3/4/ days South of France
 

We'll fly from Florida (USA) to Nice in France on June 26. We'll get to Nice on the 27th at night. We'll have 4 nights and 3.5 days in that area and we would like tips to where to stay. The first night we'll stay in Nice because we'll get there late, but we don't know where to stay the other nights. We'll rent a car and we'll drive to Montpellier on July 1st where we'll stay with friends for 5 days. Suggestions on where to stay from June 28th to July 1st? We are not interested in staying at the beach. We want to see interesting and beautiful sights, markets, hystoric places, etc

Aix-en-Provence? It is probably less than a 2 hour drive on your way to Marseille. Loved Aix!

Or Vence or St Paul de Vence for a small town near Nice? I don't know if there is enough to keep you busy in these locations.

Why not stay in Nice? It has all you are looking for, and is a perfect base to visit other places along the coast.

Rent the car when you leave Nice.

Not a chance you can be bored here. Way too much to see! Check out Grasse, the perfume capital of the world or Eze where lavender abounds! St Tropez, Aix, Cassis, there are a ton of great towns along the way yo Montpellier. You can also look to see the Tour de France for stages 13 & 14 in Montpellier. Enjoy!

Thank you all for the suggestions...if I rent the car when I leave Nice, how do I visit all these places? is there good transportation?

<<...if I rent the car when I leave Nice, how do I visit all these places? is there good transportation? >>

Huh? You will have the rental car when you leave Nice.

I am apparently not understanding this question.

Nice has excellent public transportation by means of train or bus. Look on the tripadvisor.com site for lots of information from locals.

Four nights in Nice is no time at all. Like torie says - there is tons of stuff to do in & around Nice. We've vacationed for 20 weeks on the Cote d'Azur - most of that time around Nice (although we've never seen lavender fields there). I developed a 30+ page itinerary about things to do & seen on the Cote d'Azur and Provence. I've sent it to over 3,500 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail. Do it soon because we depart for Nice shortly.

Stu Dudley

If you have 3 days in Nice; spend one day in Nice (thought you can easily spend 2), one day by train to Cannes and/or Antibes, perhaps a day in Monaco by train.
For hilltop villages such as St Paul de Vence you'd need a bus. Or take a bus to Eze and visit Villefranche on your way back.

You can do this by car, but you'd pay for parking in Nice, and the roads can be quite congested.

That is why it makes sense to spend 4 nights in Nice without car, and rent one when you go to Montpellier.

Or spend 3 nights in Nice, rent a car and stay somewhere else on your way to Montpellier; Aix for example.