Making Your Way through the Countryside
Exploring the surroundings of the city is traditionally associated with bikes, picnic baskets and scenic gravel paths, where you can hear the whirling of expensive car engines from time to time . Undoubtedly, the area around Nice is well-equipped with maintained roads, paths and biking trails,but at the same time has good train and bus connections. From Gare Nice-Ville at avenue Thiers, you can also easily venture for a day trip to nearby Cannes, Monaco, and Antibes. Nice’s location, indeed, allows for easy access to almost any place along the Mediterranean coast. The bus depot, Gare Routiere, is the place to catch buses to Monaco, Cannes or St-Tropez.

The Immediate Vicinity
It is not really necessary to drive a car when out in the immediate vicinity of the city. Nice offers some splendid hiking trails, going up the hills and descending towards the shiny wild beaches. While biking some of them might require a lot of proficiency and daring, others are rather biker-friendly. In fact, a hiking path here bears the name of Friedrich Nietzsche, thanks to the philosopher’s frequent visits to the hills. The particular quality of light plus the brilliance and purity of the colours of the landscapes around Nice have also been a magnet to many artists, including Picasso and Matisse, who often made painting excursions into the countryside.

Going to the Beach 
The city’s coast line caters for an easy-going day out in the sun and azure skies of the Mediterranean. The Nice seafront, equipped with seven public beaches totaling seven kilometres, starts from the old port (Vieux-Port) and goes further to the country’s international airport, where the private concessionaires predominate the beach scene. While some of the beaches are covered in sand, others have gravel, and a small fraction of the coastline is even entirely composed of tiny ocean-washed pebbles. These surfaces might be a challenge to people with poor balance, and the grounds often turn out to be slippery or uneven. Thus, carrying good durable hiking boots is indispensable on these outings. And even though these areas do not tolerate nude bathing, and tend to be rather commercialised (half of the beach area is, in fact, paid) with lots of mattresses and lounge chairs.Some of the more remote beaches still offer a little bit of privacy.