Hello! My wife, 2 kids (6&5) and I will be landing in Nice on July 4 and renting a car. We have 2 nights/3 days to drive to our vacation rental in Annecy where we will be staying for a week. After the long flight from the US with 2 kids I do not want to spend too long in the car on the first day, ideally around 2 hours. I was thinking of stopping in Colmars the first night so the kids can run around a little in town before dinner. The second day I was thinking of going to Briancon for 1 night prior to our Annecy. I chose Colmars mostly because of the drive time from the airport. Do you have any other suggestions for this route? Our return trip to Nice will likely be a straight drive so if there are any "must see" stops this would be the time to do it. Our time in Annecy will be mostly outdoor activities, and we will be somewhere around Nice for 3 days at the end of our trip (still figuring out where). We have a wide variety of interests and typically prefer the less touristy places Thank you for the assistance.

Bad idea, Mike.

The drive to Colmars (2 1/2 to 3 hrs) is a difficult drive once you get a little past Annot. It becomes winding mountain roads - which will be difficult after 2 hours already on the road from Nice. Then the next morning you have more hours of winding mountain roads. Don't put you or your family through this. It is a scenic drive - but not what you want to experience just after landing & with two kids on board.

Instead drive through Grasse, then the D6085/D4085 to Castellane and spend the night there. Two hour drive. Castellane might be a little more "alive" than Colmars. Next morning drive to Sisteron (visit), then the D942 to Embrun (visit), then on to Briancon. This drive should take you 3 1/2 hours.

Attached is my Alps itinerary.

Stu Dudley

Driving jetlagged is the equivalent of driving drunk, for most people. Can you rearrange your trip to spend time in Nice at the beginning, renting the car later? Can you plan to drive no further than, say, St Paul de Vence on the first day? It’s a pretty enough place to stay in its own right.

Try to stay in the old town in Briançon. Parking is just outside the ramparts, although that means dragging suitcases from the parking lot to the accommodation.

Wouldn't it be easier to fly into Annecy (Geneva airport) and back from Nice?

I agree. And, there is a bus from Geneva airport to Annecy so no driving while jet lagged.

But the territory between Nice and Annecy does not look the same when flying compared to driving.

But the territory between Nice and Annecy does not look the same when flying compared to driving.

But tue OP will drive from Annecy to Nice anyway. It would just be a OW drive instead of a RT drive.

Thank you for all the suggestions and info! As a background- we love road-trips and take them often in the US, our kids do very well in the car and are used to 5-7 hour drives. We also are fairly experienced at driving through mountain passes and mountainous roads. That being said, I did not take into account the jet-lag and did not realize Colmars would be closer to a 3 hr drive. The map I looked at had it as 2. I will look into Castellane or even somewhere closer for the first portion of the drive. Thanks again and if there are more suggestions please let me know!

You are probably using Google Maps to determine drive times. We've taken at least 2 trips to Europe (mainly France) ever year since 1999 (except Covid years) and have found viamichelin.com to be much more realistic than Google. Also, about 3 of the 10-15 times we have departed Nice for "elsewhere", we have found ourselves taking the wrong turn near the Nice airport and needed to backtrack.

Since you are departing from the airport - the 2 1/2 to 3 hrs "budgeted" time I estimated to Colmars is a tad high (I had you originating in downtown Nice). It is more like 2 1/4 hrs to Colmars and 1 hr 48 mins to Castellane in the Alps - if there are no interruptions. But the road from Annot to Colmars has several twists & turns. Assuming you are not flying direct to Nice from either JFK or Newark - I would not want to take 2 flights to Nice, rent a car, and then drive 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours to Colmars on mountain roads. Too many things can go wrong when jet-lag is in the picture.

Stu Dudley

Thanks again for the helpful info Stu. We are flying direct from the east coast but I agree, I want to keep the drive to less than 2 hrs that first day.

Indeed, could you possibly fly direct to Geneva, bus to Annecy then hire a car for a leisurely drive to Nice?

Entrevaux would make a good first stop. About an hour form Nice Airport, Dramatic scenery and village life.

We spent a week in a gite just outside of Entrevaux about 8 years ago, and we'll be back again for another week this June - after 9 nights in Nice. Not too sure the accommodations are that great for a one-nighter with a family of four. We drove by this place dozens of times:
https://hotel-restaurant-levauban.com/
Good parking, on the main road, just outside the medieval village. Quite rustic, 2 star hotel/pizzeria (no - didn't try their pizza.)

We stayed at a slightly better hotel/restaurant in Annot about 20 years ago and dined there 8 years ago when we stayed in Entrevaux. I just tried to look it up and discovered that it was recently closed. It was our favorite restaurant in the region. So we'll be getting a pizza or two from the above hotel/pizzeria.

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the assistance! I did look into flights to Geneva as suggested but we opted for the drive, we did opt to fly back to Nice so we have a few days there at the end of the trip. We want to see as much of the country as possible and love driving through the mountains so a road trip sounds perfect! We booked the first night in Castellane and second in Briancon. For our route- I'm still doing the research but I think that we will follow Stu's suggestion of driving through Sisteron or possibly drive the N85 through Barcelonette. We would like to see as much of the Alps as possible. I have not started looking at the route from Briancon to Annecy yet, are there any castles (the kids are very excited about seeing a real life castle) or must see sights? I was thinking of following the Route des Grandes Alpes as much as we can.

There is a nice castle near Annecy.

https://www.chateau-de-menthon.com/en/

Stu Dudley

Annecy and Briançon themselves have castles. There is also Menthon St Bernard, just before Annecy.

Lucky you! I worked in the French Alps many years ago and did the drive that included Briancon to Oulx part of your route from Briancon - Annecy several times. It is spectacular. A little off that route (20 min from Oulx) is the Fort of Exilles, which is kind of cool, and almost like a castle. Exilles. There is a great bike path around the lake at Annecy, and I am sure plenty of mountain hikes. Lovely area.

If you want to do the Route des Grandes Alpes "as much as you can" you should switch to this itinerary at least at Castellane and go on via Col de la Cayolle - Col de Vars - Col d'Izoard - Briancon - Col du Lautaret - Col du Galibier - Col du Telegarphe - Col de l'Iseran - Col du Petit St-Brnrard to Courmayeur and through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Chamonix and reach Annecy via Col de l'Aravis and Col de la Croix Fry.

Castles and fortresses are omniprenent in the whole area:
Redoute de Berwick, Fort de Briancon, Fort Victor-Emmanuel, Fort Marie-Christine, Redoute Marie-Thérèse, Fort de la Platte, Fort du Truc, Chateau de Menthon St-Bernard and more than a dozen others around Annecy and Lake Geneva.