🇫🇷

Nice

France

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Route info

Timezone

GMT+2

Currency€ EUR

LanguageFrench

Airport transfer~25 minTram / Bus / Taxi

About Nice

Nice is the undisputed capital of the Côte d'Azur — a city that manages to be simultaneously Italian in its architecture, French in its cuisine, and Mediterranean in its soul. The Promenade des Anglais curves for 7km along a coastline where the light genuinely does look different, with a particular luminous quality that drove Matisse and Chagall to settle here permanently. Beyond the beaches, the old quarter of Vieux-Nice is a dense, noisy, perfumed labyrinth of Baroque churches and market stalls that feels more like Genoa than Paris.

Visa requirements

Visa Free

Visa requirements depend on your passport — check your government's travel advice before booking.

Good to know

✓Take the coastal train along the Riviera — it's cheap, scenic, and beats fighting Corniche traffic
✓Eat socca at Chez Pipo in Vieux Nice — it's the local chickpea-flour pancake you won't find inland
✓The pebbly beaches need water shoes; pack a pair or buy cheap ones at any Monoprix

Popular airlines on this route

British Airways

Lufthansa

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✈️ Getting there

NCENice Côte d'Azur Airport

📍 7 km⏱ 25 min🚋 Tram🚌 Bus🚕 Taxi

Tram line 2 runs from both airport terminals to the city centre (Jean Médecin / Thiers stops) in about 25 minutes for a flat €1.70 — the cheapest and most reliable option day or night.

France's second busiest airport after Paris and the main gateway to the Riviera, serving easyJet, British Airways, Air France, Ryanair, and Vueling across two modern terminals.

Don't Miss

Hidden gems and local experiences in Nice — beyond the tourist trail.

🎨Visit the Matisse Museum in the Cimiez hill district on a Tuesday morning — it's free on the first Sunday of the month, but Tuesday mornings have the rooms almost to yourself. The studio reconstructions and cut-paper works on the top floor are revelatory.

🫒Shop the Cours Saleya market in Vieux-Nice before 11am (Tuesday to Sunday) — the flower market is dazzling, but head to the food section for socca (chickpea flatbread cooked in wood-fired ovens) and tapenade from the stalls at the back. The socca from Chez René Socca on rue Pairolière is a local institution.

🚂Take the Train des Merveilles (Valley of Wonders train) from Nice Ville station to Tende in the Maritime Alps — a 2-hour journey through river gorges and medieval villages that feels untouched by tourism. The Bronze Age rock carvings in the valley above Tende are a UNESCO site.

🌊Walk up to the Colline du Château (Castle Hill) via the stairs at the east end of the Promenade rather than the lift — the approach through crumbling fortifications is half the point. The waterfall, the ruins, and the view over Vieux-Nice's terracotta roofscape are best in late afternoon light.

🍋Day-trip to Menton (30 min by regional train, €4 each way) — the lemon capital of France, with Italianate architecture even more vivid than Nice, the extraordinary Cocteau Museum, and beaches that are notably less crowded than the Côte d'Azur mainstream.