This Villefranche day trip includes a private van and driver-guide. When you meet your driver, you discuss your interests together and plan the stops accordingly. With 8 hours you can typically manage 3 to 4 towns, or fewer if you prefer more time for lunch, shopping or the beach.
Popular 8-hour combinations include:
Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze
Monaco, Monte Carlo and Nice
Saint Paul de Vence, Antibes and Nice
Saint Paul de Vence, Nice and Eze
Saint Paul de Vence paired with Cannes and Antibes or Nice.
Monaco (about 40 minutes from Villefranche) occupies a rocky outcrop that made for a natural fortress. Within the old town, the Royal Palace still posts a guard, with the changing of the guard at 11:55 AM drawing a crowd, and nearby is the Cathedral where Princess Grace is buried. At just 2.02 square kilometers, Monaco is the world's second smallest country after Vatican City. Tour vans cannot park in the old town, so your driver will drop you off and arrange a meeting point.
Monte Carlo (about 40 minutes from Villefranche) puts you on the streets of the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 circuit, with your driver pointing out some of its famous hairpin turns. The Casino is a favorite photo stop, and the cliffside Oceanographic Museum, founded by Prince Albert I in 1889 and later led for 31 years by the diver and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, is worth the visit if your group has extra time.
Nice (about 10 minutes from Villefranche) centers on its Old Town and the Cours Saleya flower market, a tradition dating to 1861 that became the world's first wholesale flower market by 1897, still busy daily except Mondays, when a flea market takes over the square instead. A drive along La Promenade des Anglais takes you past the Riviera's most famous public beach.
Eze (about 25 minutes from Villefranche) is a pedestrian only medieval village clinging to cliffs 1,000 feet above the sea. It is connected to the coast by the Chemin de Nietzsche, a footpath older than its name that took on the philosopher's name after his stays here in 1883 and 1884, when he worked on part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The village itself is a maze of stone lanes and boutiques, with a hilltop viewpoint over the water; those who would rather skip the uphill walk can visit the nearby Fragonard perfume factory instead.
Saint Paul de Vence (about 45 minutes from Villefranche) is a walled hilltop art village, home to La Colombe d'Or, the inn that opened as a simple cafe in 1920 and became a hotel in 1930. Artists including Picasso, Matisse, Miro and Chagall are said to have traded paintings for room and board here, and many of those original works remain on display today. There are also lovely cafes just outside the walls for a relaxed lunch.
Antibes (about 50 minutes from Villefranche) traces back to Antipolis, a Greek trading post founded around the 6th century BC, later fortified with star-shaped ramparts built under the military engineer Vauban in the 17th century. Today it is also home to the Picasso Museum inside the Chateau Grimaldi, where the artist once worked. You will pass the private port lined with the yachts of the very wealthy.
Cannes (about 1 hour from Villefranche) means a walk down La Croisette, past the Grandes Dames hotels, the Carlton, Martinez, La Malmaison and the Majestic, and the red carpeted Palais des Festivals, home to the Cannes Film Festival since its founding in 1946.
Grasse (about 1.5 hours from Villefranche) earned UNESCO recognition in 2018 for the traditional know-how behind its perfume industry, and the Fragonard Perfume Factory here offers free English-language tours showing how local flowers become fragrance.
Gourdon (about 1 hour from Villefranche) is a perched village at roughly 2,100 feet elevation. Its hilltop castle holds a small museum of naive art alongside gardens laid out by Andre Le Notre, the landscape architect behind the gardens of Versailles.
Mougins (about 45 minutes from Villefranche) has kept its medieval spiral street plan, first shaped after monks from the Iles de Lerins were given the hillside in 1056. It is known today for its cooking school, fine restaurants, and a photography museum in a former presbytery at the heart of the village.
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (about 15 minutes from Villefranche) is one of the Riviera's most exclusive peninsulas, home to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a glamorous early 20th century villa with lush gardens, and the Villa Kerylos, a reconstruction of an ancient Greek villa. Both are open daily for an entrance fee.
Tourrettes-sur-Loup (about 55 minutes from Villefranche) sits in a region of forests, valleys and waterfalls, and is home to the Florian candy factory, where a free tour shows how local flowers become candies, jams and chocolates.
Villefranche-sur-Mer itself is worth a closer look, within walking distance of the port. Its bay is one of the deepest natural harbors in the Mediterranean, once home to the US Sixth Fleet from 1948 to 1966, and its small waterfront Chapelle Saint-Pierre was decorated inside and out by the artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau in 1956 and 1957. You can enjoy an affordable fresh fish lunch here, just steps from the water.
Your driver may also make recommendations based on your interests, but with a flexible itinerary we cannot guarantee every stop you have in mind. Traffic and weather affect driving time to each destination.
Review Location- Villefranche 
