France · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Plan your Nice trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Vieux Nice (Old Town)
Best for first-timers and walkers who don't mind evening noiseDense, lively and photogenic — narrow lanes, church bells, restaurant chatter well into the night. Everything in the historic core is a short walk away.
A small guesthouse on an upper floor near Place Rossetti
Upper floors trade a few stairs for real quiet above the lane-level evening buzz, while staying steps from the cathedral square.
€€A boutique hotel near Cours Saleya
Being this close to the market means you can beat the day-trippers to breakfast and still be back in bed for a nap before the afternoon.
€€€Promenade des Anglais & Carré d'Or
Best for a classic seafront stay and beach accessThe grand, Belle Époque face of the city — sea-view balconies, polished hotel lobbies, and the beach directly across the road. Quieter at night than the old town, and priced accordingly.
A sea-view room in a Belle Époque hotel on the Promenade
Pay the premium for a genuine sea-facing room if the budget allows — the bay view at sunset is most of what you're buying here.
€€€€An apartment one street back from the Promenade
Stepping one block inland from the seafront can cut the price noticeably while keeping the beach a two-minute walk away.
€€€Le Port
Best for quieter evenings and local-feeling diningA working harbour neighbourhood with Genoese façades, better-value seafood, and a fraction of the Promenade's foot traffic — a short uphill walk from the Colline du Château and the old town.
A modest hotel near Place Île de Beauté
The port square is the neighbourhood's social hub, and staying nearby puts the Corsica ferries and the castle-hill climb equally within reach.
€€Cimiez
Best for museum-focused trips and travellers who want green space over nightlifeA green, residential hillside where the Matisse and Chagall museums live — leafy, calm, and noticeably cheaper, at the cost of a short bus or tram ride into the centre each day.
A residential apartment near the Cimiez Arènes
Being near the Roman arena puts both major museums on a comfortable walk, with the centre a short tram ride away.
€€Libération
Best for budget-conscious trips and easy train accessA genuinely local neighbourhood around the covered market near the main train station — unglamorous on paper, and quietly one of the best-value, best-bakery areas in the city.
A simple hotel near the Marché de la Libération
Being steps from the covered market means better bakeries and produce stalls than almost anywhere closer to the seafront, at a fraction of the price.
€Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Promenade des Anglais
The seven-kilometre seafront walkway that gave the city its postcard image, built in the 1820s by the English expatriate community that wintered here…
Tip Walk or cycle it at sunrise before the joggers and scooters arrive in force — the light on the bay is better than at any other hour.
Vieux Nice & Cours Saleya Market
The old town's daily market square, flowers and produce in the morning giving way to antiques on Mondays and a long evening of restaurant terraces —…
Tip Come before 9am for the market in its working state; by noon it's as much a tourist stage as a place locals shop.
Colline du Château
A hilltop park where the city's original castle once stood before Louis XIV had it demolished in 1706 — now gardens, a waterfall, and the best…
Tip Take the free lift (ascenseur) near the eastern end of the Promenade rather than climbing all the steps in midday heat, then walk down.
Musée Matisse
A 17th-century Genoese villa in the Cimiez olive groves holding the largest public collection of Henri Matisse's work, assembled largely from the…
Tip Pair it with the Roman ruins and the Cimiez monastery next door for a full, uncrowded half-day in the hills above the centre.
Musée National Marc Chagall
Built in 1973 specifically to house Chagall's Biblical Message cycle, which the artist considered the central achievement of his career — a single…
Tip Go in the morning when the light through the stained-glass window room is at its most striking.
MAMAC (Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain)
A striking marble-clad building tracking postwar art from American Pop through to the Nice-born New Realist movement — Yves Klein, Niki de Saint…
Tip The rooftop terrace gives one of the better free city views in Nice, open whenever the museum is.
Port Lympia
Nice's working harbour since the 18th century, ringed by ochre and pastel Genoese-style buildings, ferries to Corsica, and a noticeably calmer, more…
Tip The seafood restaurants on the quai are better value and less touristy than anything directly on the Promenade.
Cathédrale Orthodoxe Russe Saint-Nicolas
The largest Russian Orthodox cathedral outside Russia, built in the early 1900s for the substantial Russian aristocratic community that wintered in…
Tip Modest dress is expected inside; check posted visiting hours, which are more limited than most museums and change around services.
Day trips from Nice
Èze
A medieval village glued to a clifftop above the sea, a short bus or train ride east.
Day tripMonaco & Monte Carlo
Twenty minutes by train for the casino façade, the old town on the rock, and a scale of wealth worth seeing once purely as spectacle — walkable in a…
Day tripSaint-Paul-de-Vence
A hilltop walled village turned artists' retreat a century ago, with the Fondation Maeght's serious modern-art collection just outside the walls —…
Day tripAntibes & Cap d'Antibes
A fortified old town, a lively market, and the Picasso Museum in the castle where he once worked, followed by a walk along the wilder, pine-scented…
Day tripEverything to do in Nice
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is the second-busiest in France and sits almost absurdly close to the centre — about six kilometres, a fifteen-to-twenty-minute tram ride on Line 2 straight from the terminal to Vieux Nice for a few euros, which makes the expensive airport taxis a convenience tax rather than a necessity.
Flights
Compare fares into Nice and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Nice
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.