Day Trips from Nice: the 10 Best Trips by Train, Bus or Guided Tour

The easiest day trips from Nice are Villefranche-sur-Mer (about 7 minutes by train), Monaco (about 25 minutes) and Antibes (about 25 minutes). Èze, Menton and Cannes are just as easy on your own. A guided tour starts to make sense for the places the coastal train doesn’t reach — Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Grasse, the Provence vineyards and the Verdon Gorge — or when you want to fit several stops into one day.

Below are the ten trips worth your time, with how to get there by public transport, how long to stay and what a tour adds. For bookable options with prices and reviews, see tours in Nice.

Times are typical TER train and Zou! bus journeys from central Nice. Single train fares along the coast cost a few euros (Nice–Monaco is about €6–7), and a regional bus ticket about €2–3. Timetables change with the season, so check SNCF Connect or the Zou! website for your travel date.

Getting there: the train from Nice-Ville takes about 7 minutes, and Villefranche station sits right above the beach.

Villefranche wraps around one of the deepest natural harbours on the coast. Walk the old town’s stepped lanes and the vaulted Rue Obscure, see the Chapelle Saint-Pierre on the quay, decorated by Jean Cocteau, and climb to the Citadelle Saint-Elme for the view over the bay. The town beach is a good place to finish the afternoon.

How long: a half day, or a full day if you add the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on neighbouring Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. You don’t need a tour to get here, but kayak, e-bike and boat outings are a nice extra — see tours in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Getting there: TER trains run to Monaco-Monte-Carlo station roughly every 15–30 minutes and take about 25 minutes. The Zou! 600 express bus (Nice–Monaco–Menton) is a cheaper alternative, but slower in traffic.

Start on the Rock (Monaco-Ville): the Prince’s Palace, where the changing of the guard takes place daily at 11:55, the cathedral and the Oceanographic Museum on the cliff edge. Walk down to Port Hercule to see the yachts, then up to Casino Square in Monte-Carlo. A lift and escalator network links the levels, so it’s all doable on foot.

How long: half a day for the highlights, a full day with the museum. Avoid the Grand Prix weekend in late spring unless you are going for the race — prices and crowds jump. Monaco is easy alone; a tour is worth it mainly to combine it with Èze (next). Options are listed under tours in Monaco.

Getting there: the Zou! 602 bus from Nice (Vauban stop) climbs to Èze village and continues to Monaco, so you can do both on one ticket each way. The scenic alternative is the train to Èze-sur-Mer and the Nietzsche Path up to the village — about an hour of steep climbing, much easier on the way down.

Èze sits more than 400 metres above the Mediterranean. Its lanes are car-free and lined with galleries; at the top, the Jardin d’Èze (paid entry) has cacti, ruins of the old castle and one of the best views on the Riviera. At the foot of the village, the Fragonard and Galimard perfume factories run short visits.

How long: 2–3 hours in the village. Èze plus Monaco is the most popular tour from Nice: small-group half-day versions start at around €95 per person and save you the bus connections and the queue for the 602 in summer. Private half-day tours cost several hundred euros per group.

For the best order, opening times and the full bus-and-train plan, see our Monaco and Èze day trip guide.

Getting there: about 35 minutes by train on the same line as Monaco, or the Zou! 600 bus.

Menton is calmer and more Italian than Nice: an old town of ochre and pastel houses stacked up to the Basilica of Saint-Michel, a long seafront, subtropical gardens such as Val Rahmeh and a museum devoted to Jean Cocteau. In February and early March the town hosts its Lemon Festival (Fête du Citron).

How long: half a day, or a full day if you ride the train one more stop to Ventimiglia in Italy — on Fridays its big street market is a classic add-on. Guided walks and food tastings are listed under tours in Menton.

Getting there: about 25 minutes by train west of Nice; the station is a short walk from the old town.

Antibes has the most intact old town on this stretch of coast: sea ramparts, the morning Provençal market on Cours Masséna, and the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, where Picasso worked in 1946. Port Vauban below is one of the Mediterranean’s biggest yacht harbours. For nature, head out to Cap d’Antibes and walk the rocky coastal path around the tip of the cape (bus or taxi from town).

How long: half a day for the town, a full day with the cape or a beach in Juan-les-Pins. Walking, food and boat tours are in tours in Antibes.

Getting there: 30–40 minutes by train to Cannes station, a few minutes from the Croisette.

Walk the Croisette past the Palais des Festivals, then climb Le Suquet, the old quarter, for the view over the bay. Marché Forville is the place for lunch ingredients. The best part of a Cannes day, though, is offshore: ferries from the old port reach Sainte-Marguerite Island in about 15 minutes, with pine woods, clear coves and the Fort Royal where the Man in the Iron Mask was held.

How long: a full day if you include the islands. Sailing trips and island cruises are listed under tours in Cannes.

Getting there: there is no train. Take the train to Cagnes-sur-Mer (about 15 minutes), then the bus up to the village (line 655 at the time of writing); allow about an hour in total. By car it’s around 40 minutes.

Saint-Paul is a small hilltop village inside 16th-century ramparts, full of galleries. Just outside it, the Fondation Maeght holds one of France’s best modern art collections in a garden setting. Nearby Vence has the Chapelle du Rosaire, designed by Matisse.

How long: half a day. Because the bus connection is slow, this is where tours earn their price: small-group day tours combining Saint-Paul, Grasse and a wine tasting start at around €125 per person, and private half-day tours often pair Saint-Paul with Èze.

Getting there: direct TER trains take about 1 hour 10 minutes via Cannes. Grasse station is below the old town, so expect a steep walk or a short bus ride up.

Grasse has supplied the French perfume industry for centuries. Fragonard offers free guided visits of its historic factory, the International Perfume Museum explains the craft, and several houses (Molinard, Galimard, Fragonard) run workshops where you blend your own fragrance in about an hour and a half. The old town itself is worth a wander.

How long: half a day on its own; most visitors combine Grasse with Saint-Paul-de-Vence or Gourdon on a tour, since connections between them by bus are poor.

Nice has its own tiny appellation, Bellet, on the hills just above the city — a handful of estates, visits usually by appointment. The big rosé country of the Côtes de Provence lies further inland, and estates are spread out, so this is the trip where a tour (or a designated driver) is the sensible choice.

Small-group Provence wine tours from Nice last about 8 hours and start at around €175 per person with three wineries; private versions start at around €480 per group. Compare them on the wine tours from Nice page, and read wine tours from Cannes vs Nice for how Bellet and Provence tours differ.

The Verdon Gorge, often called Europe’s Grand Canyon, is a deep limestone canyon ending in the turquoise Lac de Sainte-Croix, with the pottery village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie on the way. It is 2.5–3 hours by road each way and has no useful public transport, so go by car or on a tour.

Small-group day tours from Nice run about 10 hours via the Route Napoléon and start at around €160 per person. Go between May and October; from late June to mid-July many tours also pass the lavender fields of the Valensole plateau.

Several of these trips look even better from the water. Private boat tours from Nice to Villefranche, Cap Ferrat and Monaco take 2–4 hours, with swimming stops in the coves on the way, and cost from around €450 per boat. You can also hire a boat with or without a skipper — see boat rental in Nice and our guide to the best yacht routes from Nice to Monaco.

Saint-Tropez has no railway station. In season a passenger ferry runs from Nice port, about 2.5 hours each way; by road it takes at least 2 hours, and much longer in summer traffic. That leaves only a few hours in town, so it works better as an overnight stop than as a day trip. If you do go, see tours in Saint-Tropez.

As a rough guide: small-group half-day tours cost €95–110 per person, small-group full days €125–180, private half days from about €450 and private full days €800–1,600 per group. Prices are set by the operators and change with the season; the tour pages show the current price.

For a first visit, Monaco combined with Èze: two very different places 25–40 minutes away. For a slower day, Villefranche-sur-Mer or Menton; for art, Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Yes. The Zou! 602 bus links Nice, Èze village and Monaco, or a half-day tour covers both in 4–5 hours.

Not for the coast: trains reach Villefranche, Monaco, Menton, Antibes and Cannes. Inland — the wine estates, Gourdon, the Verdon Gorge — a car or a tour is far more practical.

Monaco, Menton (especially during the Lemon Festival), Antibes, Cannes and Grasse are good all year. Boat trips, the islands and the Verdon Gorge are best from April or May to October.

Ready to book? Compare tours in Nice, or browse all French Riviera tours.