This is a trip for people who want more than a sun lounger. Nice has one of the most concentrated collections of modern and fine art outside Paris, a genuinely characterful old town, and a coastline that rewards slow exploration — and this package ties all three together across three or four well-paced days. You don't need a car. You do need comfortable shoes and a willingness to linger.

Start in the museums: the Musée Matisse and Musée Marc Chagall sit close together in Cimiez and make a natural morning pair, while MAMAC downtown handles the postwar and contemporary story, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts fills in the classical and Belle Époque chapters. The Musée de la Photographie adds a sharp counterpoint if you want to understand how the Riviera has been seen and mythologised over the decades. Between galleries, Cours Saleya Market is where the city actually lives — flowers, olives, socca — and the surrounding streets of Vieux Nice are worth at least half a day of unhurried walking. The Promenade des Anglais and the Negresco Hotel give you the grand civic set piece; Castle Hill and its waterfall give you the view and a moment of quiet above it all. Finish with a coastal boat tour along the Riviera to put the geography properly in your head. This is a trip for curious, independent travellers who eat well, look closely, and don't need everything arranged for them.