Visiting the French Riviera

The French Riviera has no gate and no ticket office. The promenades, the old towns and the markets are free, so a fare here buys something else. It buys a road day through several towns, one town on foot, or the coast from the sea. If you are weighing up French Riviera guided tours, start with what each one buys and where it starts.

The coast is free: what your fare buys

You can walk every town on this coast without paying anyone. What costs money is getting between them quickly, a guide who explains them, a boat, or a paid door along the way. No tour listed here includes a paid interior such as the palace in Monaco.

So the first question for any tour is what it buys. Every tour card states it first: a road day and how many towns it covers, the coast from the sea, a town on foot, or two wheels.

Fares are shown in US dollars, as each operator lists them. Some private boats add €300 per booking, paid on top, and that fee is printed beside their price every time it appears.

Getting in from the airport

Nice Côte d'Azur airport is France's third-busiest, after the two Paris airports, and it is the gateway for almost everyone. Tram line 2 runs from both terminals through the centre of Nice to its terminus at the port, roughly every 8 minutes.

A Ticket Azur costs €2.50. It covers one trip on the Nice network plus one connection within 2 hours 30 onto a regional line, which is how you carry on along the coast by bus.

Along the coast by train and bus

The TER coastal train is the backbone of the Riviera. From Nice-Ville it reaches Monaco-Monte-Carlo in about 22 minutes for €6.10 full fare, with around 60 trains a day. On the way it calls at Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Èze-sur-Mer and Cap d'Ail.

Westward, Antibes is 11 to 13 minutes from Nice, with about 30 trains a day each way. Cannes is about 27 minutes on the fastest direct trains. East of Monaco, a single to Menton costs €7.70, and the line runs on over the border to Ventimiglia in Italy.

The hill villages are where the train stops helping. For the village of Èze on its rock, take bus 82 or regional line 602 from Nice; the 602 does not run on Sundays. For Saint-Paul-de-Vence, take tram 2 to Parc Phoenix, bus 9 to Vence, then bus 655.

What the train and bus cannot do is chain five towns into one day with someone to explain them. The road tours do that, over the Moyenne Corniche and back along the coast.

What is free, and what has a door

Most of what you came for costs nothing. In Nice, the park on Castle Hill opens at 08:30 every day and closes at 20:00 from April to October, 18:00 in winter. The Promenade des Anglais, the Old Town lanes and the markets are open to all.

Fragonard's perfume factory in Èze gives free guided visits of about 30 minutes, roughly every half hour, and most road days stop there. The courtyards of the citadel at Villefranche are free too, though the museums inside have been closed for renovation since 2022.

The doors that charge are worth knowing before you plan the day:

• The State Apartments of the Prince's Palace in Monaco cost €13 and open from 30 March to 15 October. The Changing of the Guard outside is free, daily at 11:55.
• The Oceanographic Museum in Monaco costs €22.50 at the door.
• The Casino's gaming rooms admit only over-18s, and you must show a passport or national ID card. Its Atrium is open to visitors who do not play.
• The Jardin exotique in Èze costs €10, free under 12, open daily from 9:00 to 16:30.
• The Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence costs €18; the Musée Picasso in Antibes costs €6 and closes on Mondays.

The whole list, town by town, is on things to do on the French Riviera.

Where the tours start

There is no single starting point. The road days collect you from your hotel in Nice, but everything else meets at a named spot, some of them in other towns. Boats leave on time and do not wait for anyone at the wrong quay.

The shared boats meet by the Port Lympia tram stop, the end of the line from the airport. Every meeting point is plotted on the French Riviera tours map, with the tram or train stop nearest to each.

Who each tour suits

The rules come from the listings and differ more than you might expect. The shared boats from Nice take no one under 5 or over 75, no pregnant women and no one over 100 kg. The Mala cave boat has no toilet and no shade, so go before you board.

On two wheels, the e-bike tour from the seafront needs riders of at least 1.60 m who already ride an e-bike with confidence. The vineyard ride takes riders from 15 and 1.45 m, and the Segway starts at 14. To drive the open-top e-car you need a licence and must be 18.

Most tours are not wheelchair accessible. The Liven Up Nice full day is the one road listing that lists wheelchairs as accessible. On a food walk, tell the operator about any diet when you book.

Cancellations and the weather

Every tour listed here refunds in full if you cancel at least 24 hours before it starts. Cancel later, or miss the start, and the operator's terms give no refund. Find your meeting point the day before, especially for a boat.

The weather decides the rest. A boat may change its route or its swim stop on a rough day, and when an operator cancels, you are offered another date or a refund. How the months compare is on the best time to visit.

The tourist offices

The Nice Côte d'Azur tourist office has its main desk at 5 Promenade des Anglais, on the seafront. In Cannes, the tourist office is inside the Palais des Festivals on the Croisette. Neither sells the tours listed here, but both have maps and their town's own events calendar.

Asked before you go