Let us save you the first mistake: changing hotels every two days. Nice is not always the most spectacular base. We do not care. Look at the train map and it becomes horribly convincing.
This is the plan we would give our own friends: five nights, sensible shoes and absolutely no good reason to spend the holiday inside a rental car.
Before you arrive
Location before sea view
Stay near a tram and within a sensible walk of Nice-Ville. Old Nice has the charm. Jean Médecin and Dubouchage have the logistics. You cannot have everything on the same corner, pichoun. Pick your priority.
Do not rent a car for these five days
The coastal railway handles the long east-west moves in this itinerary. Buses and walking cover the places the train does not. A car becomes useful when you add inland villages, remote beaches or a Saint-Tropez plan with awkward seasonal connections.
Choose the mood, then the hotel
For this itinerary, central Nice is the practical answer. Fine. The interesting question is what you want to find when the day trips are over.
Compare all four Nice shortlists →
Five days: keep the full contrast.
Use the complete route below. It gives Nice enough time to feel like a base, then changes direction and mood rather than collecting neighbouring towns for the sake of it.
Nice: learn the base before escaping it
Do not escape Nice at 9 am on your first morning. We can see you coming. Do Old Nice, the market and the sea. Climb if your legs agree. You do not need to finish Nice. You need to start understanding it.
Effort: Old Nice is flat but busy. Castle Hill is a staircase climb; a lift may run depending on opening times.
Do: leave one meal unplanned so the first day can absorb a late flight or an early collapse.
Next decision: understand Nice before choosing what to skip →
Villefranche and Cap-Ferrat: the beautiful, slower day
Start in Villefranche, five minutes from Nice by train. Then choose: a walk, a garden or a long lunch. Not all three plus six coves. Cap-Ferrat is gorgeous. It is not a scavenger hunt.
The catch: gradients and walking time matter. Choose one main Cap-Ferrat objective rather than treating the peninsula as a checklist.
Monaco and Menton: spectacle, then exhale
Monaco first, Menton after. Yes, the contrast is slightly violent. That is exactly why we like it. The train makes the pairing easy (about 20 minutes from Nice to Monaco, and Menton is on the same line), provided you do not turn Monaco into an inventory before lunch.
Effort: the Rock sits well above the port, but Monaco has 79 public lifts and 35 escalators. In Menton, the climb to Saint-Michel through the old town is the only real effort.
Do: check live rail information on the morning of travel. The route is frequent, but works and disruption do not consult your mood board.
Antibes: the western counterpoint
We really like Antibes, about 20 minutes west of Nice by train. There, we said it. Old town, ramparts, beach. It all fits. Add Cannes only if you actually want Cannes. Proximity is still not an instruction.
The catch: Cap d’Antibes is not the same thing as central Antibes. Reaching coves around the cape changes the transport calculation.
See who Antibes suits, and who should keep going to Cannes →
Èze, or admit that a slow day is allowed
Èze is gorgeous. At 11 am in August, you will simply not be the only genius who had the idea. Take the bus to the hilltop village. If the crowds, heat or your legs say no, stay in Nice. Nobody is taking points away.
Effort: even after the bus, the village is steep, cobbled and full of steps. If stairs are a problem, choose the slow Nice day.
Mametas rule: the flexible day is not a failure of planning. It is the part that makes the rest feel like a holiday.
If you choose Èze, use the village plan rather than improvising the climb →
What not to miss on this itinerary
The essentials come down to five decisions: Nice; Villefranche plus one Cap-Ferrat choice; the Rock in Monaco then Menton old town; Old Antibes and the ramparts; finally Èze or a properly slow Nice day. Everything else is optional.
Getting around
The regional train is your spine. Antibes, Monaco, Menton: train first. Èze village and parts of the Cap: bus (line 82 goes up to Èze village from Nice). Check the timetable for the actual day.
Average TER times from Nice-Ville, according to SNCF: Villefranche-sur-Mer 5 minutes, Antibes and Monaco about 20, Menton about 40. A single ticket costs €3.60 to Villefranche, €7 to Antibes and €7.70 to Menton.
The SudAzur Explore Pass currently covers train, tram and bus travel in the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco for 3, 7 or 14 days. Compare it with individual fares for your exact sequence; “pass” is not French for “automatically cheaper”.
Train: default for Antibes, Cannes, Monaco and Menton. Bus: use it when geography leaves the railway behind; Èze village and parts of Cap-Ferrat are the obvious examples. Taxi / ride-hail: buy back time for awkward first/last kilometres or late returns. Car: worth the hassle only for inland villages, remote coves or a day whose value depends on several poorly connected stops.
Open the full train, bus, tram and fares guide →
Then choose a base that works without a car →
If Nice wakes up grey, switch rather than sulk: use the Nice-in-the-rain plan. Before adding another day trip, read what the Mametas think of that.
Move climbs, exposed old towns and longer walks to the morning. Use the hottest hours for museums, lunch, shade or a swim, then resume later. On those days, Èze at midday is not a character-building exercise worth scheduling.
Book ahead: the short checklist
Reserve the things whose absence would really spoil the trip. For this route, that means the hotel first and only the timed experience you actually care about.
Two practical hotel fits
Affiliate links: Mametas may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Selection stays editorial.
Hotel: lock in the base you actually want. Signature dinners: reserve one or two only if missing them would annoy you. Do not turn the rest of the week into an appointment calendar.
If the Oceanographic Museum defines your Monaco day, check official museum tickets → Recheck opening days for any other timed visit a day really hinges on.
Check official rail and bus planners, weather and disruption. Ordinary coastal train journeys don’t need booking ahead.
Most lunches, one half-day, the exact order of weather-sensitive days and the decision to stop for a swim instead of collecting another landmark.
Three days. Here’s what stays.
Cut, do not compress. Keep Nice, choose one eastern day, then use Antibes as the western counterpoint. You lose breadth.
Nice
Old Nice, the sea and enough time to understand the base rather than treating it as a station with restaurants.
Choose one eastern day
Pick Villefranche / Cap-Ferrat for beauty and a slower rhythm, or Monaco / Menton for more contrast. Do not attempt both.
Antibes
Old town, ramparts and a western change of mood without spending the day in transit.
The trade-off: Èze and the second eastern day disappear. That is deliberate. Three days should feel edited.
Choose a hotel for this three-day trip →
Seven days. Room to breathe.
Keep the full five-day route. The two extra days are there to slow the trip down and add one completely different direction.
Slow Nice
On the seven-day version, keep Èze on Day 5 and use Day 6 for the slow Nice option: museum, market, beach, a neighbourhood you skipped and dinner without a departure board.
Choose one extra direction
Cannes if you want the Croisette, hotel theatre and an easy coastal train; Saint-Paul-de-Vence if you want an inland contrast. One is enough.
The trade-off: seven days gives you breathing room. A second hotel is possible, but the Nice base still works; do not create a luggage problem just because the calendar got longer.
Have you sorted your hotel?
Not yet? Show me the practical Nice shortlist →
Already booked? Check what else is actually worth booking →