Antibes sits at the exact centre of the Riviera, which makes it the perfect base: Nice and Cannes are minutes away by train, and the hinterland’s hill villages start just behind the town. These are the excursions we recommend most, with the practical details that matter.
How far is everything? From our door
Times are measured from Old Antibes, at a normal pace and outside the August crush. The train station is a twelve-minute walk from the houses, and the coastal line does most of the work.
Biot and Valbonne — the hinterland
Biot, ten minutes away, is the glassblowers’ village: watch bubbled 'verre de Biot' being made, then climb the old village and visit the Fernand Léger national museum below it. Valbonne, a little further, surprises with its Renaissance grid plan and arcaded central square — market on Fridays, perfect lunch stop.
Both are short taxi or bus rides; together they make an easy, satisfying half-day.
Cannes and Nice — the coast
The coastal train is the secret weapon: Cannes in about fifteen minutes for the Croisette, the Suquet hill and boats to the pine-covered Lérins islands; Nice in about twenty for Vieux Nice, the Promenade and its museums. No parking, sea views the whole way.
Antibes station is a short walk from the old town — check the map and current timetables, trains run frequently all day.
The art villages: Mougins, Saint-Paul, Èze
Mougins (30 min) has always belonged to painters — its circular village centre is threaded with artists’ boutiques and Provençal ateliers. Saint-Paul-de-Vence (45 min) pairs its ramparts and gallery-lined lanes with the Maeght Foundation, one of Europe’s great modern art collections; join the locals for a game of boules under the planes. And Èze (60 min), perched high above the sea behind Monaco, rewards the climb with its exotic garden and views stretching from Italy to Cap Ferrat.
Islands, principalities and legends
Facing Cannes, the Lérins Islands are the coast’s secret garden: Sainte-Marguerite and the cell of the Man in the Iron Mask, Saint-Honorat and its Cistercian monastery, where the monks still make wine — lunch under the trees at La Tonnelle is a ritual. Monaco (60 min) delivers the full glamour of the Rock, the casino and the Oceanographic Museum. Saint-Tropez (about 2 h) remains the myth Bardot made — go early, out of season if you can.
Further still, the Italian Riviera (90 min) makes a wonderful change of register: the caves of Balzi Rossi, the Hanbury gardens, the painted lanes of Dolceacqua and Apricale, and Sanremo’s old town and Via Roma for shopping.
The artisan Riviera
For gifts with a story: the glassblowers of Biot (La Verrerie, since 1956), the potters’ village of Vallauris with its Picasso statue on the Place de l’Homme au Mouton, the Fragonard perfume factory in Grasse (free guided tours), Confiserie Florian at Pont-du-Loup for crystallised flowers and marmalades, the Alziari olive oil mill in old Nice (since 1868), Nice’s flower market (since 1897, closed Mondays), and the Château Sainte-Roseline near Les Arcs for Côtes de Provence tastings in a medieval cloister.
Ask us when you book: we tailor day-trip suggestions to the season and to how you like to travel.
Everything on this page is minutes from our doors.
Seven restored houses inside the old town — live availability, transparent prices, and your hosts two streets away.
More from the guide
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