Five days along the Côte d’Azur — old-town markets and a cliffside hotel in Nice, a hilltop village and an evening at Monaco’s Belle Époque casino, a hands-on perfume workshop in the world’s fragrance capital, and a boat to a private island where monks make their own wine — with real hotels, real tour operators, and 2026 prices for every stop.
Day 1Nice Arrival & the Old Town
A first afternoon in the old town’s ochre alleyways and market stalls, with the Mediterranean glittering at the end of every street.
🚕 Airport Transfer — Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE)
~20–30 minutes to the city center · tram T2 ~$2 USD, taxi ~$30–$40 USD
Nice’s airport sits right on the coast a few miles west of downtown — the T2 tram line runs straight along the promenade into the city center in about half an hour for a few euros, though a taxi is faster and easier with luggage.
🏛️ Vieux Nice & Cours Saleya Market
~2 hours, self-guided · free
Nice’s old town is a maze of ochre and burnt-orange buildings tumbling down to the sea, its spine the Cours Saleya market — flower stalls each morning, a bustling produce and antiques market on other days, and socca, a chickpea-flour flatbread, sizzling on giant griddles at the edges.
🍽️ Dinner — Chez Palmyre
~1.5 hours, fixed menu · ~$30 USD / person
A tiny, family-run Niçois institution on a narrow street in the old town, serving a no-menu, no-choice set dinner of home-style Niçois cooking at a handful of shared tables — reservations are essential and worth calling ahead for.
Chez Palmyre · restaurantchezpalmyre.eatbu.com
🛎️ Overnight — Hôtel La Pérouse
From $260–$320 USD / night, for 2 people
A cliffside boutique hotel built into the rock below Castle Hill, a few steps from the old town, with a terraced garden and a rooftop pool looking straight out over the Baie des Anges.
Hôtel La Pérouse · hotel-la-perouse.com
Day 2Castle Hill, the Matisse Museum & the Beach
A clifftop panorama at sunrise, a morning with Matisse’s life’s work in the hills above the city, and an afternoon on the water Nice is named for.
🌄 Colline du Château (Castle Hill) Viewpoint
~1 hour, self-guided · free (elevator ~$2 USD)
No castle has stood here since the 18th century, just a park at the top of the cliff guarding the old port — the best panorama over the Baie des Anges and the old town’s terracotta roofs, reachable by a short uphill walk or a small elevator from the beach promenade.
🖼️ Musée Matisse, Cimiez
~1.5 hours, self-guided · ~$12 USD / person
A collection spanning Matisse’s whole career, housed in a 17th-century Genoese villa in the leafy Cimiez hills where the artist lived out his last years and is buried nearby — the Roman ruins and olive groves next door are worth the walk up on their own.
🏖️ Afternoon at the Beach — Castel Plage
~3 hours · loungers from ~$30 USD / person / day; public pebble beach free
Nice’s beaches are famously pebble, not sand — a private beach club below Castle Hill rents loungers, umbrellas, and a shower for the day, or the free public stretch works just as well with a pair of water shoes.
🛎️ Overnight — Hôtel La Pérouse
From $260–$320 USD / night, for 2 people
A second night in the same cliffside rooms above the bay.
Day 3Èze Village & an Evening in Monte Carlo
A cliffside medieval village 1,300 feet above the sea, then Monaco’s Belle Époque casino lit up for the evening.
🚆 Train — Nice to Èze-sur-Mer, then Bus to Èze Village
~20 minutes by train + 15-minute bus · train ~$2 USD, bus ~$2 USD
The hilltop village of Èze perches above the coast; the regional train drops at Èze-sur-Mer by the water, then a short local bus or taxi climbs the switchbacks to the medieval core.
🌵 Èze Village & the Jardin Exotique
~2 hours, self-guided · garden ~$8 USD / person
Cobbled lanes barely wide enough for two people, stone houses turned into galleries and perfumeries, and a cactus garden at the summit with a 360-degree view stretching from the Italian border to the Estérel massif.
🎰 Casino de Monte-Carlo & Café de Paris
~2.5 hours · casino entry ~$18 USD / person (18+, ID required); atrium free to view
Belle Époque gaming rooms opened in 1863, still the glamorous centerpiece of Monte Carlo — non-gamblers can view the ornate atrium for free, or pay the entry fee to see the private rooms where minimum bets run steep. A drink at the historic Café de Paris across the square, lit up after dark, rounds out the evening before the train back.
Casino de Monte-Carlo · montecarlosbm.com
🚆 Train — Monaco back to Nice
~25 minutes · ~$4 USD
A short evening ride back along the coast, with the casino lights receding behind the train windows.
Day 4Grasse’s Perfume Workshops & Antibes
A hands-on morning in the perfume capital of the world, then an afternoon in a Riviera town where Picasso once lived and painted.
🚆 Train — Nice to Antibes
~25 minutes · ~$7 USD
A short coastal ride southwest, with bags dropped at the hotel before the day trip inland to Grasse.
🌺 Perfume Workshop — Fragonard Factory, Grasse
~2 hours (factory tour free; hands-on workshop ~$70 USD / person)
Grasse has been the world’s perfume capital since the 17th century; the historic Fragonard factory offers a free guided tour of the distillation and blending rooms, plus a bookable workshop where visitors compose and bottle their own fragrance to take home.
Fragonard Perfume Factory · usines-parfum.fragonard.com
🗼 Antibes Old Town, Ramparts & the Picasso Museum
~2.5 hours, self-guided · museum ~$7 USD / person
Antibes’ seafront ramparts, the daily Marché Provençal food market, and the Château Grimaldi — a former bishop’s palace where Picasso lived and worked for a few prolific months in 1946, now home to one of the world’s best collections of his ceramics and paintings.
🛎️ Overnight — Hôtel La Jabotte
From $170–$210 USD / night, for 2 people
A small, family-run hotel a few steps from Antibes’ Plage de la Salis, built around a sunny breakfast courtyard, with just nine individually decorated rooms.
Hôtel La Jabotte · jabotte.com
Day 5The Îles de Lérins & Departure
A monk-made wine on a private island a few minutes from Cannes’ Croisette, then the drive home along the coast that started it all.
🚆 Train — Antibes to Cannes
~15 minutes · ~$4 USD
A short final coastal hop to Cannes’ Vieux Port, where the morning boats to the islands depart.
⛴️ Boat to Saint-Honorat, Îles de Lérins
~20 minutes each way + island time · ferry ~$18 USD round trip
A tiny monastic island a short boat ride from Cannes, still home to Cistercian monks who tend seven vineyards and sell their own wine and liqueur from the abbey shop — a quiet, pine-scented contrast to the Croisette’s glitz a few minutes away by water.
Iles de Lérins Boat Trips · cannes-france.com
🍽️ Lunch — Cannes Vieux Port
~1 hour · $25–$35 USD / person
A last seaside lunch of grilled fish or a nicoise salad at one of the harborfront brasseries facing the yachts, before the ride to the airport.
🚆 Departure — Train to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport
~45 minutes from Cannes · ~$9 USD
A last ride back up the coast to Nice, closing the loop on a week that ran from an old-town market to a casino floor to a monk’s vineyard on an island.
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