Nice is where you sleep. The coast is where the day goes.
Which Monaco half-day actually stops in Eze village. What the boat round to Villefranche costs. Whether the Verdon gorge and the lavender fit into one day out. Reviews of every tour that leaves from this city.
Monaco, Old Nice, the bay and the gorge.
Four bookings that between them cover the coast, the city, the water and the mountains behind. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The whole coast at onceFrench Riviera in One DayMonaco, Eze, Cannes and Antibes in one long day out of the city. The tour more people here book than any other.
02The first morningWalking Tour of Old Nice and Castle HillOld Nice on foot, then the climb up Castle Hill for the bay. Do it before the Cours Saleya market packs up at one.
03An hour on the water1-Hour Sightseeing Cruise to Villefranche BayOut past the port and round the headland into Villefranche bay. The cheapest way to see what the coast actually looks like.
04The day inlandGorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender TourThe Verdon gorge and the lavender plateau above it. A long drive each way and the only one of the four that needs a full day.
East to Monaco, west to Cannes, or inland to the lavender.
Nice is a departure point before it is a destination. Four directions out of the city, what it costs to get on the minibus for each, and how long a day it takes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze Village Small Group Half-Day Tour
East to MonacoThe palace rock, the casino, and Eze on the way back.
West to CannesLa Croisette, the Antibes ramparts, Saint-Paul on the hill.
Inland to ProvenceGrasse, the perched villages and a long lunch.
North to the gorgeThe Verdon canyon and the Valensole plateau.
All 116 guided days out of Nice →
Six places within ninety minutes of the Promenade.
A principality, a village on a rock, a cruise anchorage, two film-festival towns, a walled hill town full of galleries and the perfume country behind Grasse. Pick the one you want, then pick the day out.
From the water the Riviera stops being a road.
The coast road is a queue by ten. A boat out of the port is not. Villefranche is one of the deepest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, Cap Ferrat is a headland of private gardens you can only see from the sea, and the run down to Monaco takes an hour with the whole cliff on your left.
The deepest bay on the coast, six kilometres from Nice.
Cruise ships anchor in Villefranche because the water goes to ninety metres a few hundred yards off the beach, and tenders run passengers ashore under a row of ochre houses that has not changed in two hundred years. If you are off a ship you have one day and a hard deadline; if you are staying in Nice it is fifteen minutes on the train.
- 11-Hour Sightseeing Cruise to Villefranche Bayfrom $33
- 2Snorkeling Speedboat Tour in Villefranche Bayfrom $68
- 3From Nice, Cannes, Villefranche: French Riviera Day Tripfrom $123
The tours travellers leaving Nice actually take.
Every review on the site →What each one costs, how long a day it takes, and the reason it holds its place.
1
French Riviera in One Day
Spend nine hours touring the French Riviera by air-conditioned bus, from the Moyenne Corniche and Èze to Monaco, Antibes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and Cannes. Guides such as Samantha, Peter, David, and Fabrice are known for friendly local commentary, though the schedule can feel rushed.
From · $85
Read our review →
2
1-Hour Sightseeing Cruise to Villefranche Bay
from $33
3
1 or 2-Day Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $28
4
Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour
from $125
5
Walking Tour of Old Nice and Castle Hill
from $39
6
Exclusive Guided Tour in a One-of-a-Kind Electric Car
from $56
7
NO DIET CLUB – Unique Local Food in Nice !
from $81
8
The Best of the French Riviera Full Day Tour
from $112
Old Nice takes a morning. Take it early.
Everything in the city →
The old town is eight streets deep and Italian in everything but the flag — Nice only became French in 1860. Walk it before the market shuts, climb Castle Hill for the bay, then eat socca standing up. These three carry more travellers than anything else inside the city limits.
Vieux Nice and Castle Hill
Through the Cours Saleya flower market and the ochre lanes behind it, then up the steps to the waterfall and the view down the whole Baie des Anges. Shaded almost the whole way, which matters in August.
Socca, pissaladière, pan bagnat
Nice eats like Liguria: chickpea pancake off a hot copper pan, onion tart, small black olives, and a rosé from the Bellet hills behind the airport. Guided tastings run through the market and the bakeries either side of it.
The Promenade end to end
A separated bike lane runs the length of the Promenade des Anglais and keeps going past the port. An e-bike gets you up to Cimiez and the Roman arena without the climb; a plain one is fine for the seafront.
Chickpea pancakes, Bellet rosé, and a bench full of essences.
The city eats Ligurian and drinks from vineyards inside its own boundary — Bellet is one of the smallest appellations in France and it starts behind the airport. Book the market walk for the morning and the tasting for the afternoon.
What a day out of Nice actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The gap between a morning in the old town and a shared minibus to the Verdon is bigger than most people budget for.
Old-town walks, the harbour cruise, a perfume workshop, a bar crawl and the market tastings.
The shared minibus days: Monaco and Eze, Cannes and Antibes, Provence, the gorge and the lavender.
Private drivers, small-group days with a perfumery stop, and the chartered boats.
The old town is Italian, and it closes at one.
Cours Saleya is flowers and vegetables six mornings a week and antiques on Mondays, and all of it is gone by early afternoon. The lanes behind it are dark, narrow and full of socca ovens. Go at nine, not at four.
Every walk through Old Nice →
Three things that only happen between Nice and the border.
Hill villages and blue water exist all over the Mediterranean. A perfume industry two centuries old, a road cut into a cliff by Napoleon, and a lavender plateau three hours inland do not.
Making your own scent
Grasse has been distilling flowers since the sixteenth century, when the town’s tanners started perfuming leather gloves and never stopped. Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard all run their factories as visitable buildings, and every one of them will sit you at a bench with a set of essences and let you blend a bottle to take home. The formula stays on file, which is how they get you next year.
- 1Monaco & Eze Small-Group Day Trip with Perfumery Visit from Nice★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 847 reviews
- 2Fragonard Eze: Perfume Making Class and Factory Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 743 reviews
- 3Discovery Perfume Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 637 reviews
A village on a spike of rock
Eze is a medieval village welded to a limestone outcrop four hundred metres above the water, with one street, no cars and a cactus garden where the castle used to be. Almost every Monaco day trip stops here for an hour, which is why the lanes are empty before ten and impassable at noon. The Fragonard factory sits at the bottom by the road.
- 1Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze Village Small Group Half-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,129 reviews
- 2Monaco, Monte Carlo, Eze, La Turbie 7H Shared Tour from Nice★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 956 reviews
- 3Monaco & Eze Small-Group Day Trip with Perfumery Visit from Nice★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 847 reviews
The gorge and the lavender
The Verdon cuts a seven-hundred-metre limestone canyon out of the back country and fills the bottom of it with water the colour of antifreeze. The Valensole plateau above it goes purple for roughly four weeks from the middle of June. Outside that window you get the gorge and a lot of green stubble, and the tour is still worth the drive.
- 1Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,975 reviews
- 2Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 342 reviews
- 3Gorges du Verdon Shared Tour from Nice★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 273 reviews
Four Riviera bookings that will not wait.
Most days out of Nice can be arranged the night before over a glass of Bellet. These four run on flowering seasons, small boats, race calendars and a market that only happens on a Friday.
- 01Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender TourThe Valensole lavender flowers for about four weeks from mid-June and is cut in July. The tours sell out inside that window and mean much less outside it.
- 02Snorkeling Speedboat Tour in Villefranche BaySmall boats, small groups, and a bay that gets choppy by afternoon in summer. Morning departures go first and the crews cancel on swell without much notice.
- 03Full-Day Italian Market, Menton, & La Turbie TourThe cross-border market runs on a fixed day of the week. Turn up on the wrong one and you have driven to Italy to look at an empty square.
- 04Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze Village Small Group Half-Day TourMonaco shuts its own streets for the Grand Prix in late May and for the boat show in September. Coach access and parking go first, then the day trips.
Rain on the Riviera is short, heavy and inconvenient.
Autumn storms come through fast and the mistral can take the boats off the water for two days at a time. Both have the same answer: go inside and go inland. A perfume bench, a tasting room, a market hall and a museum will fill a day that was meant to be spent on a deck.
By place — the coast and behind it
By kind of day — boat, minibus, bench or bar
Five days from Nice without moving hotel once.
Old NiceThe newest reviews from Nice and the coast.
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Full-Day Private Cannes Shore Excursion: Nice, Monaco, Eze, Antibes
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