily spent a whole day taking in the old town, strolling down the beach-side Promenade des Anglais, and then wandering back towards our hotel in the newer part of town along Avenue Jean-Médecin.
If you’re less keen on a whole day on your feet, you could see most of what the old town has to offer in just a few hours before spending the rest of your afternoon and evening in another part of town.
The new part of town
Since I’ve just mentioned it, you’ll probably want to wander along at least some of the Promenade des Anglais, the 7km-long road that stretches along Nice’s shoreline all the way to the airport. It’s cheating a little to include this in the “new town” section, as part of the road stretches to the old town and further beyond to the harbour area.
Its main appeal, to me, is its proximity to the sea and to other places you’re going to think about visiting: the Old Town, Place Masséna, your beach club or public beach of choice. I didn’t find the road itself to be particularly beautiful. It’s largely what you’d expect from a main road in a tourist town, with plenty of traffic, a good number of hotels and simple bars and restaurants along the side of it, and crowds of people sharing the same pavement as you.
Somehow though, I liked walking down this road anyway. The sea is a soothing, sparkling blue and azure blanket; if you feel stressed in crowds, as I often do, just pause for a second and take in the view for a while. The pavements are busy but they’re also so wide and well-maintained that they don’t feel overcrowded. And there’s none of the neon lighting and far less of the loud music being pumped out of loudspeakers in bars and restaurants that has taken the shine off plenty of other beachfront walks for me in other countries.
From the Promenade des Anglais, it’s easy to get to Place Masséna, the spacious 19th-century square at the lower end of Avenue Jean-Médecin. This spacious and immaculately kept town square is surrounded by beautiful Italian-style buildings and is home to the grand (astute readers will notice that I'm not saying 'beautiful' or 'not that awful') Fontaine du Soleil.
It also hosts Conversation in Nice, an art installation composed of seven figures perched 12 metres high on separate plinths, which glow gently in slowly changing colours at night. The pavement has pleasingly neat black and white tiles, and everything around you looks utterly resplendent in the sunshine. There’s even a big park, the Promenade du Paillon, to the side of the square, so you can enjoy some green space too.
Avenue Jean-Médecin, which leads to Place Masséna, is one of the main roads through Nice. It’s a big shopping street, with a mix of designer and less-designer shops, cafés, and restaurants either side of it. From Place Masséna to Nice-Ville station, towards the top end of the street, takes about 20 minutes to walk.
Also on Avenue Jean-Médecin is the largest Catholic church in the city, the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption. A neo-gothic cathedral, it was playing host to a light exhibition when we visited in May this year. If you’ve never seen a truly grand Gothic church before – the Notre Dame de Paris, or Cologne Cathedral for instance – you’ll be suitably impressed. If you have seen Notre Dame de Paris or a similarly imposing cathedral before, then keep your expectations a little more in check.
There are some other places in town that we didn’t have time to visit; you can jump ahead to ‘Things we didn’t do’ for some links to places you can read more about them. We instead saved our time to go visit some places just outside of Nice, places which made our stay in this region one of our more special holidays.
Day trips from Nice
One of my favourite things about Nice is how easy it is to reach a variety of small towns and villages with a slightly different appeal to the city itself.
Below are some short introductions to a few of the places we visited during our time in the South of France this year.
Menton
Read our guide to Menton to find out more about what to see there and what you should know before visiting
Menton’s most famous sight is the Rampes Saint-Michel, an 18th-century staircase which goes from the main road along the beach up to the Basilique Saint-Michel. It has a pretty old part of town, two botanical gardens, and lovely colourful buildings along its seafront.
It also has many, many lemons and lemon-based snacks and drinks for you to sample.
A very lovely place that we would happily visit again and again, and with enough to see and do to keep most tourists happy for a few hours or even a full day, we can understand why Menton attracts so many visitors. But as nice as our time there was, Liz and I both enjoyed seeing the smaller and slightly-less-visited Villefranche-sur-Mer even more.
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Read our guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer to find out more about what to see there and what you should know before visiting
Villefranche-sur-Mer offers beautiful beaches, a picturesque and bustling harbour area, quieter and calmer historic streets and buildings and a couple of different routes that you can walk a short way back to Nice. It's small but delightful.
While you don’t need to spend more than half a day in Villefranche-sur-Mer, unless you’re planning to while away a few hours on the beach, it was perhaps my favourite of all the towns and villages close to Nice that we visited in this year.
If you’re only spending a few days in the South of France and want to see as many places as possible, you could fit in a visit to Menton in the morning, take the train back to Villefranche after lunch, then wander back to Nice in the evening for dinner in the old town.
Èze Village
Read our guide to Èze Village to find out more about what to see there and what you should know before visiting
From our experience, Èze Village is the most popular and crowded of all these destinations. That's partly a feeling caused by the narrow streets of this historic old village, which has a good amount of medieval architecture still standing. It has a very well put together exotic garden at its peak, built around a ruined fort, which feels even more busy than the streets below but which is still a treat to see. The garden is renowned for having some of the best views of the Riviera from the viewpoint at the top.
Èze is also home to the Fragonard Cosmetics Lab, so if you can’t make it to the spiritual home of French perfumes, Grasse, but still feel the need to listen to a long advert for them – or 'learn more about the craft of making perfumes', for those of you who are a little less cynical than me – then this is the place for you.
Many people reach Èze Village by taking the train to Èze station, which is in the newer part of town, and hiking for an hour up the Chemin de Nietszche. While steep and challenging, it’s not as fearsome as some guides make it out to be.
Beaulieu-sur-Mer
We spent only one day in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, most of which was at the Javanaise Plage beach club. In May, we found this club offered some of the most reasonable prices for a spot on a sun lounger of all the clubs in the towns we've listed in this section – more money than you would want to pay for a day on the beach, but not enough to prompt your bank to ask if your card has been stolen – and the water is just lovely. Sadly, when we visited, a swarm of jellyfish had heard about the value and clear seas and crowded us out of the water for much of the afternoon. Beach club prices change depending on the season and vary substantially according to how luxurious an experience you're looking for, so shop around a bit if you decide to visit one.
The town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer felt quite exclusive, a bit like Monte Carlo on a smaller scale. It was pleasant enough to walk around for a short while, but not quite as lovely to us the places above. Perhaps someone with greater means, or greater local knowledge, would appreciate their time here more.
Monte Carlo, Monaco
If Beaulieu-sur-Mer felt to us like Monte Carlo on a smaller scale, Monte Carlo is Monte Carlo on a Monte Carlo scale. Whoever would have thought?
It is rare to visit a city or a country and find exactly what you’d expect to find, but that was the case for us here. Full of designer shops, elegantly dressed people and, thanks to the Formula E race being scheduled for a couple of days after our visit, decked out in full race weekend preparations. Grandstands, protective fencing, sponsors’ logos, even some of the Lola Yamaha team members walking the length of the track.
I didn’t deliberately plan our holiday to coincide with a race weekend, but as a long-term F1 and motorsport obsessive, I would plan it that way in future if Liz lets me get away with it. Just looking at the Fairmont hairpin above is reminding me how giddily excited I was walking around the roads that make up the race circuit.
If you’re not a fan of Formula One, obscene wealth, or both, you probably do not need to plan to spend too long in Monte Carlo. Enjoy gazing down at the harbour, take in some of the views of the coast and then, if you have the energy, walk the coastal path all the way to Menton. It’s a truly worthwhile three-hour hike - much more visually appealing than the densely packed buildings inside Monte Carlo.
The Verdon Gorge
While you could spend as little as a few hours in any of the places above, you need to set aside a full day to visit the Verdon Gorge.
A 25km canyon carved through the pre-Alps between the town of Castellane and the man-made Lac de Sainte-Croix, a reservoir formed by the construction of a dam during the 1970s, following the Gorge takes you through some of the best scenery you’ll find in the South of France without venturing higher up into the Alps.
If you can’t drive, don’t feel confident driving on unfamiliar mountain roads, or just prefer to have a guide on hand to explain where you are and what you’re seeing, we think it’s well worth considering a guided tour to the Verdon Gorge.
The views on the way to the gorge are jaw-dropping. While tours won’t take you all the way into the higher Alps, even the lower hills are just spellbinding to look at. Guided tours follow a road which tracks alongside the Verdon River, brilliantly icy blue as it snakes down the mountains towards Lac de Sainte-Croix, and through beautiful unspoilt hilly landscapes with only a handful of small villages and towns sparsely spaced along the route. At the panoramic viewpoints, you’re likely to spot many vultures gliding overhead – and only barely overhead, in the case of one brave bird who flew no more than a handful of metres right above Liz and I.
The downside of a guided tour, of course, is that you don’t get much flexibility to decide how long to stay at the various stops you make along the way. Guided tours also involve spending a lot of time in a car, as Lac de Sainte-Croix is around two hours from Nice. Guides will take you to several different stops along the way over the course of between eight and 10 hours.
If you’d prefer to drive to the Verdon Gorge by yourself and want to know the best spots the tour guides take you, below are a couple of places we loved and a couple we didn’t love quite so much.
We were big fans of Castellane. A small and historic village at the upper end of the gorge, settled by the Romans and with evidence of humans living in the area long before that, we could very happily have spent a full day there. It has a busy traditional market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, a couple of nice bakeries, and gorgeous scenery all around you. If you’re fancying something more active than snacking and admiring the views, you can take a canoe or kayak out onto the River Verdon or Lake Castillon nearby – or try horseback riding, rock climbing or even paragliding.
It almost goes without saying that you have to visit Lac de Sainte-Croix. Every bit as beautiful in person as in the pictures you’ve seen, rent a boat and explore the lake at your own pace. If you’re not sold yet, it may be helpful to know that Lac de Sainte-Croix is to date the only place we’ve seen a Samoyed standing majestically on the back of a pedal boat. You don’t want to miss out on such things.
One last recommendation, slightly different to the two above, is to make a slight detour to Pizzeria Jean-Louis, a small and unremarkable looking place close to Moustiers-Saint-Marie. Generally, a stop at a business belonging to the tour guide’s friend would be the most tiresome part of a guided tour but in this case the pizza really delivered. It has a very thin and crispy base, good quality cheese and far better views than your average pizza joint.
Sadly, we visited Verdon Gorge too early to see the lavender blooms. While timing varies slightly depending on conditions, mid-July is the best time to see the fields in their brightest colours. Skip ahead to our things we didn’t do section for a link to a guide where you can find out a bit more.
Onto the stops which Liz and I would leave out of our future travel schedule.
I'll start with Grasse, which we found to be a little less pretty and interesting than some of the other places we visited in our stay in France. It’s still a nice place, and there are things that others may enjoy more than us. If you’re keen to learn about the history of soaps and perfumes, the Fragonard Factory tour may appeal. An American couple on our tour were clearly impressed by the rather austere Grasse Cathedral, which is home to three paintings by the Flemish master Rubens.
If those things appeal to you, maybe you’ll love Grasse. If, though, you’re reading this guide and thinking ‘hey, this writer knows what’s good’, then perhaps it’s a town you can leave off your personal tour itinerary.
Though it’s very popular with tourists, or at least with their tour guides, we weren’t blown away by Moustiers Sainte-Marie. It’s a pretty village, but one spoiled by too many people like us crowding into it during the daytime. I’d recommend only a quick visit to see the Chapelle Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, about 20 minutes climb up a long flight of stairs. The countryside around the village is beautiful, with olive trees, cypress trees and luscious greenery for miles around.
If you want more detail about the Verdon Gorge, along with some more of Liz's pictures of our tour, you can read our longer guide to help you decide if a Verdon Gorge guided tour is worth spending your money on.
Things we didn't do and where to read about them
Even though we didn't fall for Grasse, there are still some really cool streets to explore
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I prefer to share the work of other travel bloggers in these sections when I can, but this tourism guide is a helpful one for learning about when and where to see the Verdon region’s lavender fields. It also includes information on some other activities you might want to research, such as hiking, climbing and, erm, the Truffle Centre. Maybe keep a sprig of lavender to sniff if you visit that last one.
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We didn’t have enough time to visit the Matisse Museum in Nice, but The Good Life France did and enjoyed their time there. It seems like we missed out.
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Though I mentioned Grasse was not my favourite town in France, based on our short visit, this guide on Carrots and Tigers is much more positive.
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We didn’t venture further West down the coast to Cannes. Go Ask A Local has a guide to what to see and do, including a suggested two-day itinerary. I expected it all to be about shopping, dining and socialising – and, quelle surprise, there does seem to be a lot of that – but Lérins Islands look like somewhere I’d enjoy visiting for a bit of peace and tranquillity.
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We are determined to one day take the Train des Merveilles into Mercantour National Park. We have no regrets about what we did instead, taking a bus to the tranquil and picturesque town of Saint Martin-Vésubie (which is also within the enormous Mercantour boundaries) to spend time hiking in the Alps. But sometime in the near future, we'd love to visit some of the stops along this train journey - Saorge and Tende, in particular, are calling to us.
Places to eat and drink
We haven’t spent long enough in Nice to make a comprehensive list of the best places to eat and drink, but we can recommend trying the places below if you happen to be in the area:
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Our favourite bakery was Boulangerie par Michel Fiori, just a short walk from Nice station. It serves a huge variety of excellent-quality pastries, nice sandwiches, and a passable coffee. If you have a particularly sweet tooth, there are some over-indulgent treats mixed in among the classics.
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We found it hard to find a great coffee with milk in Nice. Our favourite cappuccino of the trip was bought in Eze, from Petit Loup Specialty Coffee. If you’re an espresso drinker, you’ll find finding good coffee much easier.
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You can, however, find a good coffee while having a very nice brunch at Garden Café on Boulevard Gambetta. Set brunch menus range in cost from 23 Euros to 30 Euros, but you can also pick and choose what you like from an a la carte menu too. We had to queue for a short while to get in but the food was tasty and the interior of the café is a relaxing place to eat, with comfortable seats and loads of leafy plants for decoration.
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We didn’t go to any top-end restaurants while in Nice. Our favourite at a reasonable price was Lavomatique in the old town, which serves a regularly changing menu of small plates. It’s a nice place to try out some interesting takes on a range of local favourite dishes and serves a good number of vegetarian plates every night. You will need a reservation, as it was packed when we visited and every time we walked past.
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We found very good gelato at Gelato D’Amore on Rue de France. It’s easy to miss, just a cart outside an Italian restaurant, but worth a small detour to try it. Buy a scoop or three of your favourite flavours and walk the very short distance to the Promenade des Anglais to eat in front of the sea.
Guide to public transport in Nice
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Nice is very well-served by a network of trams and buses, and there are four trains an hour on the line that runs through places including Villefranche-sur-Mer, Menton, Èze and Monte Carlo.
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Depending on how much and how far you plan to travel, you might want to purchase a Sud Azur Explore pass. These cards allow you unlimited travel on buses, trams and trains in the region. You can find out more here (note that this link takes you to a website written in French, so a small amount of simple translation is required).
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If you don’t plan to travel too far, it might work out cheaper to buy a Lignes d’Azur travel card and to top it up as and when you need to. Android phone users can download an app and use a digital card, and top up the card through the app. Apple phone users still have to buy a physical card, available at all tram and bus stops, and can then top up the card through the app or at any ticket machine.
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We used the travel card for our stay. With single bus tickets costing only 1.70 Euros, and trains generally no more than 10 euros each, this approach just about worked out cheaper than if we’d bought an Explore pass. If we weren’t so keen to explore Nice on foot, and if we’d used the trams a bit more, it might have been cheaper with the pass. Take a little while to figure which plan is best for you.
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If you are travelling by train and need to buy tickets at the station to get to nearby towns, a handy tip is to seek out the blue Zou ticket machines. We found most people queued by the red SNCF ticket machines, but you only need to buy from these if you’re travelling on longer routes. You’ll save a bit of time queueing.
Tips for visiting Nice
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If you can learn a few simple French phrases before you visit, your effort will be appreciated. This is true when visiting most countries – who doesn’t appreciate it when tourists make a genuine effort to communicate in the native tongue? – but, purely anecdotally, I’ve found it to be even more true in France than in many other places I've been.
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Since Nice welcomes a lot of tourists, the most popular restaurants can get booked up in advance. Don’t expect space will be made for you as a walk-in. It’s a good idea to make some reservations well ahead of time.
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Nice is a big city. We found staying in the central area around Avenue Jean-Médecin was the most convenient for our needs, since it’s close to the main train station and not too long a walk from the old town. The old town might be the most characterful area to stay in, but prices may reflect that.
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If you fancy a break from city and coastal life and want to see the Alps, we cannot recommend Saint Martin-Vésubie and the Pure Montagne Resort and Spa highly enough. It’s accessible by public transport, with buses leaving three times a day from the Les Arboras / Université stop. The buses have storage space underneath for larger suitcases, if you’re travelling heavy.
Final thoughts
Josh's final thoughts
A few days in Nice, even without venturing outside of the city, would make for a pleasing enough holiday. I appreciated how spacious and well-designed it feels, enjoyed the walk to Castle Hill and the many cute streets of the old town, and you’ll find it hard to find someone with complaints about the food, the people, the beachfront and the weather.
But what made our stay in Nice one of my favourite holidays yet was the easy access to historic, characterful villages and towns all along the South coast.
I went to Nice expecting to find somewhere pleasant, clean, modern and easy to get around. It’s all that, but a lot more too. I loved it.
Liz's final thoughts
As you may know if you’re a regular reader, I don’t particularly love big cities or super touristy destinations as a general rule – I don’t like to feel too crowded. With that in mind, you may think Nice wouldn’t really be my cup of tea. But guess what? You’d be wrong, because I loved it here.
Although it is a city and there were a lot of other people there, it never felt too busy. The streets are wide, and it’s easy to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and out into nature. Truth be told, that’s the part that really won me over – the incredibly easy access to beaches, hiking trails, beautiful gardens, oh, and the French Alps for good measure.
You won’t be completely cut off from everyday big city life, but you will be able to get away from all of that with minimal effort, if you so choose.
Whether you’re going for a swim in the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, enjoying one of the exotic gardens in Menton or Èze, hiking up mountains in Saint Martin-Vésubie, or just strolling along the seafront, it’s easy to get a good dose of the great outdoors despite the fact that Nice is somewhat of a big city.
If you’re someone who gets overwhelmed by crowds or who worries about getting around in unfamiliar places, I would encourage you to give Nice a try. You might just find yourself falling for its charms, just as I did.
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