Nice
Nice is the bed the Riviera is done from, with Èze, Monaco and Villefranche each a short train or bus away, and Matisse and Chagall above a swimmable sea. Socca from the copper pan at the morning market, standing.
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.
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Anyone basing for the Riviera
Nice is almost never a trip's only stop: it is the hub for Èze, Monaco, Villefranche, Antibes and Menton, and most give it 2 nights.
Summer travellers
Three in five arrivals fall in June to August, the tightest season of any French destination.
Museum-goers with 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 on a first Riviera trip
Nice is where the coast is easiest to start, with the promenade, the old town and the day trips all from one bed.
Maybe not for you: anyone expecting sand, since the beaches are pebble end to end; bring water shoes or book a paying beach club with loungers, and treat the sea as the point rather than the shore.
The best time to visit Nice
Shoulder
May to June and September
Warm sea, full service and no August wall; the Cannes festival in mid May is the one week the coast's hotels fill. September has the warmest sea of the year and the beach clubs still open.
High summer
July and August
The highest prices of the year, the Promenade at its fullest and the Jazz Festival and open-air concerts at Cimiez. The sea is warm, the beds are scarce and the trains along the coast run full.
Winter
November to March
Mild, wet in November and almost empty of our travellers, though the city is open. The Carnaval in February is the largest in France and the one event that fills a winter fortnight.
- July is the month most travellers plan Nice for on Stippl, and France as a whole is planned about 72 days ahead. 12.2% of Nice plans are made inside a fortnight, the lowest share in France we cover, which fits a summer coast with a known price wall.
- The Carnaval de Nice runs a fortnight from mid February, with the bataille de fleurs on Place Masséna. The 2026 edition is 11 February to 1 March; it is the largest carnival in France and the one time a winter stay needs booking ahead.
- The Cannes Film Festival in mid May fills the hotels along the whole coast, Nice included. The festival is thirty kilometres away and the rooms disappear anyway; the fortnight either side of it is the shoulder at its best.
- Nice's beaches are pebbles, and the water warms late. June is warm enough for most; September is the warmest sea of the year and the private beaches still have their loungers out, which is why it beats July on price and on water.
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Things to do in Nice
Colline du Château at sunset
Climb or take the lift from the eastern end of the Promenade to the hill where there is no castle, only the view over the Baie des Anges, free. The waterfall on the way is the surprise.
Socca at Cours Saleya
Eat the chickpea pancake straight from the copper pan at the market in the morning, standing, about €4. The market runs until one, and Mondays are the antiques.
The Promenade des Anglais
Walk the seven kilometres of blue chairs end to end, the thing the UNESCO listing is actually about, free. Early morning with the joggers or the last hour before dark.
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Take the coast train seven minutes to the deep-water bay with the ochre old town stacked above it, about €2. Swim off the beach and eat on the quay.
Èze village
Ride bus 82 up to the medieval eyrie four hundred metres above the sea, with the cactus garden on the summit, about €2 for the bus and €8 for the garden. Mornings, before the coaches.
The Matisse and Chagall museums
Spend an afternoon at Cimiez with two artists who chose to work here, in a Roman suburb with an olive grove, about €12 for both. Closed Tuesdays.
The neighbourhoods of Nice
Vieux Nice
Baroque alleys, the market
The baroque old town: narrow sun-trapped alleys, ochre fronts, the Cours Saleya market and restaurants at every doorway, with small hotels above the lanes. For atmosphere and for socca eaten standing up.
The market and the old town from the door, and the noise of the bars.
Carré d'Or
The grid, shops, the tram
The nineteenth-century grid behind the Promenade: department stores, Place Masséna and the tram spine, with the mid-range and grand hotels. For upscale central stays with the beach and the tram at the door.
The Promenade and the tram, and a shopping district rather than a quarter.
Le Port
The harbour, quayside restaurants
The 1749 harbour: pointu fishing boats beside yachts, quayside restaurants and the easiest parking, with boutique hotels around the basin. For boutique stays and for eating better and cheaper than the Promenade.
The quayside dinners and the parking, and a walk round the castle hill to the old town.
Gambetta
West of the centre, ordinary, cheap
West of the centre from the station down to the sea: ordinary, well-priced and walkable, with the budget hotels and the hostels. For budget travellers who want the walkable city.
The cheapest central beds, and the area behind the station at night.
Cimiez
Hilltop, museums, olive gardens
The hilltop Roman site: the Matisse and Chagall museums, an arena, a monastery and olive gardens, with a few quiet hotels. For families and for the museums above the noise.
Two museums and the quiet, and a bus down to the sea.
Libération
Farmers' market, local, the tram
North of the centre around the market square with a farmers' market Tuesday to Saturday, and apartments and small hotels. For local life and for the least touristed market in the city.
The market and the tram to everything, and no sea in sight.
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Where to stay in Nice
Stay in Vieux Nice for a first visit, in a small hotel above the lanes with the Cours Saleya market and the sea a few minutes away; Gambetta is the budget answer that is still central. Most people give Nice 2 nights on Stippl, and a quarter stay four or more. Book June to August early; those months carry the bulk of arrivals and rooms go six months ahead.
Vieux Nice
€90–200
Small hotels and apartments above the alleys, €100 to €200, loud at the front and fine at the back.
Carré d'Or
Mid-range hotels behind the Promenade, €130 to €250, and the grand seafront palaces from €400.
Le Port
Boutique hotels around the basin with parking, €120 to €240.
Gambetta
€70–140
The budget hotels and the hostels, €30 a bed to €110 a room, between the station and the sea.
Cimiez
€90–190
A few quiet hotels near the museums, €100 to €200, ten minutes uphill from the noise.
Libération
€70–140
Apartments and small hotels round the market square, €80 to €150, with the farmers' market outside.
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 and the flag is red and white; it is how the food and the street names work, not decoration.
Beachwear stays on the beach
Walking into a Vieux Nice restaurant in swimwear is the one visitor habit that gets named; a shirt and shoes for the old town, and the Promenade is a street.
The cycle lane is not a path
Kitchens fill from about eight and the early sitting is for visitors; the socca at the Cours Saleya is eaten standing at the pan, and the market is over by one.
The cycle lane is not a path
Cyclists and skaters use the Promenade's lane at speed and it is separate from the walkway; step into it and the bell is the warning you get.
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
- Expect sand, whatever a guide says
- Get off at Èze-sur-Mer expecting the village
- Walk in the Promenade's cycle lane
- Leave a bag on the beach while you swim
What a Nice trip costs
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 listed by UNESCO in 2021 as a winter resort town. The inscription covers the belle-époque townscape the British and Russian winter colonies built, not the beach.
The Promenade des Anglais is literally the walk of the English. English winter visitors led by Reverend Lewis Way paid for the first path in the 1820s, and it now runs 7 km along the bay.
The Russian cathedral in Nice is the largest outside Russia. Saint-Nicolas was completed in 1912 for the winter colony of the Russian aristocracy, and its onion domes sit behind the station.
Nice has its own vineyard appellation inside the city boundary. Bellet is grown on the hills above the airport, one of the smallest appellations in France.
Nice was Italian until the vote of 1860. It was Nizza before the vote that joined it to France, and the cooking, socca, pissaladière and pan bagnat, is Ligurian rather than Provençal.
Nice airport is the third-busiest in France. It handled more than 15 million passengers in 2025 and sits 7 km from the old town, which is why the city is the Riviera's arrival hall.
Local tips for Nice
A single is €1.70
A tram or bus ticket is €1.70 with 74 minutes of transfers; the rechargeable card is €2 and buying from the driver adds €0.40. The airport round trip is a separate €10 ticket.
The coastal train day-trips
Villefranche, Antibes, Cannes, Menton and Monaco are all on the TER, all under forty minutes and all far cheaper than a tour. Buy tickets at the machine; queues at the counter are long.
Èze is not on the train
Èze-sur-Mer station sits at sea level and the village is 400 metres above it. Take bus 82 or 112 from Nice instead, about €1.70, and walk down the Nietzsche path after.
No car in the centre
The old town is pedestrian and parking is the reason Le Port appears in every recommendation. Collect a hire car at the airport on the way out, not in town.
How long to stay
Most people give Nice 2 nights on Stippl: the old town and Castle Hill one day, Monaco or Èze the next. Three lets you add Antibes and Cannes on the same train line.
Pebbles and pickpockets
Entering the water barefoot is difficult and the shelf drops away at the centre of the bay, so bring water shoes. Bag theft clusters on the Promenade, Place Masséna and the station.
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.
Plan Nice in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
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