Free Nice Trip Template: 4-Day French Riviera Base Itinerary
Nice's real value is geometric: one hotel, one coastal rail line, and half the French Riviera within 40 minutes for the price of a coffee. First-timers usually get this wrong in one of two directions — never leaving the Promenade, or dragging suitcases between three coastal hotels. This template does neither: Nice as the fixed base, the suitcase unpacked exactly once, and the TER train as the entire strategy — Èze and Monaco east one day, Antibes and Cannes west the next, Villefranche's postcard harbor ten minutes away for the finale. Sequenced so the crowd-sensitive stops (Èze's lanes) come before the coach tours land.
Who it's for
First-time Riviera visitors who want Nice, Monaco, and the coast's greatest hits without hotel-hopping — couples, friends, and anyone allergic to repacking. The pace is Mediterranean: real sights every morning, water and long lunches built in, 5-7 km of walking a day with one steep village (Èze). September is the design month — warm sea, summer crowds gone.
Budget level
moderate
Day-by-day itinerary
Use this as a starting point — every detail is editable once it's in your own trip.
Check in — between Vieux Nice and the station
The base for all four days, so position it for the strategy: within walking distance of both Vieux Nice (evenings) and Nice-Ville station (the day-trip mornings). You'll unpack exactly once this trip — that's the template's whole premise.
Vieux Nice — the ochre maze
The old town's Italian bones (Nice was Savoyard until 1860): Cours Saleya's flower market, baroque chapels tucked between gelato windows, and socca — the chickpea pancake eaten hot off cast iron — from a counter, not a tourist terrace.
Castle Hill at golden hour — the Baie des Anges shot
Take the free lift or the stairs up Colline du Château for the view that sells the Riviera: the full curve of the Baie des Anges, the orange rooftops of the old town, the port on the other side. Golden hour turns the water the color the postcards promised.
Promenade stroll & Niçoise dinner
The Promenade des Anglais at dusk — join the rollerbladers and evening walkers on the world's most famous seafront sidewalk — then dinner on the real Niçoise canon: salade niçoise where it was invented, daube, or petits farcis, one street back from the seafront where prices drop by a third.
Before you go
- Passport valid for at least 3 months beyond your departure from the Schengen Area — and check whether ETIAS travel authorization applies to you before booking; carry the passport on the Monaco day (different country)
- Buy TER train tickets in the SNCF Connect app day-of — no advance booking needed on the coastal line, but VALIDATE paper tickets before boarding or the fine is on the spot
- Book the trip's two dinner tables (port-side seafood, the Villefranche long lunch) a day or two ahead in September
- Pack water shoes or accept the pebbles — Nice's beaches are stones, not sand, and the swim is worth the ugly footwear
- Day bag per person: swimsuit, towel, sunscreen — every day of this plan has a plausible swim window
- Type C/E plugs, 230V — one European adapter covers it
- Check the Monaco palace guard-change time (11:55am) if that matters to you — it anchors the day-2 schedule
- Comfortable shoes with grip for Èze's steep stone lanes — the village is vertical and the steps are polished
Local tips
- The TER coastal train is the whole strategy: a few euros per hop, sea views the entire line, and no luggage because your hotel isn't moving. Sit on the sea side (right heading east, left heading west).
- Èze before 10am or not at all — the village is a stone funnel, and when the coach tours arrive at midday it becomes a queue with views. This template's day-2 order (Èze first, Monaco after) exists for exactly this.
- Socca rules: eaten hot off the cast-iron disc, with pepper, standing up, ideally within minutes of coming off the fire. A socca that's been sitting is a different, sadder food.
- One street back from any seafront drops prices 30% — the rule works in Nice, Antibes, Villefranche, and especially Monaco, where portside La Condamine feeds you for half of Casino-square rates.
- Nice's beaches are pebble, not sand — locals bring mats and water shoes and swim happily into October. The private beach clubs rent comfort by the half-day if the stones defeat you.
- September is the Riviera's cheat code: 24-27°C air, 22-23°C sea, summer's crowds and prices gone, everything still open. June is the other shoulder that works.
Booking tips
- Book the Nice hotel for position, not view: between Vieux Nice and the station serves the day-trip strategy; a sea-view room a tram ride from the station fights it daily.
- No advance tickets needed for the trains, Èze's garden, or Monaco's public spaces — this is the least-bookable template in the set. The two exceptions: dinner tables in September, and the Oceanographic Museum on rainy days when everyone has the same idea.
- If the budget allows one splurge, make it the Villefranche long lunch rather than a Monaco casino night — the harbor table is the Riviera memory that lasts.
- Flying into Nice Côte d'Azur: the tram runs from both terminals to the center for pocket change — the airport is famously close, taxis are famously proud of it.
Watch and read before you go
Independent videos and traveler threads, not affiliated with Tripety — worth a look alongside the template above.
Verify travel requirements
Entry rules and travel advisories change. Confirm current requirements with official sources before you book.
FAQ
Is Nice a good base for the French Riviera?
It's the best one, and this template is built on that fact: Nice sits mid-coast on the TER rail line with Monaco and Èze 20-25 minutes east, Antibes 25 minutes west, and Villefranche ten minutes away — all for a few euros per hop. Staying in Monaco or Cannes instead means paying more to be further from everything else.
Is 4 days enough for Nice and the Riviera?
Four days covers Nice itself plus the three classic day-trip axes — Èze/Monaco east, Antibes/Cannes west, Villefranche for the finale — with swim windows built in. What it doesn't cover: the perfume town of Grasse, Saint-Paul-de-Vence's art village, or Menton near the Italian border. Each is one more TER/bus day; the base strategy scales.
Do I need a car on the French Riviera?
For this itinerary, no — and a car actively hurts: coastal parking is scarce and expensive, the corniche roads jam in season, and the train is faster station-to-station for every stop in this plan. The one place a car earns its keep is the hill villages beyond the rail line (Gourdes, the back-country) — trip-two territory.
Monaco or Èze — and can you really do both in one day?
Both, in that order, comfortably — they're 15 minutes apart on the same coast. The sequencing is the trick this template encodes: Èze's stone lanes at 9am belong to you; at noon they belong to the coach tours, which is exactly when you should already be portside in Monaco. Reversing the order ruins both.
How much does 4 days in Nice cost for two people?
Outside the hotel, roughly €500-800 for two: TER hops run €3-8 each, Èze's garden and the Picasso Museum are under €10 apiece, socca and market lunches €8-15 a head, proper dinners €25-40, and the designated Villefranche long lunch €50-80 for two with rosé. Monaco is free to walk and expensive to sit down in — the template eats portside for that reason.
Can I customize this Nice template into my own Riviera trip?
Yes — "Use this template" copies the four days into your Tripety account as an editable trip: re-date it, swap Cannes for Menton, stretch it to six days with Grasse and Saint-Paul. The one-hotel structure survives every edit; that's the point of it.
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