Day Trips from Nice

yes I decided to base my trip around Nice, and yes I do want to travel by train. I'm also open to longer day trips; ones that will take me from early in the morning til late in the evening. I want to see as much of Europe as I can, without actually packing up and moving to different cities every few days.

Rachelle, In deciding where to take day trips to, you'll have to base this on which locations you can realistically get to in a few hours. Switzerland will NOT be possible (IMHO). The travel time from Nice to Geneva (which is about the closest part of Switzerland) will be about 7 hours EACH WAY. Paris is also about 6 hours EACH WAY, even by direct TGV. With a short time frame of 7-10 days, there are lots of possibilities in the Nice area. You could..... > Spend a few days exploring Nice, the Museums, old town area, etc. > Take a day trip to Monaco and Monte Carlo. The Oceanographic Museum is fantastic and the Changing of the Guard at the Palace is very impressive! You can walk to Monte Carlo from Monaco, or there's a Bus available. > Take a day trip to Villefranche sur Mer > Take a day trip to Eze > Take a day trip to San Remo (Italy). Travel time about 1H:15M each way, with one change. I didn't suggest a day trip to Cannes, as I was a bit "underwhelmed" with the city (although I'm sure it does have it's charms, especially for the rich & famous. Happy travels!

Since you originally were trying to decide between basing yourself in Nice or Marseille, you could take a day trip to Marseille. It's less than three hours by train from Nice.

Another suggestion to add to the many good ones already posted ( or two ) : In the hills above Monaco lies a little village called La Turbie , it's accessible by bus from Nice I think . Rick's book has directions . The focal point there is a Roman ruin called the Trophy of the Alpes . and the village is fascinating . Pretty much off the beaten path , few tourists . The other place is on Cap Ferrat not far from Villefranche known as the Villa and gardens of Ephrussi de Rothschild . An early (1907 ) villa owned by a scion of the Rothschild family . Cap Ferrat was home to W. Somerset Maugham who once infamously said about Monaco that " It's a sunny place for shady people " Wonderful place , The Riviera . Enjoy!

Ken has given you some excellent basic sights. Steve has told you about two absolute gems that don't come up on this website too often. One more, since you mentioned Switzerland, is a trip into the mountains behind Nice. A touristic train leaves Nice every morning chugging a scenic route into the mountains to a town called Tende. It makes the return trip every afternoon. You probably won't hear much English up there, but it's definitely worth the trip.

In theory, you could take a day trip to Paris if you fly - and it won't cost that much if you fly easyJet. Fly Nice-Orly, departing at 06:30 and arriving at 08:00. Fly Orly-Nice, departing at 20:55 and arriving at 22:20. However, you'll enjoy Paris a lot more if you stay over one night so you have most of two days in the city.

You should, immediately, get a hold of Rick Steves Provence and The French Riviera. In it, he has very thorough directions for getting from Nice to all the places mentioned in the responses above. Yes, while you can "dip your toe" into Italy, you really can't take day trips to any other countries. When you see Rick's list of travel times to places like Venice, Zurich, and Paris (or check them on the Bahn website), you'll see that these are not possible as day trips. At 3 hours each way, Marseille is about the furthest you can realistically go in a day. No other "larger cities like Paris" are day trip distance, unless you fly. But, you still have lots of options: Monaco, Eze Village, La Turbie, St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Cannes, Juan-les-Pins, Menton, Villa Ephrussi, Vence, St. Paul de Vence, Cagnes-sur-Mer (and Renoir's house above Cagnes), Grasse...And those are just the places within an hour or so of Nice.

St. Tropez!!!