Nice is a French Riviera metropolis, with big wide avenues, a busy seafront and endless museums, art galleries and shops. The prettiest area is the old town, Vieux Nice, where the narrow alleyways twist and turn. It is full of ancient stone houses and charming little squares. Looking down on the modern city and the bay, it is an ideal place to rent a holiday apartment if you want to be in the centre of things. This is where you’ll find a concentration of atmospheric restaurants and bars, and old fashioned boutiques. The public beaches are mostly pebbly and there are many highly manicured private beach clubs.
For more peaceful surroundings, there are a variety of beautiful luxury villas to rent in the hills behind the city. Within a few miles of the city are numerous golf courses, olive and lemon groves and picturesque villages such as Colomars and St Roman de Bellet. The mountains are popular among walkers and cyclists looking for scenic routes with challenging gradients.
Flanked by Cannes to its west and Monaco to its east, Nice is well placed for a wide range of activities and sightseeing trips. Famous Riviera resorts such as Cannes, Juan les Pins and St Tropez are worth a visit, as is Monaco with its celebrated casino and race track. The town of Eze, perched on a rocky pinnacle is also worth seeing and the area is well known for its local artists, and for its wines, particularly rose.