Best Budget Cities French Riviera

Staying at a hotel/ b&b with free breakfast can give you a great start to the day and half the food you will need…booking.com is a great resource as you plan.

Check out Cassis and the Calanques NP. Very close to Marseille, much cheaper than Nice, two nice beaches in town, hiking, kayaking, charming city center, very walkable. An easy train stop between Marseille and Nice, then a short bus ride down the hill. We saw a lot of young people when we were there in July.

Nice will have the widest range of accommodations from fleabags to five-star.

Buy your food at Farmers Markets and Deli department in Grocery Stores. Look into Student Passes on Trains, etc. The used to be an international Student Pass. Check if there are any college or university dorms available when they are on break. Might have to book in advance. In the summer, you can go camping, maybe in yurts or cabins; that's where you'll find more locals. You can buy some light weight sleeping bags; you might need them in the Hostels anyway. If you are an Art Student and are making a pilgrimage to see where the Post-Impressionists worked; there are several Museums and Galleries worth visiting. Bon Voyage

I spent about 2 weeks in Nice in May 2017. That is not the same as summer, I realize, and lodging rates have increased almost everywhere since then, but I didn't find hotels particularly expensive in Nice. I had a small but perfectly OK single room with bath in a hotel near the Nice Ville train station, an area that has some blocks that are quite a bit nicer than others. I'd take a look at booking.com to see what might be available for your dates as well as checking hosteling websites. If you find something that might be suitable, look for the hotel's own website to see whether you can beat booking.com's rate.

Nice is generally a convenient base for trips along the Riviera coast and to the hill towns, but the regional rail line passes through most of the coastal cities, so you can stay elsewhere if you prefer. I strongly suspect it's correct that Nice will offer more inexpensive options than the smaller towns. I think you'd need to get pretty far from the coast (inconvenient for your day trips) to find a town with options cheaper than you'll find in Nice.

That said, the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and the Cannes Film Festival can really tighten room availability in the area and raise prices. Nice is not immune to that.

People have been going to the Riviera for centuries. I suspect there aren't any conveniently located hidden gems. You're going to have about 2-1/2 days on the Riviera, so you'll have to be very choosy. Rather than trying (and likely failing) to find out-of-the-way spots, I'd target places that sound most interesting. Rick has a guidebook that focuses on southern France. I know it's tempting not to buy a guidebook when you're really pinching pennies, but there are 3 of you, right? That guidebook will cost you less than $10 apiece. It can potentially save you a lot more than that by means of the budget-friendly suggestions Rick makes. He will tell you, for example, that if you want to have a sit-down restaurant meal, at many places that will be less expensive at lunchtime than at night.

Edited to add: I didn't realize this was just a small piece of much more expansive trip. It wouldn't make sense or you to buy the southern-France book in this situation, though you might find it in your local library.

This sounds like the first trip to Europe for you and your friends. Assuming that's correct you all would probably benefit from the travel information and advice available right here on this Rick Steves website.

For the basics, go to the Travel Tips and read them thoroughly. They'll likely answer questions you didn't know you needed to ask.
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

For details on countries and cities, go to Explore Europe. I linked to France, but you can find other countries there as well.
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/france

You say you will be "interrailing Europe next summer." I'm not sure what you mean by that. Interrail passes are for European citizens only. Eurail passes are for non-European citizens. (https://www.interrail.eu/en/support/interested-in-interrailing/do-i-need-an-interrail-or-eurail-pass) But you may get by cheaper without passes at all.

The Man in Seat 61 can tell you just about everything you need to know about train travel in Europe, but the information at the website is exceedingly dense.
This is a general link: https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm

Under the caption, Train Travel in Europe (in a column on the left side on my tablet, maybe elsewhere on your device), there is a list of countries. When you select one like I did France below, you need to scan down the page to the caption "Train travel within [country]" to get started.

This is a link to specific info on France: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-france.htm

You've received great information from others about lodgings and eating, so I won't add to that. Over the years, it's been my experience that besides airfare, lodgings and ground transportation represent the largest costs on any trip.

You're very smart to do this research early. It will be a steep learning curve, but well worth your well-informed planning effort.

Tucker the worst hotel I ever stayed in was in Nice. Flea bag means flea bag there.

If you end up in Nice, the Ibis Californie Lenval Is it decent quality chain hotel that has some family rooms. It's very close to the beach. A little bit south of the city core. Probably $120 a night for four people in one room, beds for three in high comfort, or share a double and four fit. It's pretty civilized.

Here's a hack if you don't want to share double beds - If there's a sofa bed of the kind where the cushions come off, those cushions can become another bed on the floor no problem.

Another one, If you don't have enough bed space for everybody, you can pull the mattress off of a bed if it has a box spring, and then pad the box spring with whatever is available (towels, blankets, sheets, clothes) and then rotate who sleeps on top of the box spring.

I like your idea of getting out of Nice though, the smaller places on the water around it are pretty freaking awesome and really give you feel for the heart and soul of the Riviera.

Antibes has always looked very nice to me, I haven't been. There's a hostel there with family rooms, beds for four people, you can do laundry if you do a 3-day stay. Called Glamorgan I think ...

Are there 3 of you, or 4 of you? If you stay in a hotel do you need one room or 2? What is your actual budget per night for accomodations?

Check the Hotel Solara in Nice. I stayed there a few years ago and was very happy with it. It's a budget hotel (rooms from €75) but clean and in a very central area on a pededstrian only street off of Place Massena so easy to get to train or bus transportation for day trips. They do have triple or quad room/s. http://www.hotelsolara.com/

I found NIce perfect to use as a base for day trips - went to Monacco and St Paul de Vence, but there are many other good day trip options too. And Nice itself was one of my favorite cities I stay at in France.

Nice would indeed have the widest range of lower priced options, especially has you head out of the center and old town, and may need to take a tram to get into the center. (Marseille, btw, is generally not thought to be part of the French Riviera. Not that it is not a wonderful location).

The most popular hostels book up quick. Even in the low season, I walked by one yesterday with a sign that said "full" on the door.

There are some second and third tier destinations, but I wouldn't forgo seeing the better and more popular ones with such a limited time span. However, if you tend to pick the more active activities, you'll miss the biggest crush of crowds. The cruise ship passengers aren't hiking up to the Tete du Chien.

it has been 5 days with no feedback from the OP. I know he is 18, all the more chance he's posted, waited a day and run elsewhere. We may be talking in an empty room...

I loved Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Look at Hotel de la Darse. Great location with breakfast and not expensive.

Since you live in Seattle, you can go up to Edmonds to the Rick Steves' store. There will be great info there. And travel items. I believe you can pay for an appointment with a travel counselor. I think the store is only open on Saturdays. His books will have names of hostels and budget hotels. But be sure to reserve rooms in advance, if you can. His recommendations are popular. Another book for budget travelers is the Lonely Planet. I find the print very small for my old eyes and the books are rather thick. But once you read through them then you can take out the pages of places that you will be visiting, staple pages together and you have a light weight guide. I then threw away the pages of place that we had just left.

There is also very detailed info on trains, transportation, self-tours through museums. etc. The more you read in advance, the better trip you will have. Heed the advice on pickpockets in all cities.

Have a great adventure.