Nice
Nice is UNESCO-listed as a winter resort, which is what it was before it was a summer one: the Promenade des Anglais was paid for in the 1820s by English visitors escaping their own winter.
Nice in a nutshell
Nice: what to expect
311,000+ stops in France are planned on Stippl, and this is the shape they make.
Nice is the Riviera's capital and its arrival hall, and it divides into three walkable strips. Vieux Nice's ochre lanes sit behind the Cours Saleya, where you eat socca standing up straight out of the copper pan. The nineteenth-century grid runs around Place Masséna, and the Promenade des Anglais stretches seven kilometres along the Baie des Anges, paid for by the English winter visitors it is named after. Colline du Château costs nothing and gives you the whole bay.
Nice was built for winter and our travellers use it for summer. UNESCO listed the city in 2021 as a winter resort of the Riviera, and three in five of the trips starting here begin in June, July or August while barely one in twenty falls between November and February. It is also where a French trip slows down: one French stop in five is planned with no overnight at all, and in Nice it is one in fifteen.
Base yourself here rather than moving, because Nice is a hub and almost never a whole trip. Villefranche is seven minutes along the coast, Èze is a medieval village four hundred metres above the sea on a city bus, and Menton and the Italian border are half an hour east. Nice and Marseille are the only real pairing in France, so the two together are the shape of a southern trip. Bring water shoes: the beaches are pebble end to end.
Who Nice is for
One base, many day trips
Nice is a trip's only stop just 3.6% of the time; it is a hub for Èze, Monaco, Villefranche, Antibes and Menton
Summer travellers.
60.2% of our arrivals fall in June–August, the tightest season of any French destination we hold
Museums and a beach habit
Matisse, Chagall and the Musée des Beaux-Arts sit above a swimmable sea
Families.
Cimiez and Libération are residential, the beaches are shallow-shelving and the tram makes the city legible
Couples, first-time Riviera
which is what our sources lead
When to go to Nice
Shoulder
May–June, September
warm sea, full service, no August wall. Our May, June and September together are 39.8% of arrivals
High summer
July–August
41.3% of our arrivals in two months, at the highest prices of the year
Winter
November–March
mild, wet in November, and almost empty of our travellers at 8.3% across five months. The city is open; nobody we carry is there
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What not to miss in Nice
Photo by Henrique Ferreira via Unsplash
Photo by Eric Prouzet via UnsplashClimb Colline du Château at sunset
there is no castle, there is the view over the Baie des Anges, and it is free; a lift runs up from the eastern end of the Promenade
Eat socca at Cours Saleya, standing
the market by morning, the pancake straight from the copper pan
Walk the Promenade des Anglais end to end
7 km of blue chairs, and the thing the UNESCO listing is actually about
Take the coast train to Villefranche-sur-Mer
seven minutes to a deep-water bay with an ochre old town stacked above it
Ride bus 82 up to Èze village
a medieval eyrie 400 m above the sea, with a cactus garden on the summit
The Matisse and Chagall museums at Cimiez
two artists who chose to work here, in a Roman suburb with an olive grove
The neighbourhoods of Nice
Vieux Nice
Atmosphere
Baroque old town: narrow sun-trapped alleys, ochre and terracotta fronts, the Cours Saleya market, restaurants at every doorway
Cours Saleya's flower and produce market, and socca eaten standing up.
Port Lympia (Le Port)
Boutique stays
The 1749 harbour, pointu fishing boats beside yachts, quayside restaurants on Place de l'Île de Beauté
The quayside eating is better and cheaper than the Promenade's.
Cimiez
Families, quiet
Hilltop Roman Cemenelum: the Matisse and Chagall museums, an arena, a monastery and olive gardens
Two major museums and a Roman site, ten minutes above the noise.
Gambetta
Budget
West of the centre, from the station down to the sea; ordinary, well-priced, walkable
The cheapest central beds without leaving the walkable city.
Carré d'Or / Masséna
Upscale central
The 19th-century grid behind the Promenade: department stores, Place Masséna, the tram spine
Promenade access with shops and the tram at the door.
Libération
Local life
North of the centre around Place du Général de Gaulle, with a Tuesday-to-Saturday farmers' market
The least touristed market in the city, and the tram to everything.
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Where to stay in Nice
Vieux Nice for atmosphere, Carré d'Or for shops and the Promenade, Le Port for boutique hotels and parking: this is our own data's own division and our sources agree with it
Vieux Nice
€90–200
Baroque old town: narrow sun-trapped alleys, ochre and terracotta fronts, the Cours Saleya market, restaurants at every doorway
Port Lympia (Le Port)
€100–220
The 1749 harbour, pointu fishing boats beside yachts, quayside restaurants on Place de l'Île de Beauté
Cimiez
€90–190
Hilltop Roman Cemenelum: the Matisse and Chagall museums, an arena, a monastery and olive gardens
Gambetta
€70–140
West of the centre, from the station down to the sea; ordinary, well-priced, walkable
Carré d'Or / Masséna
€130–280
The 19th-century grid behind the Promenade: department stores, Place Masséna, the tram spine
Libération
€70–140
North of the centre around Place du Général de Gaulle, with a Tuesday-to-Saturday farmers' market
What to eat in Nice
A wood-fired chickpea-flour pancake, crisp at the edge and soft in the middle, eaten hot with pepper
A flatbread of slow-cooked onions, anchovy and black olive: no tomato, no cheese
A round loaf soaked in olive oil and filled with the salade niçoise ingredients; never cooked tuna
Raw vegetables, anchovy or tuna, egg and olives, no cooked green beans and no potato in the strict version
Small vegetables stuffed with meat and herbs and baked
Beef braised in red wine, served with ravioli: Nice's own ravioli, which predates the French claim to them
A sweet chard tart with pine nuts and raisins; the local dessert nobody expects
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Nice customs and what not to do
Niçois before French
the city was Italian until 1860. The local language is Nissart, the flag is red and white, and the city was Italian until 1860, this is not decoration, it is how the food and the street names work
Greet on entering
Greet on entering
Beachwear stays on the beach.
Walking into a Vieux Nice restaurant in swimwear is the one visitor habit sources name
Lunch late, dinner later
kitchens fill from about 20:00
The Promenade is a street
not a resort boardwalk. Cyclists and skaters use the cycle lane at speed and it is separate from the walkway
Do
- Bring water shoes, or plan to buy a pair on day one.
- Take the TER for day trips; it is cheaper and faster than any coach tour.
- Eat socca hot, from the pan.
- Book July and August accommodation months ahead.
Don't
- Don't expect sand, whatever a guide says.
- Don't get off at Èze-sur-Mer expecting the village.
- Don't buy the €10 airport ticket without checking two singles first.
- Don't leave a bag on the beach while you swim, our sources are unanimous.
Daily budget in Nice
Budget
€65–100
Hostel dorm, market lunch, public beach, tram
Mid-range
€150–240
Three-star in Vieux Nice or Gambetta, a restaurant dinner, a day trip
High-end
€350+
Belle-époque hotel on the Promenade, a private beach club, taxis
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Fun facts about Nice
Nice was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2021 as a "Winter Resort Town of the Riviera": the listing is about the townscape the British and Russian winter colonies built
The Promenade des Anglais is named literally "the walk of the English": the first path was funded in the 1820s by English winter visitors led by Reverend Lewis Way
The Saint-Nicolas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, completed in 1912, is the largest Russian Orthodox church outside Russia
Nice has its own vineyard appellation, Bellet, inside the city boundary
Nice's ravioli claim predates the French one: the dish arrived with the city's Ligurian kitchen, not from Paris
Local tips for Nice
A single is €1.70
A single tram or bus ticket is €1.70 and allows unlimited same-direction transfers for 74 minutes. The rechargeable card costs €2, and buying from the driver adds €0.40
The airport round trip
The airport round trip is a separate €10 ticket, and it is worth checking against two singles at the standard fare before buying
The coastal TER line
The coastal TER line is the day-trip machine. Villefranche, Antibes, Cannes, Menton and Monaco are all on it, all under 40 minutes, all far cheaper than a tour
Theft on the Promenade
Nice is a low-risk city and the risk it does have is theft. Pickpocketing and bag theft cluster on the Promenade, at Place Masséna and around the station
A national advisory
The France-wide advisory is "exercise increased caution" for terrorism and unrest, which is a national posture and not a Nice-specific one
Nice questions, answered
Base yourself in Nice and let the coastal train do the work. Nice is the first stop on 17.34% of the trips it appears in on Stippl, so the base is usually decided for you. Lay Monaco, Villefranche, Antibes and Menton out in Stippl against the opening days, because the Riviera museums close on different weekdays.
Three or four, and most of the extra is day trips. People who plan Nice on Stippl give it 2 nights, which covers the city and one excursion. The Riviera is what earns the extra nights: Monaco, Eze, Antibes and Menton are half a day each.
A base, more than anywhere else on this coast. Only 6.52% of Nice stops planned on Stippl are same-day visits, the lowest of the French cities on this site, because people fly into the airport and stay put while they work their way along the Riviera.
No, pebbles, the whole way along the Promenade des Anglais. The city's own advice is water shoes, and a thick mat beats a towel. If sand is what you are after, the trains run east to Villefranche and west to Antibes and Juan-les-Pins in well under half an hour.
June to September. May is possible if you are the sort who gets in anyway, and April is not, whatever the air temperature suggests. September is the sweet spot: the water is at its warmest, the summer crowds have gone home and the terraces are all still open.
No, and it is a liability. The old town is pedestrian, parking is scarce and expensive, and the coastal train reaches every day trip on the Riviera except Eze village, which has a bus up from the station below. Hire a car for a Verdon or Provence detour, on the day you leave.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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