Top 11 things to do Nice... and the best day trips from the city

Expert guide to Nice

1. 

   Overview

2. 

   Hotels

3. 

   Attractions

4. 

   Restaurants

5. 

   Nightlife

6. 

   Itinerary

Nice is a classy courtesan of a city – good-looking, cultured, desirable and only as virtuous as she needs to be. Her business is seduction. You’d need the moral armour of an ascetic to resist. Then again, if you had such moral armour, you wouldn’t be in Nice in the first place. So forget about resistance and fling yourself into her arms. 

Take a stroll along the promenade

The Promenade des Anglais curves almost five miles round the Bay of Angels, a delightful stretch punctuated by palms and pergolas. It’s been the favoured stroll of fashionable folk since the British community funded the initial length (hence the name) in the 1820s. Although now there are more joggers and small dogs than frock coats and bustles – but the aura remains, underwritten grandly by the sheen of the elements. In fact, it's quite possible to spend almost an entire short break solely on the Promenade, strolling, smiling, then sitting to contemplate the vastness of sea and sky. 

Insider's tip: Here and there, lovely 19th-century edifices survive, but elsewhere buildings have been substituted by utilitarian 20th-century blocks. Ugliest of the lot is the Méridien Hotel, which is why you should enter for lunch where instead you'll be treated to the most arresting seaside views in Nice. The food’s good, too, though pricey – mains from €19 (￡17) for pasta, or from €24 (￡21) for fish and meat.

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Explore a former palace

Stop at the Palais Masséna for an idea of how Nice life was lived when the aristos dominated. Both gardens and palace have escaped redevelopment, the palace to become a museum. This tells the Nice story from Napoleon – see his death mask and Josephine's jewels – through to the mid-20th century. But it also tells its own story, a grandiose tale of wintering nobles trying to out-pomp one another. Marble halls and reception rooms swamp you with sumptuousness. There’s not a shred of self-doubt. 

Insider's tip: Like all Nice museums, it’s no longer free but is well worth considering to include as part of your itinerary if you opt for the €10 (￡9) 24-hour museum pass.

Contact: 00 33 493 911 910; nice.fr
Opening times: Mon-Fri, 8.30am-5pm
Price: ￡

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Get lost in a warren of wriggling streets 

The tight-packed labyrinth of the Old Town (Vieux Nice) was all there was of the city before foreign aristocrats started showing up in the early 19th century. It’s a warren of wriggling streets where the Ni?ois were packed in pretty snug. They still are, now jostling to sell us Proven?al frocks, dodgy art, olive oil – and simmered lambs’ trotters on restaurant terraces.'Touristy', cry the purists. Purists know nothing. Nice has always done commotion and boisterous commerce. They’re as traditional as the buildings’ ochre tones, the old dears chatting on chairs or the baroque churches. Pop into the Eglise de Gésu, jammed in at 12 Rue Droite.

Insider's tip: If shops and bars weren’t there, you’d be left with purists and guidebooks, and where’s the life in that? So buy an ice cream at Fenocchio’s on Place Rossetti, then carry on strolling to the Cours Saleya.

Pick up some colourful blooms at a flower market

On flower market mornings (every day, bar Monday), the Cours Saleya is a barely-controlled explosion of colours and aromas. It's a seductive spectacle, concentrated by Italianate buildings all around, and defiant of winter. By now, well-dressed restaurant tables will be edging out for al fresco lunchtime, professional chaps in aprons will be opening the necessary oysters, and you will be overcome with food lust, at least.

Insider's tip: The Old Town, as well as Nice in general, knows both how to fire the appetites, and then satisfy them. Take your pick from any number colourful eateries, either in the Cours itself or streetlets all around. Perhaps the tiny Lou Pistou (4 Rue Raoul Bosio; 00 33 493 62 21 82) where you should book ahead, and which serves Ni?oises specialities, or Bistrot d’Antoine (27 Rue de la Préfecture; 00 33 43 852957) for more regional fare. 

Contact:nicetourisme.com
Opening times: Tue-Sat, 6am-5.30pm; Sun, 6.30am-1.30pm

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Ride an open-top bus to spy Nice's greatest hits 

You may think open-topped tourist bus Le Grand Tour is naff. It isn't. For €22 (￡19) a day, it's the most effective way of looping round some of Nice's greatest hits without undue effort. It's a hop-on, hop-off service, so you can spin it out all day. Or over two days, for an extra €3 (￡2.50). The English-language commentary is excellent, and when the speaking part is over, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto takes over – a stirring soundtrack for a trip round the headland to the port and on to Mont Boron for a peek at the posh villas. You might just spot Sir Elton’s up and away in the distance, near the observatory. The departure point is Promenade des Anglais, opposite the Albert I gardens.

Insider's tip: Some of the best places to hop-off are the Musée Chagall and the Russian cathedral. 

Contact: nicelegrandtour.fr
Price: ￡￡

Visit a musuem dedicated to one of Nice's most famous artists

Nice fairly throbs with excellent galleries but, if you are to see only one, make it the Musée Matisse, up on Cimiez Hill. Though born in northern France, old Henri lived in the capital of the C?te d’Azur from 1917 to his death in 1954. Here, in a 17th-century villa, the city pays him tribute with a superb collection of his art, from the 1890s to his post-Second World War gouache cut-outs. It’s a sort of vertical tasting of his life's work. If you are not familiar with the man, this is a splendid introduction. If you are, you’ll be mesmerised.

Insider's tip:While you're up in this district, you should also glance at the Roman archaeological site. Cimiez Hill was the centre of their settlement here, and what’s left surrounds the Matisse Museum. Then potter through the olive grove – to the nearby Franciscan monastery, dating from 1546. The gardens are lovely but the real attraction is the church and, more particularly, the three 15th-century masterpieces inside by Louis Bréa.

Contact: 00 33 493 81 08 08; musee-matisse-nice.org
Opening times: June 23-Oct 15, Wed-Mon, 10am-6pm; the rest of year, Wed-Mon, 11am-6pm. 
Price: ￡ (included in the €10/￡9, 24-hour Nice museum pass).

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See the largest collection of Marc Chagall's paintings

At Musée Marc Chagall you'll find the artist's most important works – notably his 17 major Biblical Message tableaux. They're magnificent, and they swirl with colour and meaning – but no one can say that Chagall was any good at painting animals. His sheep look like donkeys.

Insider's tip: The museum is free on first Sunday of the month and permanently for French Riviera Pass holders. Also for under-18-year-olds and under 26-year-olds from the EU.

Contact: 00 33 493 53 87 31; musee-chagall.fr
Opening times: Wed-Mon, 10am–6pm (until 5pm, November-April).
Price: ￡

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Explore the most beautiful Orthodox church outside Russia

The striking St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral is the most visited monument in Nice. If you don't fancy paying the €10 (￡9) entrance fee, go anyway, for the exterior is outstanding. With its cupolas, mini steeples, turrets and polychrome tiles, the cathedral appears to have been wrenched from St Petersburg and shipped south. The whole was built before the Great War for a noble Russian community quite as keen on wintering in Nice as were the British. The cathedral’s interior 'symbolises the universe returned to its initial beauty through the grace of the Risen Christ'. It is very gold, shiny, studded with jewels and other treasures brought from Russia. The whole is engrossing – it contains some 300 icons – but is also still a place of worship. 

Insider's tip: Be respectful of how you dress when visiting. No shorts, mini-skirts or uncovered shoulders, and ladies should cover their heads.

Contact: 00 33 493 96 88 02; sobor.fr
Opening times: Daily, 9.30am-5.30pm
Price: ￡

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Enjoy art spanning four centuries at an extravagant gallery

The Musée des Beaux Arts is a wonder of neo-classical extravagance, started by a Ukrainian princess, finished by an American billionaire and now full of good stuff – Dégas, Dufy, Sisley and Kees van Dongen. Don't miss van Dongen's Archangel’s Tango, which features a woman entwined with an angel, nor the beautiful Crucifixion by 16th-century Florentine mannerist Agnolo Bronzino.

Insider's tip: There's also a room dedicated to Alexis Mossa and his symbolist son, Gustav-Adolphe. As well as being esteemed orthodox artists, both men had parallel careers as creators of great posters, notably for Nice’s carnival. 

Contact: 00 33 492 152 828; musee-beaux-arts-nice.org
Opening times: June 23-Oct 15, Wed-Mon, 10am-6pm; the rest of the year, 11am-6pm. 
Price: ￡ (included in the €10/￡9, 24-hour Nice museum pass)

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Glide around the city on a motorised pogo stick

Nice has many other fine museums not mentioned here because, well, if you're under 90 and it's sunny, you'll have more fun on a Mobilboard Segwaytour. These motorised pogo sticks – hop on, lean forward and they zip off – are banned on public thoroughfares in Britain, but certainly not in Nice. Granted, you'll not add to the elegance of the city: with helmet and machine, riders look like aliens left over from Dr Who, c.1966. And tackling the Old Town streets requires concentration, for fear of thinning out the population. But the nip-round of Ni?ois highlights is a blast, notably for those for whom a whizz-past glance at Baroque architecture amply suffices.

Insider's tip: 30 minutes cost €17 (￡15) – but that's not enough. Go for one hour at €30 (￡26), or two hours at €50 (￡43). You'll not regret it.

Contact:mobilboard.com
Opening times: Mon-Sat, 10am-1pm, 2pm-7pm
Price: ￡￡

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Climb up to a park with the best views in Nice

The pretty Parc de la Colline du Chateau is the 300-foot hill rising between the Old Town and the port was where Nice started. Greek relics have been found up there. Later, it bore the castle which defended Nice, until Louis XIV had it razed. Now the hill-top is a fine and extensive park, with woodland, a waterfall and absolutely the best views over Nice and the bay. Nietzsche used to love walking up here, before he went mad.

Insider's tip: Access is a trek by foot from the Old Town – try by lift in the Tour Bellanda lift (where the promenade bumps into the rock-face) or by dinky little tourist train (you can hop on on the Promenade des Anglais, almost opposite the Albert I gardens).

Contact: nice.fr
Opening times: October-March, daily, 8.30am-6pm; April-September, daily, 8.30am-8pm 

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Day trips

Tende

Though Nice is the least stifling of cities, there may come a time when, having gazed at the hills and mountains rising behind, you want to get out and in among them. That's when you trot to Nice-Ville station and take the Train des Merveilles. It’s a regular, SNCF service which winds out of town and up into some smashing sub-Alpine scenery en route to the villages of Sospel, Saorge, La Brigue and finally – 1000 metres up in the Mercantour National Park – the little town of Tende. The train operates year-round. However, on weekends in May and October, and daily in June through to September, the 9.23am service comes equipped with a full guide service. Explanations – in English and French – hugely enhance what is already a pretty spectacular trip. It takes two hours to Tende, and costs €25.60 (￡23) return.

Menton

Some 45 minutes from Nice’s main rail station and hard by the Italian border, Menton is the civilised person’s French Riviera: bling-free, rooted and courteous. Our rich and noble British forefathers wintered here in the 19th-century, leaving a heritage of good manners, frothy villas and palaces, and terrific gardens. The presence of Italians at the end of the Prom – literally – ensures, however, that arm-waving Latin life also courses through the place. The beaches are better and sandier than Nice’s, and the last of the Alps dive direct into the briny, giving the place more dramatic beauty than you’d expect. Meanwhile, the newer town at sea level occasionally resembles a park with town-like elements grafted on, such is the profusion of horticulture. For that reason, you should opt for a visit to the Villa Maria Serena gardens over the Jean Cocteau Musée, of which Menton is inordinately proud. Then stroll the lovely promenade before lunch at the long-established A.Braijade Méridounale. Tucked away in an Old Town street barely two-tourists-wide, the place dishes up Menton traditions as speciality brochettes.

Antibes

Antibes is the venerable one: its story covering 2000 years and told in stone ramparts, a squeeze of narrow streets, a wrought iron market hall and a wary attitude to the sea expressed in the glowering medieval castle – now home to the Picasso museum. A 20-minute walk away, Juan-les-Pins is its wild-child offshoot district barely a hundred years old. This was HQ to the lost generation of US literary hedonists – Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Hemingway – who gathered round the extraordinarily extravagant Cole Porter to drink, write, outrage locals and drink some more. But the tales of money and mindlessness, excess and great talent here reach further – to Victor Hugo, Churchill, Mick Jagger, Barbara Cartland and, these days, Roman Abramovitch. The town is also home to the world’s best pissaladière (caramelised onion and anchovy tart) from Jean-Paul Veziano’s family bakery (Boulangerie Veziano) at 2 Rue de la Pompe. Buy a few slices, a bottle of rosé and that’s lunch on the beach sorted.