Tips for southern France please

[Pepperama]

We’ve booked flights to Nice but are now undecided where to stay and what to do - we are there for 2 weeks in July. We will have a hire car and happy to relocate once or twice.
Teen son 13 likes hotels/pools/hanging out with others his age, he’s into gaming, sport etc
Parent 1 likes old towns and villages, cafes, culture, watch the world go by. Likes quaint guest houses or own cottage
Parent 2 likes country side, nature and walks. Doesn’t particularly like self-catering.

Budget is ok but not massive - average £150 a night for the three of us ideally

Has anyone got tips of what we could do so that everyone gets some of what they like?

Carcassonne! It's a beautiful medieval town in the South West of France. It will meet both Parent 1 and Parent 2 desires and you can get hotels or hire apartments with pools. There's also a big lake (Lac de Cavayere) which is essentially like a beautiful rural beach often with water activities that could meet teen's wants.

Carcassonne! It's a beautiful medieval town in the South West of France. It will meet both Parent 1 and Parent 2 desires and you can get hotels or hire apartments with pools. There's also a big lake (Lac de Cavayere) which is essentially like a beautiful rural beach often with water activities that could meet teen's wants.

@Pepperama it's a lovely part of France.
Prices hike up in July and I think you might get more choice looking for a campsite or a holiday apartment complex (like Pierre Vacance). That would be self catering though. There's lots of choice in that area. The border with Italy is quite close, so maybe that's another option, especially as you're hiring a car.
Carcassonne is lovely, but it's about 470 km west of Nice.

We stayed around Nice for a week when the boys were teenagers (Self catering). In terms of activities in Nice you could take a walking tour of old Nice and Castle Hill, walk around the port area, go on a boat trip, spend time on the beaches where* *there will were lots of teenager activities eg. Kayaking, Stand Up Paddle-boarding, snorkelling, etc. There are sailing clubs which offer short courses (although I think these were quite expensive). Close by Nice is the medieval village of Èze, around which are some lovely walks where you can enjoy the countryside. East of Nice is Monaco, where you can walk along the Formula 1 circuit at Monte Carlo (which both my teenagers enjoyed) and visit the old parts of the city. If you head west of Nice you can go to Cannes (and pretend you’re a Hollywood star). We had a lovely time and the weather was perfect all week. I’m sure you will too.

Thanks for the recommendations - you make me wish I was going tomorrow!

Perhaps Menton would suit everyone. It's one of the nicest towns along the Riviera, definitely very pretty. At least one GR long distance walking route starts there- the GR15, Balcon de Provence if my memory serves me right- the Alpes Maritimes start behind the town. It's on the railway that goes along the coast, so easy to get to Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Monaco (which I personally intensely dislike), or even Ventimiglia in Italy.

Oh, or you could always look at accommodation over the border in Italy- often a lot cheaper and still lovely. Ventimiglia is an hour on the train from Nice- you have to change trains there to carry on down the Italian Riviera.

Antibes is lovely.

It's hot in July and the coast is pricey and crowded too as half of Europe seem to come down in July/ August. Have a look inland if you want something quieter, although you lose the cooling sea breezes. If you go self catering, it's cheaper to pop across to Italy and do a big shop there. You may find nature walks limited, a lot of the forests will be closed due to fire prevention.

Nice and the Riviera is fabulous. We stayed s/c in Nice last year. We purposely didn't hire a car as we'd heard parking was very difficult. The tram from the airport takes you into the city cheaply and quickly and the train runs right along the coast in both directions. We got daily tickets so we could hop on and off the train and visited all the beautiful towns and resorts as well as Monaco. We will definitely go again.

I think a budget of 150 euros a night will be very tight on the Riviera in July. Are you there over Bastille Day? I'd think of going the other way in to Italy. Or have a look at Accor Hotels website for Ibis hotels - some are quite reasonable. Nice is certainly a great location and easy to get up and down the coast and inland by train.

I did have a little shufty on booking.com, and there are quite a few places for that budget (I was looking at the Menton area, and over the border in Italy). Things like one bedroom apartments with a sofa bed in the living room fairly close to the sea with a nice view- some even in complexes with a pool.

Menton is about 30 minutes by train from Nice.