Must see attractions in Nice

  • Top Choice

    Vieux Nice

    Getting lost among the dark, narrow, winding alleyways of Nice’s old town is a highlight. The layout has barely changed since the 1700s, and it’s now…

  • Top Choice

    Promenade des Anglais

    The most famous stretch of seafront in Nice – if not France – is this vast paved promenade, which gets its name from the English expat patrons who paid…

  • Top Choice

    Colline du Château

    For the best views over Nice’s red-tiled rooftops, climb the winding staircases up to this wooded outcrop on the eastern edge of the old town. It’s been…

  • Top Choice

    Musée Masséna

    Originally built as a holiday home for Prince Victor d’Essling (the grandson of one of Napoléon's favourite generals, Maréchal Massena), this lavish belle…

  • Top Choice

    Musée Matisse

    This museum, 2km north of the city centre in the leafy Cimiez quarter, houses a fascinating assortment of works by Matisse, including oil paintings,…

  • Top Choice

    Cours Saleya Markets

    Split between its beautiful flower market and rightly famous food market. On Mondays, flowers and food make way for a flea market.

  • Musée National Marc Chagall

    The strange, dreamlike and often unsettling work of the Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887–1985) is displayed at this museum, which owns the largest…

  • Plage Publique des Ponchettes

    Right opposite Vieux Nice, this is generally the busiest beach of all, with oiled bodies either baking in the sun or punching a ball on the beach…

  • C

    Cathédrale Orthodoxe Russe St-Nicolas

    Built between 1902 and 1912 to provide a big enough church for the growing Russian community, this cathedral, with its colourful onion domes and rich,…

  • P

    Port Lympia

    Nice’s Port Lympia, with its beautiful Venetian-coloured buildings, is often overlooked. But a stroll along its quays is lovely, as is the walk to get…

  • G

    Galerie Lympia

    Nice's coolest new gallery space is housed in this former galley slaves' prison down by the port. Opened in 2017 by the Alpes-Maritimes' departmental…

  • P

    Palais Lascaris

    Baroque Palais Lascaris is a 17th-century mansion housing a frescoed orgy of Flemish tapestries, faience and gloomy religious paintings, along with a…

  • Place Garibaldi

    Named for Nice-born Italian nationalist and military hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, this grand square was a military parade ground at the time of its creation…

  • L

    L’Observatoire de Nice

    Visible in the dry hills to the north of Nice is the white dome of the city’s observatory, founded in 1881 on the summit of Mont Gros. Guided visits (in…

  • G

    Gare du Sud

    This cool old 19th-century railway station was originally built to provide train service from Nice into the Alps. A century later, when it was replaced by…

  • M

    Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez

    Painters Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy are buried in the cemetery of this monastery, a five-minute walk across the park from the Musée Matisse. To reach…

  • L

    Le Régina

    Originally Queen Victoria’s wintering palace, this monumental edifice was subsequently converted into apartments. In the 1940s Matisse lived here, using…

  • P

    Promenade du Paillon

    It’s hard to imagine that this beautifully landscaped park was once a bus station, a multistorey car park and an ill-loved square. Completed in October…