Nice

Start with the beach, because it is pebbles. Smooth grey stones, shelving steeply into clear water, and nothing at all like the sand the postcards imply. Bring something to lie on, wear something on your feet going in, and the swimming is excellent — deep close to shore, clear, and available from the middle of a city rather than from a resort. That single correction sets up everything else about the place: this is a city with a seafront attached, not a seafront with a city attached.

A working city underneath the promenade

Behind the belle-époque frontage is a place with offices, a university, a tram, hospitals and a rush hour. Restaurants keep local hours and shut when they feel like it. Markets serve households rather than photographs. That ordinary civic life is why a week here works differently from a week in a resort town: there is somewhere to buy a coffee in February, and prices have to answer to residents as well as to visitors.

The old town at the eastern end is the oldest part of that argument. Lanes barely wide enough for two, shutters in ochre and dried-blood red, and a long market square that sells flowers and produce in the morning and turns into tables at night. The register is closer to Genoa than to Paris, which is history rather than atmosphere: this corner spent centuries under Savoy and only became French in the nineteenth century, and the food still says so. Chickpea pancakes, onion tarts, salt cod, vegetables stuffed and baked — cooking from the Ligurian side of the mountains.

The hill, and the hills behind

At the eastern end of the bay a green hill rises straight off the water. The fortress that named it is long gone, and what remains is a park with paths, a waterfall and the view down the whole curve of the bay — reached on foot up steps, or by a lift for anyone who would rather not. Go at the end of the day, when the light comes down the coast from the west.

Further back and higher, the district on the slope holds Roman remains and olive terraces, and the air up there is noticeably kinder in summer. Between the two, most of what a visitor wants is walkable and the tram handles the rest.

When to come

May, June, September and October are the months to aim at: warm water, workable heat, and the coast still doing what it does without the August compression. July and August bring holiday France and holiday Europe together, which is fun if that is what you came for and difficult if it is not. Winter stays open — mild days, a low sun that suits the architecture, a carnival in the late-winter weeks — and the sea is for looking at rather than entering.

Couples do better in September, midweek, with dinner late.

Is it expensive?

That depends almost entirely on how close to the water you insist on being. A room facing the bay is priced for the frame; the same standard of room three streets back costs meaningfully less and adds a walk of a few minutes. Eating follows the same rule — the promenade sells the view, the old town and the streets behind the station sell the food.

What keeps the bill honest here is the train. The coastal line runs east and west from the middle of town, so day trips to the other towns along the shore cost the price of a ticket rather than the price of a hire car and its parking. The airport sits at the western end of the city, minutes from the centre, which removes the transfer that eats the first afternoon of most Mediterranean holidays.

Where to stay

Splurge

A grand house on the promenade with a balcony over the bay and a roof terrace. You are paying for the frontage rather than for square metres, and the value of it is the balcony at seven in the evening. Right for travellers who want the Riviera as it was sold to them, and who intend to use the water.

Mid-range

A well-run hotel two or three streets back, or a restored apartment in the old town. The sea is a walk of minutes, the nights are quieter than the promenade's, and the money saved buys a longer stay or better dinners. Most people should start here.

Good value

A simple hotel or apartment in the streets behind the station or up towards the slope, where rates ease considerably and the tram is at the door. You trade the view for space and a local street, which on a stay built around walking, swimming and trains is not much of a trade.

The city at a glance

Rates on the seafront move sharply between the shoulder months and high summer, so comparing current stay and experience options across your dates is worth doing before deciding how close to the water you need to be.