Flight time
2h 10m
Best season
May–June & September
Budget
Mid-range to splurge
Best for
Riviera coast, art, food, sunshine
Overview
Why Nice for a city break?
Nice is the queen of the Côte d'Azur — a proper city of 340,000 people that happens to sit between the Maritime Alps and the Mediterranean, with a 7km sweep of bay and a baroque old town (Vieux-Nice) that owes more to Italy than France. The Promenade des Anglais is the great seaside boulevard of Europe. The Musée Matisse and the Musée national Marc Chagall hold the finest collections of their respective artists anywhere in the world. The socca (chickpea flatbread) and the pan bagnat (the Niçoise sandwich) are among the most distinctive street foods on the continent.
From UK airports it's around two hours — direct flights from London, Manchester, Bristol and several regional airports. Nice is the gateway to the Côte d'Azur: Monaco is 20 minutes by train, Cannes is 35 minutes, Antibes is 25. The Corniche roads along the clifftops east of Nice are some of the most dramatic drives in Europe. Go in May and June or September — the summer crowds and prices are formidable, and the heat in July and August can be oppressive. The Nice Carnival in February is one of Europe's great winter festivals.
Where to stay & explore
Nice's best neighbourhoods
Vieux-Nice
The baroque old town — narrow lanes of Italian-style architecture in ochre and terracotta, the Cours Saleya market, and the best restaurants in the city. More Italian than French in character.
Cimiez
The hilltop residential neighbourhood above the centre — the Matisse Museum, the Chagall Museum, Roman ruins and the Cimiez Monastery where Matisse is buried.
Le Port & Riquier
The working port neighbourhood east of the old town — the most local and least touristy part of Nice, with excellent neighbourhood restaurants and the boat connections to Corsica.
Things to do
What to see in Nice
1
Musée Matisse
The finest collection of Matisse's work in the world — housed in a 17th-century Genoese villa in the Cimiez hill neighbourhood where Matisse lived for the last 17 years of his life. The Blue Nudes, the Dance, the paper cut-outs and the preparatory studies for the Vence Chapel are all here. Chronological and beautifully presented. Book online; free on first and third Sundays of each month.
2
Musée national Marc Chagall
Purpose-built by André Hermant in 1973 to house Chagall's Biblical Message — 17 monumental paintings interpreting Genesis, Exodus and Song of Songs, plus the stunning stained glass Concert Hall. Chagall himself supervised the building's design and the arrangement of the works. One of the most coherent and moving single-artist museum experiences in France.
3
Cours Saleya Market
The flower and food market in the heart of Vieux-Nice — Tuesday to Sunday from 6am. The finest market on the Côte d'Azur: mimosa, roses and carnations from the nearby Var flower farms, socca fresh from the wood-fired oven, tapenade, pissaladière (onion and anchovy tart), fresh pasta and Niçoise olives. Monday is the antique market. Arrive early; by 11am the tourist pressure is considerable.
4
The Promenade des Anglais & the Colline du Château
The 7km sweep of the Baie des Anges — the pebble beach, the blue sunbeds, the Belle Époque hotels and the constant Riviera light that drove Matisse here in the first place. Walk it at 7am when the joggers and dog-walkers have it. At the eastern end, the Colline du Château (reached by lift from near the port or on foot up the hill) gives the finest panorama of Nice, the bay and the Alpes-Maritimes behind — free, open all day.
Food & drink
Where to eat in Nice
Chez Pipo
Socca / Niçoise street food
The most famous socca in Nice — chickpea flour flatbread cooked in a vast copper pan in a wood-fired oven and served hot, cut into wedges, with black pepper. Chez Pipo near the port has been doing this since 1923. Under €5; eat standing, with a glass of Bellet rosé if they have it.
La Merenda
Traditional Niçoise / Vieux-Nice
No telephone, no credit cards, no reservations — you queue at 7pm for the first sitting. Dominique Le Stanc's tiny restaurant serves the definitive versions of Niçoise cooking: daube (beef stew with olives), stockfish (salt cod with tomatoes and peppers), pissaladière. One of the most authentic restaurant experiences on the Côte d'Azur.
Café de Turin
Seafood brasserie / Place Garibaldi
The great seafood brasserie of Nice — the Gillardeau oysters, the sea urchins (oursins) on a bed of ice, the moules marinières. On the Place Garibaldi, Nice's most beautiful square. Order the fruits de mer platter for two and a bottle of Provençal rosé. Open since 1908.
Itinerary
3 days in Nice — a suggested itinerary
Day 1
The Promenade at dawn, Vieux-Nice, Colline du Château
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is 6km from the centre — the new tramway Line 2 runs direct to the centre in 25 minutes (€1.70). Walk the Promenade des Anglais at 7am before the day begins: the light on the bay in early morning, the Negresco hotel facade, the pebble beach with the first swimmers. Cours Saleya market from 8am: socca at Chez Pipo (the cart near the market, not the restaurant — faster and equally good), pissaladière, a coffee standing at the counter of a café bar. Vieux-Nice for the morning: the Cathedral of Saint-Réparate, the Palais Lascaris (a Genoese baroque palace with a free museum of musical instruments), the lanes and the baroque church facades. Colline du Château by lift from the seafront: the waterfall, the cemetery, the panorama over the bay. Lunch in the port neighbourhood. La Merenda queue at 7pm for dinner.
Day 2
Matisse, Chagall, Monaco afternoon
Musée Matisse in Cimiez opens at 10am — the tram to the hilltop, then 20 minutes' walk through the Cimiez gardens (where the July jazz festival takes place). The Blue Nudes and the paper cut-out room are the centrepieces; the garden where Matisse walked is now a public park. Musée Chagall is 15 minutes' walk downhill — the Biblical Message paintings, the concert hall windows. Lunch in Cimiez or back in the centre. Train to Monaco in the afternoon: the principality is 20 minutes from Nice Ville station (€3.90) — the Oceanographic Museum (Prince Albert I's extraordinary marine collection, on a cliff above the sea), the Rock with the Palace and the Cathedral (Grace Kelly's tomb), the Casino gardens. Train back to Nice for dinner at Café de Turin.
Day 3
The Corniche, Èze village, Antibes market
Drive or take the bus along the Grande Corniche — the highest of the three cliff roads between Nice and Monaco, passing through La Turbie (with the Roman Trophy of Augustus) and giving the finest views of the coast. Stop at Èze: a medieval village perched on a 430-metre rock above the sea, with a botanical garden on the summit and extraordinary views. Bus 112 from Nice runs along the Moyenne Corniche; the walk down to the coastal train station at Èze-sur-Mer takes 45 minutes. Train west to Antibes for a final lunch: the Marché Provençal (Tuesday to Sunday mornings) has the best produce market on the Côte d'Azur, and the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi holds the work he made here in the summer of 1946 — an extraordinary connection between place and painting.
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