Hi,
Plan on seeing Nice, Monaco, Antibes...then over to Cassis and St. Tropez.
I'm not convinced Nice would be a good base because it's so big city....Is it possible to base yourself in Antibes or Cassis and explore entire coast within 4 days? Is this too ambitious?
Trying to get a sense of which play we should stay at that is charming but not outright concrete jungle....
Thanks
Consider seaside Villefranche-sur-Mer, for a quieter place to stay. It's right next to Nice w/ easy train and bus access to Nice, Monaco, Eze, Antibes, Cannes...
BTW, if concrete is not your thing, Monaco might turn you off entirely. I'm always amazed at the contrast between the ugliness of Monaco's tall cliff-scaring buildings and the gorgeous natural sites that surround it.
You'll be plenty busy with the above towns to visit in 4 days.
Cassis is 200 km from Nice, so consider visiting it on a separate leg of your journey (and definitely include a visit of the calanques there).
Enjoy!
I entirely agree with AzurAlive. We recently came back from a trip to Nice. We fell in love with Villefranche-sur-mer. It is about 15 minutes by train to Nice. It is peaceful and gorgeous!
I would also make time to see Eze Village. It is an amazing medieval village. As far as Monaco is concerned, we understand what you mean by a concrete jungle. We were a little disappointed there.
Nice really is a good base, though. It didnt feel like a 'big' city to me. We adored it. We loved to visit the Old Town (Vielle Ville) especially in the morning with the flower market and in the evening for dinner. The streets were quaint and lovely.
Nice is about 20 minutes from Antibes and then to Cannes, if you would like, by train.
Antibes was also very pleasant!
Really you can not go wrong! The trains make places very easy to get to, so wherever you pick, I would think you would be happy!
Cassis is a lovely village but would not be a very good base imo. I'm partial to using Nice as a base because there's lots to do there, it's a charming city and you'd have access to the widest array of transit options. I agree that Villefranche is very charming as is Eze. St Paul de Vence though quite touristy is a lovely village also and the museum there, Fondation Maught is a wonderful place to see modern art.
I don't think Nice could be described as a "concrete jungle", apart from the district that you would not visit (La Trinite, up the valley behind the main city). Take a look at some photos on the Internet - it's very Italianate (used to belong to Italy before the 1860s), and apartments in the centre are usually low rise. If your time is limited and you don't have a car, I really wouldn't recommend any other base to see the region.
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