Nice is the most useful first base on the Riviera. That does not mean it wins every beauty contest. It means you can arrive, eat, sleep and reach several very different places without changing hotels or acquiring strong opinions about underground car parks.
This is the itinerary we would give a first-time visitor with five nights, sensible shoes and no desire to spend the holiday inside a rental car.
Before you arrive
Choose location before sea view
For this plan, stay within an easy walk of a tram stop and no more than a reasonable walk from Nice-Ville station. Old Nice is atmospheric; the central grid around Jean Médecin and Dubouchage is often simpler. The best choice depends on whether you value morning logistics or late-night atmosphere.
Do not rent a car for these five days
The coastal railway handles the long east–west moves in this itinerary. Buses and walking cover the places the train does not. A car becomes useful when you add inland villages, remote beaches or a Saint-Tropez plan with awkward seasonal connections.
Nice: learn the base before escaping it
Keep the arrival day local. Walk the Old Town, the market area and the seafront, then climb only if your energy and shoes agree. The useful objective is not to “finish Nice”; it is to understand the distances between your hotel, the old town, the beach and the station.
Do: leave one meal unplanned so the first day can absorb a late flight or an early collapse.
Villefranche and Cap-Ferrat: the beautiful, slower day
Start with Villefranche-sur-Mer, then decide whether your day wants a coastal walk, a garden or a long lunch. Cap-Ferrat is close on a map but not one compact attraction; trying to collect every cove usually produces more transport than pleasure.
The catch: gradients and walking time matter. Choose one main Cap-Ferrat objective rather than treating the peninsula as a checklist.
Monaco and Menton: spectacle, then exhale
Group these two because the railway makes the sequence logical. Give Monaco the earlier part of the day, then continue east to Menton for a softer old town and evening. If museums, gardens or a specific restaurant are the real point, reverse the order around their opening hours.
Do: check live rail information on the morning of travel. The route is frequent, but works and disruption do not consult your mood board.
Antibes: the western counterpoint
Antibes gives you an old town, ramparts and an accessible beach without requiring a Cannes-level commitment to polish. It is enough for a full relaxed day. Add Cannes only if you genuinely want the Croisette and palace-hotel theatre; proximity is not an instruction.
The catch: Cap d’Antibes is not the same thing as central Antibes. Reaching coves around the cape changes the transport calculation.
Èze — or admit that a slow day is allowed
Èze village is the iconic choice, reached by bus rather than by pretending the coastal railway station sits beside the hilltop village. Check the current journey planner before leaving. If the weather, crowds or your legs vote against it, keep the day in Nice: museum, market, beach and one properly chosen dinner.
Mametas rule: the flexible day is not a failure of planning. It is the part that makes the rest feel like a holiday.
The transport logic
Use the regional train as the coastal spine for Antibes, Monaco and Menton. Use local or regional buses for places such as the hilltop village of Èze and parts of Cap-Ferrat. Check each trip in the official planners rather than copying a line number from an old article.
A multimodal SudAzur Explore Pass currently covers train, tram and bus travel in the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco for 3, 7 or 14 days. Compare it with individual fares for your exact sequence; “pass” is not French for “automatically cheaper”.
What to book — and what not to
Book before arrival
Your hotel, one or two dinners you would be genuinely disappointed to miss, and any timed museum or experience that defines the trip.
Keep flexible
Most lunches, the order of weather-sensitive days and at least one half-day. A perfect spreadsheet can still produce a strangely joyless holiday.
Make it three days
Keep day one in Nice. Choose one eastern day — Villefranche/Cap-Ferrat or Monaco/Menton — and one western day in Antibes. Do not keep the five-day ambition and merely reduce the lunch breaks.
Make it seven days
Add one genuinely slow Nice day, then choose either Cannes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence or a longer inland excursion. Seven days creates room for a second base, but does not require one.