Holiday reviews for Nice

We stayed in a penthouse apartment on the sea front. Every morning I sat on our balcony eating my breakfast while looking out at the clear blue sea.

Nice offers lots to see and do and day trips to Monaco and Cannes can be made easily by train.

You can enjoy a walk along the Promenade Des Anglais taking in the lovely sea views and walk around to the harbour area. Beware of roller skates as you get lots of people skating up and down the promenade. If you fancy a go yourself there is a hire hut where you can rent skates.

A visit to the Chateau Park at the top of the hill offers you wonderful views of Nice. You can walk to the top of the hill which is the free option or for a few euros you can take the lift.

The Old Town has lots of restuarants and bars in it and a food market is held in the square. This area also has some nice gift shops and little boutiques.

Nice has some lovely shops for shopping, you can find the French designer lables like Yves Saint Lauren and Chanel as well as the Italian lables like Armani.

Take the train west, which travels along the coast so provides excellent views and go to Cannes. The sea front in Cannes provides soft golden beaches, unlike Nice which is mainly pebbles and very little sand. Walk around the harbour area to view all the luxury yachts you'll never be able to afford!

The Old Town of Cannes is up on the hill and once at the top you can look out over the harbour and out to sea. The Old Town is made up of lots of little cobbled streets and white washed buildings.

The main shopping street is Cannes is mainly a predestrian only area. There are lots of shoe and clothes shops and small exculsive boutiques. Its was one of my favourite shopping areas I have been to.

If you eat out in Cannes there are a number of restuarants on the sea front, however these are more expensive than most as you are paying for the wonderful sea view.

Monaco lies to the east of Nice and again is easy to get to by train. We visited Monacos best known area; Monte-Carlo. Excellent views of Monte-Carlo can be seen from the Palais Princier. The palace is situated up a hill and whilst the walk up can be steep in places it is worth the effort. The palace is the home of the Monaco government.

The harbour area of Monte-Carlo screams 'wealth' at you. Some of the most luxurious yatchs are harboured here and its worth taking a walk around to look at them all.

Monte-Carlo is best known for its casino and the area around the casino is beautiful. There is a big fountain and flower gardens in front of the casino which gives the area lots of colour. The casino has a 'tourist' section which you can go in and gamble on the slot machines. You need to be over 21 to enter the casino and they do have security on the doors checking ID. This area is where you will find the exculsive designer shops where unless you look like a million dollers you may as well not even try to open the door!

This area of the South of France is worth a visit. There is lots to do for everyone and with the trains running along the coast using public transport is easy and efficent.

Hotel Cagnard - in a mediaeval village near Nice. Really friendly & different.

An expensive hotel in a mediaeval village about 10km out of Nice. The hotel is not run-of the mill or modern. It is very oldy-worldy & situated in the walls of a Grimaldi Fort. I would recommend it as it has lots of old-world character, if you like that sort of thing! There is an excellent but extremely expensive restaurant there. Needlesstosay, we only ate there one night! Our room was large with all modern facilities in a sort of barn conversion. It had a terrase & we had breakfast in bed everyday. To get there, is not for the faint-hearted as you have to drive through some very narrow mediaeval streets & we were really glad that we had the smallest hire-car as there was only an inch either side in some places. Fortunately, we never met anyone coming in the opposite direction.

It is on the top of a very steep hill - so beware if you are shakey on the old legs or 6 months pregnant as I was! Our only route up & down was using the car (as I couldn't manage the hill); & there was no-street lighting after dark!

Nice, Cannes & Monaco/Monte Carlo are all very close by car & well-worth a visit to see the 'beautiful' people and stroll along the front having an ice-cream. I really like Cannes & Monaco. Lots of people-watching!

I would go again but perhaps a hotel near the sea is recommended for pregnant ladies!