Three days is the sweet spot for the French Riviera. Long enough to see the coast properly. Short enough that you don’t burn out on sunshine and rosé. If you have 72 hours and a private guide, here is exactly how to spend them.
Start in Nice. The city earns more than the single afternoon most visitors give it, and if you want to understand the French Riviera, you need to understand Nice first.
Begin at the Cours Saleya market early in the morning. The flower market runs Tuesday through Sunday and the produce stalls alongside it are where local restaurants shop. Your guide can walk you through what’s in season, which vendors have been here for thirty years, and what the city looked like before the beach was widened in the 1970s.
After the market, go up. The Colline du Château at the eastern end of the Promenade offers the best view in Nice, the sweep of the Baie des Anges, the terracotta rooflines of the Old Town below, the white limestone of the Alps in the distance. There is no castle left on the hill (Louis XIV had it demolished in 1706) but the view has not changed.
The afternoon belongs to the museums. The Musée Matisse sits inside a 17th-century Genoese villa in the Cimiez neighbourhood, surrounded by olive trees. Matisse lived in Nice for the last 37 years of his life and the collection here spans his entire career. Twenty minutes away, the Musée National Marc Chagall holds the largest collection of his work anywhere in the world. Both are worth two hours between them.
End the day on the Promenade des Anglais at sunset. Walk west toward the Hotel Negresco. The light at this hour is the reason painters moved here.
This is the classic Riviera day and there is a reason it became classic. The drive from Nice to Monaco along the three Corniche roads passes through some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in Europe.
Take the Moyenne Corniche east from Nice. The road cuts along the cliff face above Villefranche-sur-Mer at around 400 metres. Stop at Eze Village for the morning. The medieval perched village sits at 427 metres above the sea and on a clear day you can see the coast all the way to Italy. The Jardin Exotique at the top of the village is one of the best viewpoints on the Riviera.
From Eze, drop down to Monaco for lunch and the afternoon. The Principality takes about two hours to see properly with a guide, the Palace square and the Changing of the Guard at 11:55, the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the harbour with its superyachts, and the old town of Monaco-Ville on the rock. Your guide will drive you around the Formula 1 circuit on the public roads. There is nowhere else in the world where you can do that.
Return to Nice along the Grande Corniche, the highest of the three roads, built by Napoleon to move troops along the coast. The view at Cap d’Ail looking back toward Monaco is one worth stopping for.
If you want a guide for Monaco specifically, read our detailed Monaco private tour page for everything the Principality covers.
The western Riviera is quieter than Monaco and, in many ways, more interesting. Day 3 takes you along the coast toward Cannes and then inland to one of the most beautiful villages in France.
Start in Antibes. The old town is surrounded by Vauban ramparts on three sides, the sea on the fourth. The Picasso Museum occupies the Château Grimaldi where Picasso worked for several months in 1946, and the collection he left behind when he departed is extraordinary. The daily market in the covered hall on Cours Masséna is open until noon.
Cannes is 30 minutes west along the coast. Most visitors think of the Film Festival and the Croisette, but the part of Cannes worth your time is Le Suquet, the old fishing quarter on the hill above the port. The view from the top takes in the bay, the Lérins Islands offshore, and on a clear day the Esterel massif to the southwest. Your guide can arrange a short boat trip to Île Sainte-Marguerite if you want to see the cell where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned. It takes 15 minutes from the port.
The afternoon goes to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a fortified medieval village about 20 minutes inland from Nice. The Fondation Maeght, just outside the village walls, is one of the finest collections of modern art in Europe, Miró, Giacometti, Chagall, Léger, Bonnard, all displayed in a building designed specifically for the work. The village itself is beautiful and usually calm after the midday tour groups leave.
The itinerary above works because a private guide handles the logistics that waste time, parking in Monaco, knowing which entrance to use at the museums, timing the Eze visit to avoid the midday heat, getting you to the Fondation Maeght when it opens. You are not waiting for a group or following a flag. The day moves at your pace.
Riviera Come True designs private tours for all three of these days, individually or as a complete three-day Riviera experience. Each one is built around your group, your interests, and your schedule.
Tell us your dates and we will put together a programme that covers everything above, or takes it further.