In October we will be going to the French Riviera from Paris for five full days. We will be using trains and buses. We are thinking of staying in Nice or Villefranche-sur-Mer for six nights and exploring the museums there and enjoying the scenery in the area and taking some seaside walks and taking some day trips. Does that sound reasonable or should we split our time with another coastal city like Antibes and finish in Nice as that is where we are flying out of?
Posted by
West Coast
356 posts
I just loved staying in Villefranche as a base for the day trips you describe- so very easy by bus or train and the walk to Monaco was memorable. Caveat- what time of year? I was there 15+ years ago for 5 days and those when the large cruise ships anchored made public transportation more challenging and the town more crowded. Just to keep in mind when figuring out in which order to see what's on your list.
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11559 posts
We loved our 5 days in Nice ! Took buses to Cannes , Eze , Monaco as day trips
Posted by
Chicago
3782 posts
You might find the Rick Steves Monday Night Travel episode on the French Riviera helpful. I just watched it a few days ago.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
8467 posts
Antibes is only 20 min from NCE so not much further than Nice itself
For 6 nights i would probably stay in Nice the whole time
We were just there in June -day tripped to Villefranche just for a few hours which seemed very crowded to us
Nice has a lot more space to move around!
Posted by
Massachusetts
24 posts
My wife & I will be traveling by train to Nice after 5 days in Paris. We are staying at the Hotel West End for 6 days. We are taking 2 full day trips w/ local tour guides, 1 local food tour, 1 local cooking class, 2 beach 1/2 days w/ late afternoon journeys on foot to explore the area. We have 2 reservations for special dining evenings.(30th anniversary) Flying out of Nice.
Nice offered so much more transportation options than the smaller towns which we will get to see as well.
Good luck!
Posted by
Nice, France & San Francisco
793 posts
It may also depend when you are going. If it is in the offseason I would default to Nice as there is more stuff to do when the weather inclement, for the transport connections and a wider variety of rrestauramts (VSM in partciular can be limiting). You might stay iVSM or Antibes if you are taking a beach-centric vacation. there is a nice beach walk around cap d'antibes and cap ferrat (and I also recommend the trip up Mt. Boron to Fort Alban, or the trip up to the Tete du Chien above Eze near La Turbie). But they are all reachable pretty easily from Nice.