Weekend in Nice and Monaco

I was fortunate to spend this last weekend in Nice and Monaco before catching a flight back to Seattle after an exhausting 3 weeks in Europe.

I was really expecting to love Nice and had some high hopes for the romance of the French Riviera and opulence of Monaco – and they both disappointed a bit. I think I would have enjoyed them more if I was immensely wealthy and just yachted the whole weekend or maybe if I had more of a local experience, though I’m not sure what that would have entailed. I debated going to Cannes as well, but my friend said it wasn’t very interesting and I didn’t see anything really cool in pictures of it online (other than the obvious draw of going where the film festival takes place).

Overall the trip was fine and you can definitely easily do both Nice and Monaco together in one day and would recommend Monaco if you’re in the area.

Overall, my expenses were as follows:

• One-way flight from Brussels to Nice: $100
• Hostel: 49 euros/night (3 nights)
• Kitschy Nice t-shirt: $10
• Cash for transportation and food: 80 euros

Total cost for weekend: $360

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Friday Night

I arrived in Nice late Friday and hurriedly caught some public transport to my hostel, Hostel OZZ & Bar By Happyculture, in the heart of the city. It was easy enough figuring out public transport even if I overpaid because I could only figure out how to buy a daypass from the machines at the airport (a total of 5 Euros for a pass I only used once – not valid for travel outside of Nice, e.g. doesn’t work for Monaco). I would recommend keeping euro coins on you for transport ticketing machines, since they don’t take bills and I had trouble getting the machines to accept my US credit card.

Hostel OZZ was fine – I was in a 5 person female only dorm and my main two complaints were a) that the bathroom was located in the room, which meant that, if someone else in the room was using the one shower, you were just stuck and b) the beds had somewhat unstable metal frames – not to the point where I was worried they would collapse but where (if your bunkmate happened to be moving around alot – as mine did two evenings in a row) it made your bed move around A LOT in sudden jerks. Additionally, the way the 5 person room was structured was a 2 tier bunk and a 3 tier bunk, which was insanely high (fortunately, I wasn’t in that). Otherwise, the security locker situation was good (bring a lock) and breakfast wasn’t included (you could opt in for 5 euros) but sheets were included and you didn’t have to take them down when you checked out. Locks and towels were rentable. Apparently, you’re not allowed to bring in outside alcohol to drink, which I think is bull. My bunkmate also kept having phone conversations in the room after 10PM when I was going to sleep – seriously, what are people thinking when they do stuff like that?

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Saturday Morning: Nice

Saturday, I got up early to hit up the sights around Nice and grab a drink later in the day with a friend from college who has been living in Nice for the last 6 years. I ended up doing all that and explored Monaco – all very doable in one day and meant that Sunday I was really scrounging for things to do.

Above I’ve included a map of the main area to tour in Nice, which is very small – certainly there are other areas to see and I heard about some spots further out to go hiking (none of which enticed me enough to hop on a train for a hour), and there’s an observatory I failed to go to, disappointing another college friend who worked there for a summer. The same friend was very insistent that I go to a “cheese cave” (I think La Cave du Fromager?) that I didn’t visit. I did get some recommendations from my friend who lives in Nice but these mostly overlapped with what I was already doing.

I also failed to try too many local Niçoise dishes (I think the salad IS really the big one). I tried Pissaladière, which is a local dish of pizza topped with onion, anchovies and olives. I liked the topping but the crust was pretty meh. Mostly, I just stuck to more traditional boulangerie fare like baguettes and palmiers.

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The main things to see in Nice were as follows:

• The beach. To my understanding, this is the primary draw of Nice but I can’t help but be a beach snob and this didn’t really make the cut. The beach in Monaco has actual sand (though I’m suspicious they bring it in) but Nice is all river rocks, which is not the most comfortable thing to lie down on, which likely explains why people mostly sat. It also means that once you get into the water, the rocks get VERY slick and it’s a bit hard to walk around, even with a mostly flat beach. The water was a pleasant temperature though and the lovely blue of the Côte d’Azur. It was also very crowded – more than I like but about on par with Waikiki, so I’m sure there are other beaches in the area that locals use and they leave this main beach for the tourists. It is fun (if somewhat creepy) to people-watch at them and I saw two sets of boobs.
• Marché aux fleurs. This is one of the main open air markets in Nice.
• The Chateau. There’s a castle hill just to the right of the beach on the map and this is a nice area to walk around and get a view from.
• Parks. Nice does have really lovely parks in this main city area and I had a lot of fun wandering around them, eating on benches, and (also probably creepily) watching kids play with their parents in the sidewalk fountains. There was also a music festival happening at one of the parks that weekend and I listened to the music from outside for a bit.

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Saturday Afternoon: Monaco

After wandering around Nice for three hours, I decided to pop over to Monaco.

It’s very easy to get to Monaco via bus or train. I took the train and it cost 8.40 euros round trip (I bought a ticket from the office, since the machines that took coins had long lines and another machine wouldn’t take my card) and the ride was about 20 minutes. There are outlets at the train seats.

I did really like Monaco but it didn’t line up with the level of “bougie”-ness I expected, really calling into question how bougie I actually am (probably too much so). Food and drinks aren’t super expensive inside the city – I got a drink from Starbucks for 4 euros.

The most obviously opulent part of Monaco was the enormous yachts, which were positively lovely and I discovered that apparently I have no desire to own a yacht, though I would love to be friends with someone with does – hit me up.

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I went inside the Monte Carlo, which during the day you don’t have to be dressed up for, though you don’t get to go inside very far and there’s not too much that you can do as far as casino activities (at least not without getting into the exclusive areas). They do a bag check at the door and I was asked to show my ID once in the Monte Carlo (my only time in Monaco), though I expect this was because they thought I might have been too young to go inside a gambling area. I do wonder if the casino scene in Monaco used to be a lot more opulent because apparently it used to constitute 95% of the economy and now is only 3%.

Other than that, I walked by the water, saw a lot of Grace Kelly references, and strolled along the harbor looking at boats (and ogling the one handsome, obviously rich young man who was just boarding one of the biggest yachts). I didn’t go into the Salvador Dali museum, but it looked really excellent and is something I would have liked to do, if I had the time.

From there, I walked uphill to the castle and wandered around that area, which afforded really lovely views of the harbor and city. It would have been nice to go into the castle as well (another thing I didn’t have time for) and that whole area up on the hill was really quaint, in a fancy rich way.

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Saturday Evening

Enormously sweaty after three hours of walking in the sun, I hightailed it back to the station and caught the train back to Nice to grab a drink at a cafe with my college friend, who is soon moving back to Seattle.

I wandered around a bit after this, but mostly just went back to the hostel, watched Korean dramas, and then Facetimed with my sister outside while being eaten alive by mosquitoes (I only just got over the itchiness Wednesday). I also tried a French cider from the market (before I realized I couldn’t bring in outside alcohol) and I hated it, so I ended up tossing it.

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Sunday

I didn’t do much on Sunday because I really just wanted to get home and had considered trying to hike but it just didn’t feel as safe as Switzerland. This even culminated with me walking to a park an hour away, peering into the depths of the dark entrance, seeing what looked like a homeless man along the side of the path, and NOPEing right out of there to walk an hour back into town.

Other than this misadventure, I spent some time on the beach but the rocks weren’t super comfortable to lie on and I was a bit dehydrated, so I left after only an hour or two.

Best parts of my Sunday were people watching at the beach, eating an apple tart from a boulangerie, and drinking three 1L bottles of this low-cal Lipton mint and lime tea I’m obsessed with that you can only buy in Europe and takes like mojitos (seriously Lipton, start selling this in the states).

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That’s it for my adventures in Europe this month!

I’m mostly time adjusted back to Seattle other than the fact that I keep waking up at 2AM (as I am right now, writing this post). I’m home for a few weeks and then will be in tiny house west of Vancouver, BC for a week, so keep an eye out for that post!