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Viator Tour of French Riviera (inland)

Thanks so much to this wonderful community for your always thoughtful advice.

My mom and I are hoping to explore north of Nice (St. Paul de Vence, Gourdon, etc.). We will be based in Nice and we weren't planning to rent a car, so we looked up potential day trips to those areas north of Nice. We came across this tour by a company called Viator and it seemed to receive good ratings. Is anyone aware of this company or even itinerary? Any thoughts?
Thank you!

Here is the link: https://www.viator.com/tours/Nice/Provence-Countryside-Small-Group-Day-Trip/d478-2356NCE05

Posted by
2339 posts

As mentioned on a previous post of yours, Viator doesn't run their own tours--they sell tours run by others.

Posted by
26840 posts

Vistor is not a tour company, meaning that it doesn't run the tours itself. It sells tours run by a bunch of different companies. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the tour you have found. I have always wondered, though, whether it would be possible to buy the same tour at a lower price by Googling and locating the website of the company actually running the tour. I have never shopped Viator for tours, so I don't know how their prices compare.

There may be multiple companies running bus tours to the same set of towns, so even if someone else has bought a tour that sounds like yours from Viator in the past, it might possibly have been run by a different company.

There are some hill towns above the Riviera that are very tricky to reach by public transportation, and stringing more than two of them together in a single day can be quite the challenge if you are uskng public transportation, so there is a place for bus tours. However, St.-Paul-de-Vence is known for three things: being incredibly picturesque, being extremely touristy (yes, those two go together), and being the site of the fabulous Galerie Maeght (modern art). If you're interested in the gallery, I'd be concerned about not having enough time to see it if on a bus tour. If you're not into modern art, then there's no concern on that score. I mention SPdV specifically because there is bus service to that town from Nice, and if you want to go to the gallery and explore the town, you probably wouldn't be trying to hit more than one other town that day, anyway. I saw both SPdV and Vence in a single day.

Posted by
667 posts

The itinerary is pretty. You'll hit Grasse and the perfurme factory, plus Tourettes Sur Loup and Gourdon, with time for lunch in Gourdon. And then, St. Paul-de-Vence on your way home.

Unfortunately, they appear to stop in Cannes which is best reached on your own via train from Nice (so it can be fully enjoyed). The time in St. Paul de Vence is too short to enjoy the Fondation Maeght.

You can go, as noted, to SPdV via bus 400 from Nice. Grasse is also accessible via train or, but getting to Gourdon and Tourettes is difficult without a car as any bus schedules are very infrequent (and nay impossible to replicate all in one day). Thus the tour is a good compromise.

There are more tours listed on the Nice tourisme page, but I don't have any specific recommendations: LINK

Posted by
10120 posts

I agree completely with Gooster that this tour takes you places that are otherwise difficult to reach but very worth seeing. Looks like a good tour.
The link from the Nice tourist office will let you look closely at several tour operators, choose one and deal directly.
Viator is owned by Trip Advisor, so tour operators have to pay a chunk of change to TA and Viator to be listed. So the only guarantee you have with the tour with the Viator label is that the operator paid Viator and Trip Advisor. Gooster gave you the link with the list of all the tours. It would be good to research it.