Offbeat Riviera from Nice: 6 Days
Six Days: Five Along the Coast, One Straight Up Into the Alps
Day six is where this itinerary stops being a coastal loop and takes an actual left turn, inland and up, on a rail line that only reopened in December 2025 after a 15-month, €74 million renovation. Everything through Day 5 runs the same city, village-plus-swim, Monaco, Antibes-Cannes, and Menton sequence as the shorter trips; Day 6 is the one none of them have room for.
Book These Before You Go
- Book a room near Nice-Ville station ahead of summer; six nights this rail-dependent fill fast.
- Book a Monaco day tour for day 3 if you’d rather have the palace and harbour history narrated.
- Reserve the Train des Merveilles for day 6; the 9:32am departure is the only guided run and fills fast in summer.
| Day | Focus | Est. cost per person (no lodging) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nice: Promenade, old town, Castle Hill | ~€25-35 |
| 2 | Èze village, Villefranche swim | ~€25-35 plus bus/train fare |
| 3 | Monaco: palace, Oceanographic Museum | ~€20-30 plus train fare |
| 4 | Antibes: Picasso Museum, Cannes: La Croisette | ~€25-35 plus train fare |
| 5 | Menton: old town, Musée Jean Cocteau | ~€15-25 plus train fare |
| 6 | Train des Merveilles into the Roya Valley | ~€17 plus train fare |
Day 1: Nice, the Whole City
Tram Line 2 from either airport terminal, 20 to 30 minutes, €1.70 a single (the airport machines only sell a €10 round-trip, so get the Lignes d’Azur app before you land if the cheap fare matters to you on the way back too). Spend the day on the Promenade des Anglais, Vieux Nice’s lanes, Cours Saleya’s market (daily except Monday, when it flips to antiques), and Castle Hill at golden hour, free public lift, no actual castle since 1706, and arguably the single best free view on this coast.
Day 2: Èze, Then the Sea
Bus 82 from Vauban, about 30 minutes, €1.70, gets you up to Èze; there’s no train, the village sits at 427m above the rail line. Arrive early, before the tour buses, and budget €8 to €10 for the Jardin Exotique if the view over the Riviera hills is worth it to you. Eat before or during the climb; the village’s own restaurants know they’ve got a captive audience.
Down via bus 83 (or the steep, genuinely tough 2.5-mile Nietzsche path if it’s not high summer) to Èze-sur-Mer, then a short train to Villefranche-sur-Mer for a swim in the calmest water on this whole stretch of coast. Water shoes regardless, the pebbles are the same everywhere.
Day 3: Monaco, All of It
TER trains run 7 to 25 minutes from Nice (roughly 55 a day), about €6.50 to €7 one-way, into a country under a square mile you can walk end to end. Give it the full day: the Prince’s Palace, the Oceanographic Museum, the harbour’s absurd superyacht density. Bring a real passport for the Casino de Monte-Carlo’s interior if that’s on your list (no photocopies, no digital ID, 18+, and the dress code tightens hard after roughly 7 to 8pm). Skip it and you lose nothing essential.
Day 4: Antibes, Then Cannes
Antibes is 16 to 23 minutes out, around €7 to €8, home to the Picasso Museum inside the Château Grimaldi where he actually worked, €12 admission, closed Mondays. Cannes is a further 7-minute hop down the same line (or 35 minutes, about €10, direct from Nice). For 2026: Cannes now caps cruise arrivals to sub-1,000-passenger ships and 6,000 daily cruise visitors as of January 1st, so La Croisette and the old port read calmer on cruise days than they used to. Climb into Le Suquet for the view before heading back.
Day 5: Menton
Menton is 30 to 35 minutes out, roughly €7 one-way, and it earns its spot precisely because it isn’t Nice or Cannes trying to be bigger than it is. If your dates land mid-February to early March, you’ll catch some version of the Fête du Citron (the 2026 edition, its 92nd, runs February 14 to March 1 under the theme “Merveilles du Vivant”). Otherwise, spend the day in Vieux Menton’s stacked pastel lanes and the Musée Jean Cocteau, a Rudy Ricciotti building holding the Séverin Wunderman donation, €5 entry, closed Tuesdays, free the first Sunday of the month.
Day 6: The Train des Merveilles, Into the Mercantour
This is the day that makes six better than five. The Train des Merveilles runs the same TER network but a completely different kind of trip, 120km inland and up from Nice-Ville, past Sospel and Breil-sur-Roya to Saorge (officially one of France’s most beautiful villages) and on to Tende at over 1,000m. The line only reopened in December 2025 after a €74 million, 15-month closure to reinforce tunnels and shore up landslide-prone sections, so this is a genuinely refreshed piece of infrastructure, not a tired old scenic ride running on faith. The main departure is 9:32am from Nice-Ville, arriving Tende around 11:32am, with a bilingual guide narrating the climb; full one-way fare runs about €16.80 adult, €8.40 for kids 4 to 12. It operates daily June through September and on weekends and public holidays the rest of the year, so check the calendar before building a trip around it outside peak season.
This is a two-hour-each-way commitment and deserves the full day rather than a bolt-on; there’s no realistic way to pair it with a coastal stop on the same day. Wander Tende itself, or hop off partway at Saorge or Sospel if the full run feels like too much train for one sitting, before heading back down to Nice for a last dinner.
Transportation
Lignes d’Azur runs Nice’s trams and buses (single ticket €1.70, day pass €7). Every coastal and inland train leg above runs on the same TER network, checkable live via SNCF Connect . Six days of this much rail use is squarely inside Pass Sud Azur Explore territory, an unlimited multi-day pass covering trains, trams, and buses across the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco (price the 3, 7, and 14-day tiers at a Lignes d’Azur machine against your actual route count).
Tips and Essentials
- Watch bags on the trains specifically, not just crowded old-town lanes; a documented distraction scam (“that’s my reserved seat”) targets exactly this kind of route.
- Beach-club restaurants along the Promenade often skip posting a menu; ask before ordering, especially drinks.
- Book the Train des Merveilles’s morning departure ahead in summer; the daily June-through-September schedule fills the 9:32am slot fast, and there’s no later train that gets you the same guided commentary.
Where to Stay
Vieux Nice suits Day 1 but runs small and loud after dark. Near the station shaves real time off five of your six travel mornings, which matters more on a trip this rail-dependent than an extra block of old-town charm. The 7-day itinerary adds one more flex day, a Bellet vineyard visit or a genuinely slow repeat of whatever you liked best, if you’ve got a full week to give the coast.