outside nice

We would like to spend a day travelling in surrounding areas to Nice, preferably by public transport as will not have a car, and would like to see some of the small towns and villages. We have been to Monte Carlo previously so could give this a miss. Can anyone recommend best places worth visiting on a day trip, suggested routes would be very welcome.

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what sort of things do you like to see/do?

do you just want to see the villages themselves or do you wnat to visit museums or galleries etc once there?

when you say you have a day to spend travelling is that from say 8pm to 8pm or are there time restrictions?

how far do you want to travel? do you want to travel by bus or train?

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just returned today, we caught a bus to Eze village, this is a village up in the hills with some amazing views and a beautiful exotic garden (costs 4 euros each but is worth it) Eze village has lots of history and is interesting. You can catch 82 or 112 bus from Nice and it costs 1 euro each way. eze village will take you 2-3 hours to see. We the caught bus 83 (i think) from the village down to eze bord de la mer which is a pebble beach this will coast 1 euro again, you can use this bus ticket at any time within 74 minutes of purchasing it and what we did was to catch the 100 bus into Villefranche which is back towards Nice and is a lovely old town and harbour and castle. After here we caught the same bus back to Nice. Another day we caught the train from the Nice Ville station, the ticket was 5 euros each and we could use it all day long and as often as we wanted. We caught the train to Antibes and then Cannes and then back to Nice. Both Antibes and Cannes are nice with plenty to see and do. Trains and buses are easy to use and frequent and cheap.

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Our favourite day was at St Paul de Vence; bus from Gare Routier is 1 euro and takes about an hour.

If you like modern art and food, visit the Fondation Maeght in the morning, have a special lunch at Colombe D%26#39;Or, and share the horsdoeuvres dish - it%26#39;s plenty for two as a whole meal. Spend the afternoon wandering up and down around the alleyways and seriously good art galleries.

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TERRY- what kind of ticket was only 5 euros on the train from Nice to Cannes?

That sounds more like a single ticket with age reduction

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Eze and Villefranche is a good sugegstion.

Also Styv Paul de vence although i would suggest also going on to Vence and doing both sites because its not touristy and the old town of Vence is also interesting.

Another easily doable 2 site trip via public transport is to do Levens and Tourettes-Levens.

The view from the castle at Tourettes-levens is really amazing - and you can visit the butterfly museum and rural history museum in the castle and Levens is a non touristy mediaeval village

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selkieNice,

the train ticket for 5 euros had no special reduction, we bought it on Sunday at the ticket desk in Nice train station. we asked for a ticket that allowed us to jump on and off at Antibes and cannes, this it did and it cost us 5 euros each, it was well worth it.

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I think they only gave you a single

When asking for tickets you need to ask specifically for an aller-retour or to select aller-retour on the machines - the default is just an aller [single]

When we first came to France it happened to us and we were unlucky enough to get caught by the controllers.

Its about 10 or 11 euros to Cannes from Nice as a return and 7 euros something return to Antibes though there are age reductions for 12-25s and over 60s [decouverte senior] which gets 25% off during blue periods

A carte isabelle which allows unlimited travel for one day on the PACA TER trains [till end of september] is 12euros

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here is the blue period chart

ter-sncf.com/paca/…calendriervoyageur.asp

its mostly blue at off peak times -ie not between 6.30 and 8am and 5 to 6.30pm most days -except Friday and Sunday afternoons and occasional days as noted here

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Thanks for all suggestions, ideally we would like to see some of the villages or towns in provence.

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Check out www.trainprovence.com/ We visited the village of Entrevaux which is absolutely beautiful. Remember though that these trains depart from a separate train station several blocks north of the Gare Nice.

Also consider visiting the beautiful inland town of Sospel. It%26#39;s about a 40 ninute train ride from Nice%26#39;s main train station. Try to go there on market day. It%26#39;s a different world to the Cote d%26#39;Azur and barely a tourist in sight.