Nice + Riviera in 6 Days on a Budget
Six Days in Nice: The Full Circuit, and Where the Rail Pass Definitely Pays Off
Six days is enough to ride the coastal TER in both directions: Villefranche and Eze one day, Monaco on its own, Antibes and Cannes together, and Menton out toward the Italian border, without repeating a single train ride. It’s also the point where the Pass Sud Azur Explore stops being a maybe and becomes the obvious buy.
Book these before you go
- An apartment rental in or near Vieux Nice for six nights: check options on Booking.com .
- A guided Bellet vineyard tasting with transport, for the Day 6 flex option: book on GetYourGuide .
- A Menton day trip if you’d rather book it ahead: browse Viator .
| Day | Stop(s) | One-way fare | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Villefranche + Eze-sur-Mer | under EUR 10 round trip combined | Two towns, one line |
| 4 | Monaco | roughly EUR 7 | Full day, sovereign country |
| 5 | Antibes + Cannes | EUR 7-8 (Antibes) | Picasso Museum, La Croisette |
| 6 | Menton | roughly EUR 7 | Quietest, most underrated stop |
Is 6 days enough for the full Nice day-trip circuit?
Yes, and it’s the length where the rail pass clearly wins. Two days cover the city, then Villefranche and Eze, Monaco, Antibes and Cannes, and Menton each get their own day without repeating a single train ride. For the in-city-only version of this length, see the 6-day Nice itinerary .
Quick arrival note
Tram Line 2, EUR 1.70 a single fare (the EUR 10 fare at the airport ticket machines is the round-trip default, not the standard price; full walkthrough in the 2-day version ). For six nights, price an apartment in or near Vieux Nice against a hotel; the kitchen alone earns its keep over a week if you’re skipping even a few sit-down breakfasts.
Days 1 to 2: Nice, properly
Day 1: Vieux Nice, Cours Saleya market (antiques on Monday instead), socca at Chez Pipo, the Promenade des Anglais, Castle Hill at sunset via the free lift.
Day 2: the Cimiez cluster in the morning, Matisse Museum (EUR 12), the monastery gardens, the Roman arena, all a short walk apart, plus Chagall (EUR 8 to 10) if you want both major collections rather than one. MAMAC stays off the list either way; it’s been closed for renovation since 2024 and isn’t due back until 2028.
Day 3: Villefranche and Eze
Villefranche-sur-Mer first, under 10 minutes by train and a couple of euros, a real Old Town around a deep, calm harbor. Catch the next eastbound train on the same line toward Eze-sur-Mer, then climb the steep Chemin de Nietzsche path or take bus 83 up to the actual perched village, since no train reaches the hilltop itself. Do the climb outside the midday heat if you’re there in summer.
Day 4: Monaco, the whole day
A sovereign country, not a Nice suburb, so give it a full day: 20 to 25 minutes each way by train, roughly EUR 7 one-way booked ahead on SNCF Connect . Walk the Rock, the harbor, and the palace grounds. The Casino de Monte-Carlo interior requires a passport, a dress code, and being 18 or older; the plaza and the building’s exterior cost nothing and are worth seeing regardless.
Day 5: Antibes and Cannes, one line, one day
Antibes (16 to 23 minutes, roughly EUR 7 to 8 one-way) for the Provencal market, the Picasso Museum in the Chateau Grimaldi, and the ramparts, then Cannes (about 7 minutes further down the same track) for La Croisette and Le Suquet. Treat Cannes as sightseeing rather than a dinner plan, it runs pricier than Nice for comparable food. Cannes has capped cruise-ship arrivals since January 1, 2026, worth knowing if crowding around the old cruise-day surges was a concern.
Day 6: Menton, then home
Menton, 30 to 35 minutes by train, roughly EUR 7 one-way, sits right at the Italian border with a gentler, less crowded Belle Epoque waterfront than either Nice or Cannes, plus the actual home of the region’s lemon festival every February. It’s arguably the most underrated stop on this whole circuit, most visitors skip it in favor of a second look at Monaco or Cannes, which is a mistake given how much calmer and cheaper an afternoon here runs. If a sixth train trip feels like one too many, swap in a slower morning instead: a Bellet vineyard tasting (an appellation that exists only within Nice’s own city limits, one of the hidden gems most visitors never learn about) or the Train des Merveilles, a two-hour scenic run from Nice-Ville up into the Roya Valley, running daily June through September.
The pass math, worked out
Across the day-trip days (3 through 6): Villefranche and Eze-sur-Mer together under EUR 10, Monaco round trip around EUR 14, Antibes and Cannes together roughly EUR 20, Menton round trip around EUR 14. That’s somewhere around EUR 58 in train fares alone, before counting Nice’s own tram and bus rides. The Pass Sud Azur Explore runs EUR 35 for 3 days, EUR 50 for 7, EUR 80 for 14, and covers every TER train plus local buses and trams across the department and into Monaco. On a six-day trip with this itinerary’s day-trip load, the 7-day pass is very likely cheaper than buying each leg separately, and it removes the need to think about fares at all once you’ve bought it.
Before you go
A car adds nothing on this itinerary and is arguably a liability, parking and traffic without a single benefit the train doesn’t already cover for Nice, Monaco, Villefranche, Eze, Antibes, Cannes, or Menton. Watch your bag on the train and at crowded tram stops, the same pickpocket pattern shows up throughout this trip, not just at the airport. And if six days still isn’t enough, the extra legwork (Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Grasse) needs a bus or car since neither sits on this rail line, worth a specific reason to go rather than adding a seventh stop just to say you did.