ME AND DH, FLY TO NICE, WHAT THEN?

[hifi]

we have 5 days at half term in may, any ideas before i start?
we like contempory hotels, good food and not too bothered about beaches. ooh and a bit of shopping.would drive on from nice ideally. tia.

DH and I flew to Nice 4 years ago on our first holiday together. We hired a car, drove to Cannes and stayed in a lovely hotel there (sorry, can't remember the name but there are lots of nice ones) One day we drove to Monaco/Monte Carlo and had a lovely time walking around and another day we drove to St Tropez and had a fabulous time walking around looking at the boats and had a lovely lunch in one of the restaurants overlooking the sea.
It was a lovely romantic long weekend, so much so that we got engaged on the way back.

Monaco, St Tropez, Cannes, Antibes - all lovely and chique and not far at all.

thanks, will get planning.

Go to Eze.BEAUTIFUL

have thought about going to the less obvious areas, thanks will look at Eze.

A couple of modern hotels in Nice are the Hi Hotel and the Beau Rivage although La Perouse would get my vote but this is more provencial in style - a room on a top floor with a balcony overlooking the med and a lovely pool in the courtyard. The Beau Rivage is more central - easy walk/tram/bus ride everywhere and short walk/tram ride to the train station. Lots of lovely shoppping in Nice. It's a good base to stay for exploring the rest of the Cote d'Azur. The public transport system is very good and 99% buses are only 1 euro a trip or there's the train for fast connections to Monaco, Cannes, Antibes etc. I would consider not bothering with a car - parking is expensive and hard to find and driving can be a bit hairy although in May, it won't be too bad, not like July/August when the roads are choked. There are a couple of buses from Nice to Eze - it's lovely there. Also St Paul de Vence is worth a visit - a meal in the Colombe d'Or courtyard is wonderful and a trip to the Fondation Maeght art museum. Nice restaurants in Nice are Le Tire Bouchon, Jouni de la Reserve, L'ane Rouge - countless others too.

We ate at Le Safari in the old part of Nice and it was really lovely. It was nice and warm so we ate outside. There were lots of street entertainers which made it very interesting.

Beaulieu-sur-mer is supposed to be lovely and so is Villefranche-sur-mer. We passed these on the train to Monaco. We were going to get off on our way back, but unfortunately, the train was so packed we could not have got off if we had tried.

We loved Monaco.

Eze beach is gorgeous, even if it is a bit pebbly. Get the train along the coast, very easy and mostly reliable (unless there are strikes!) Cannes has lots of playgroups along the seafront and shopping galore. If you head towards St Tropez stop at St Aygulf and Port Grimaud en route.