French Riviera to Italian Riviera

Almost impossible as a day trip. Takes too long. You need to get to Genoa then most of the way to La Spezia. You haven't said how you propose to make the trip, and we don't know how deep your pockets are. Train to Ventimiglia, change to train to Genoa, then boat or taxi or bus. Or, change trains again in Genoa to La Spezia or one of the 5-Terre villages and backtracking by boat. If driving, expect the venetian blind effect. The road, narrow and winding, mostly toll road full of trucks has dozens of tunnels, some less than straight, alternating with short stretches of non-tunnels, all the way at least as far as Genoa (where I turned off). I can promise you, as a person who has happily driven many hundreds of thousands of miles - I didn't enjoy it. If your pockets are deeper, maybe a flight from Nice to Genoa and follow prior above; or helicopter from Monaco. Or yacht from some point on Cote d'Azur to Portofino. But you'd never manage that in a day unless you have a cigarette boat going full whack.

impossible on a daytrip. spend your 2 weeks in france to enjoy it, and save italian riviera for another trip.

If you want something close by with some Italian feel (Nice has plenty of that too), check out Ventimiglia and San Remo. They aren't too far from Nice. I didn't get to spend the night in either, but the next time I'm there I'm going to look into Ventimiglia as a base. I'm with the others as saving Portofino and the rest for another trip. I only spent a half day in Portofino but it was way more than enough. I was just killing time when I went so I liked it somewhat, but if I made a huge effort to see it, I would probably have been dissapointed. To each their own though. Have fun in France!

I've stayed in Ventimiglia several times, usually as an overnight while on my way between France and Italy. It is about an hour by train from Nice. The town is not very "touristy" but has several decent hotels. It seems to be a popular place for the French to buy their booze. Maybe it is a tax thing. Ventimiglia has a market, nice park with playground, numerous eateries including a cafe in the train station, and a long promenade along the sea. There is a beach, of course, but I don't remember if it is sandy or more like gravel. When I was there last fall they were building a yacht harbor across from two nice hotels west of the river. The train station is on the east side of the river; it is a 15-20 min walk to the new harbor. The west side of town is the oldest part.

Thais, While it may be theoretically feasible for a day trip from Nice to Portofino, it's definitely not practical due to the travel times involved. For visiting Portofino, it would be much better to spend at least one night in Santa Margherita Ligure. The trip from Nice to Santa Margherita is about 4.5 hours each way, usually with at least two changes. Upon arrival at Santa Margherita, you'll need to buy a boat ticket and then walk down the hill to the boat docks (about 15 minutes) and then wait for the next boat (which can be up to an hour). The actual trip to Portofino is only about 10-15 minutes by boat. That sequence would need to be done in reverse for the trip back to Nice. If you were planning to drive from Nice to Portofino, the distance is about 230 kM which would theoretically take about 3-hours each way (assuming ideal conditions). In the same situation, I'd spend one or two nights in either Santa Margherita Ligure or Levanto, and day trip to Portofino from there. Happy travels!

Thanks everybody for your helpful comments! I think I'll save Portofino for a future trip after all. Now need to come up with a 2 week France itinerary... Suggestions are welcome! :) Cheers, Thais

Thais, Have a look at the daily Itinerary for the RS "Paris & the South of France" tour. Although it would be difficult to cover that Itinerary with public transit, it should give you a general idea to start with.

Thais, I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree with all the above posters. We drove from Genoa to Ventimiglia with the intent of driving to Nice. There must have been a festival in one of the larger towns, may have been Ventimiglia, which took at least half an hour to drive through. The drive along the coast is somewhat slow, but very nice and NOT difficult. I cannot comment on the drive from there to Nice along the coast as we did not get that far. We drove back on the highway. Don't recall it being a toll road, but it may be. I totally disagree with Nigel that it is slow. It was very fast!! I agree with those who say that Portofino is worth seeing, but not worth much more than a few hours. It is one street, a couple of blocks long. It is fascinating as it may be the most photogenic place I have seen. The pictures looked much better than I recall it being in person. It is a nice, short bus ride from Santa Margherita. I would not necessarily abandon your plan. I would recommend driving along the coast from Nice to San Remo. Stay in San Remo and then continue to Santa Margherita. Stay in Santa Margherita and make a day trip to Cinque Terre and a bus trip to Portofino. Then drive the highway back to Nice. It is about 3 days instead of 1, but if you are planning significant time in southeastern France, it is worth it. If the 2 weeks is for all of France and you are thinking of only several days in the Cote d' Azur area, you should probably either drive the coast to San Remo and highway back or forget it altogether.

Thais If this is your first time to France or you have spent very little time in France, I would not try to go to Italy. IMHO, Italy or the Italian Riviera and the coast are for another trip. As the previous poster mentioned, it takes time and you will also be backtracking to France. In order to know best what to suggest for an itinerary in France, we need to know your travel style, your interests, hobbies, etc. Are you a foodie or wine lover, are you up for adventure, biking, history, museums, etc ? For part of your trip, you will need a car in the south or southwest of France as the charm is in the countryside and small towns. Bobbie

Doable by car. I drive fast. But....hit-and-run tourism is not the way to go. Save it for another trip. BTW, Portofino is stunning.

Stayed in Juan les Pins with son for 4 days, drove to Ventimiglia for a day: the beach was big round rocks and water was too cold for me in July.( I don't usually have to drink coffee at the beach in the summer). Not much of a reason to go there again, nothing against it, just no reason to go back. The beach was much better in France.
Save Portofino for another trip?