We will spend 2 full days in Southern France, with base in Nice (renting car from Nice airport).
On the first day, we plan to explore the area west of Nice:
Cannes, St Tropez, Grasse. We are also thinking of going to: Aix En Provence or Arles or Nimes or Avignon. We are unsure of these last 4 cities. Perhaps we can only visit one of them due to the time constraint.

On the second day, we plan to explore the area east of Nice:
Nice itself, Eze, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monte Carlo

We are using Nice as our base town, because we will be going to Alba on the 3rd day.
Any insight on our itinerary especially for our first day? It seems that we are trying to hit too many towns and worried that we might not have time. This is our first time in Southern Frace so we want to maximize our vacation.

Please share your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you.

I'm one who is always on the go and I have to say that you definately have toooooooo much on your plate, unless you just plan on doing road race to Aix,Arles,Nimes and Avignon!

Really, you need to look at distances on one of the many websites. I like to use Mappy.com and Michelin for planning how long a trip will take.

That said, IMO, you will not be going to any of these towns in the two days you have in Nice. You could certainly do Cannes and Grasse and if you are really into driving, you can squeeze in St Tropez, that will be quite a busy day. From St Tropez it takes us about an hour + to get to Aix without traffic, which seems to be rare, the other towns are farther away, a longer drive.

I'm not being mean, like some here, just sarcastic...were you planning to get out of the car in any of these towns???

Second day looks great!

One of my favorite trips was to Alba during the truffle season...the whole town smelled of truffles!

We did this trip many years ago and used Nice as our base for a week. We used bus and trains to go on daytrips from Nice.We did a daytrip to St. Paul de Vence which is wonderful;half day over to Cannes;train over to Monaco visiting the aquarium,palace and lunch along with the train over to the Italian border stopping for a half day at Menton which many British retire to because of the lengthy sunshine and lemons.
I agree that if you only have two days in Nice you are planning WAY too much as there are so many things to see and do in Nice.
Rethink your trip as there is no way you could do and see all of the stuff you want in 48 hours-the south of France is to be enjoyed and savored!

Your first day is way too optimistic. You might get to some of your second day targets during your two day stay. Nice is a big city with lots of traffic and congestion, it is not convenient to Aix, Arles and Nimes as they are all 2+hours away. St. Tropez and ????

We are staying in Villefranche for 7 days and are planning to see half of what you've outlined. Just Nice is worth a day or two. If you can't extend the trip, consider spending some time just chilling...

If you're looking for things to cull from your wildly overpacked itinerary, I'd start with Monaco.