Hi all. Impulsively jumped on a good fare from NYC to Nice for a quick (7 nights) visit to France. I’ve not visited this area before and am hoping for some advice with regards to where to stay. Our interests are food and wine, walking, lazing on a beach or in a park with a book and some art/culture/history. We definitely don’t overbook our time and prefer having a limited itinerary to allow for spontaneity.

With all of that in mind, would you advise basing in a single location or splitting our time between two spots? I’d like to see Marseille, my fella is talking about checking out western Liguria for a day and maybe Provence would be lovely in spring? Please share thoughts and experiences as I plan. Merci!

I have only spent 2 one-night stays in Nice so I am certainly not an expert. But I did plan a 5-night stay in Nice with friends for spring 2020, but as we all know that never happened. Using Nice as a base, there is a lot to do in the area. In addition to sightseeing in Nice, (museums, markets, Promenade des Anglais), we planned on visitng Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Villa Grecque Kerylos, Menton, Villefranche Sur Mer, and Eze. You can visit all these places by train. And then there are interesting mountain towns, too.

If you want a relaxing vacation, you could easily spend all 7 nights in Nice.

Marseilles is fascinating, too! We visited several times for a day when we were visiting our daughter who lived in Provence until a year ago. Train from Nice to Marseilles is about 2.5 hours. So you could spend half the time in Nice and half the time in Marseilles.

OR you could drive from Nice to St. Remy in Provence and spend some time here.

I think that what you decide to do depends on how busy you want to be. So perhaps 3 possibilities are:
Nice for 7 nights
Nice (4 nights) and Marseilles (3 nights)
Nice (3 nights) and St. Remy (4 nights)

We often times visited in April and it's a lovely time to visit. Fewer crowds, comfortable weather. Can be cool, and can be windy (the mistral winds) but we only encountered the mistral winds a few times.

If you wish, you can read my TR (with lots of photos) called Provence in December. This was our last visit to France. Of course, winter time is very different but it gives you an idea of what these places look like. Except it doesn't include Nice. But I have lots of photos from Marseilles and Provence.

Trip Report Provence in December - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (fodors.com)

Nice and Marseilles are about as different as two cities in France could be! IMO, one could visit either for a full week. Or, as KarenWoo noted, you could visit both in one week ... although IMO, you'd be shortchanging each if you do that. And of course, Provence also easily has enough to keep you busy for a week. It really depends on what you want to see and experience! FWIW, I strongly recommend the Michelin Green Guides for these areas.

You might take a look at my trip report, keeping in mind that I prefer to relocate rather than to stay in a base; you could easily see many of the places I visited from one of a few bases instead.
A stellar month in southeastern France

Greetings,
We have done 2 separate, one week visits to the Nice area, one full week based in Villefranche, and one full week in Nice. (Villefranche is a little east of Nice, easily accessible. (In addition to shorter visit)
You have great options, as mentioned. Since you enjoy not over-extending, I think I'd choose one full week in Nice. Plenty to do and see, while allowing for relaxion time without relocating to Marseilles.
During our Villefranche stay, we took a day and went to Genoa, stopping in San Remo for lunch. So visiting Italy would be easy. Also, visited all the places KarenWoo mentioned.
If you stay in Nice for the week, you could also visit Antibes, St Paul de Vence, Cimiez (Roman Ruins) and other towns,

I might be inclined to keep Marseilles for another trip, where you can venture to other nearby towns.

BTW, our first trip to Nice, was in March and the weather was perfect. Enjoy!

You can day trip by train to Marseille from Nice (long day) or spend some time there. They are pretty different. Along the Cote d'Azur, Nice is your best base for winter, due to the better connections and more indoor options if the weather is inclement. The crush of tourists in July and August is no where to be scene (this past season was a record one, with 99% hotel occupancy in July).

One note of caution on Provence, based on past experience in April. There are seasonal openings (from the winter closure) in smaller villages and towns that occur close to the French school holidays, right around Easter. Easter is late next year so I don't know if things will open earlier. This mostly impacts some hotels/B&Bs and some restaurants in the villages/towns. Even some tourist-oriented shops may be impacted (or they are open with reduced days/hours). You may find some slightly shorter opening hours in the Cote d'Azur, but no seasonal closures (except in the hinterlands).

This all incredibly helpful - thank you! I’m kind of inclined to split the trip into two locations since the two cities are so very different. In my mind, it makes sense to land in Nice and immediately go to Marseille* by bus or train. We could probably make it there by late afternoon. Then, we’d spend three nights and net 3 evenings and 3 full days. On Wednesday, we’d head east to Nice. Unless you think Antibes would be a better spot to spend 4 nights. We’ll definitely go to Liguria for a day - and I’m interested in the Matisse Museum for sure.

I’m off to read a couple of trip reports

*Going to date myself and explain my interest in Marseille…does anybody remember Rich Man, Poor Man? Nick Nolte left quite an impact on me and I’ve since always wanted to visit Marseille.

Yes, I definitely remember Rich Man, Poor Man!!! I had such a crush on Nick Nolte!

After reading the trip reports and doing a bit more research, I decided to divide our time. We’ll have (the first) three nights in Marseille and then travel to Nice for 4 nights. It makes sense to me to land in Nice (scheduled arrival 12:30 pm) and then travel directly to Marseille. What would be the best (i.e. most direct/quickest) way to get from the airport in Nice to the old port area of Marseille?

Here is information on buses from the Nice airport to Marseille. You will notice that the buses arrive in a variety of locations in Marseille.
Bus Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur NCE Marseille pas cher dès 11.49€ | ComparaBUS.com