Eze is one of the most beautiful villages in the South of France. However, it can be a little challenging to get to by public transport. Here’s my guide for getting to Eze village as a day trip from Nice, France by public transport.
Where is Eze village?
Eze is a small medieval village on the South Coast of France. It’s in between the large city of Nice and the small country of Monaco. The village of Eze is perched high up on the hills and cliffs above the Mediterranean sea. It’s over 400m above sea level. This gives the village spectacular views down to the sea below. However, Eze beach and train station are at sea level, which means it can be a little challenging to get up to the village from the train station next to the beach. So visiting Eze village as a day trip from Nice, France by public transport can take a little advance planning.
Is Eze village worth visiting?
Eze village is definitely worth visiting! It’s a really beautiful village, with stunning views across the Mediterranean sea. The village dates back to medieval times, and you feel like you’re stepping back in time as you wander through the pretty streets. There are shops here to buy some souvenirs, and also plenty of restaurants as well for some lovely food. Eze village makes a great day trip or half-day trip from Nice.
Getting to Eze by public transport from Nice
Despite Eze’s popularity with tourists, it’s not the easiest place to reach by public transport. You can get here with an organised group tour – a lot of the day tours that go from Nice to Monaco stop off briefly at Nice. However, this can be very expensive and gives you limited time in Nice. Visiting Eze village from Nice by public transport is much cheaper, and gives you the freedom to explore at your own pace. Keep reading to find out the best route!
Train from Nice to Eze
The first step of the route from Nice to Eze by public transport is easy. You can get a train from Nice-Ville, the main train station in Nice, to Eze-Sur-Mer. The train only takes about 13-15 minutes. And it costs around 2 Euros per person. Trains leave fairly regularly from Nice-Ville – about two an hour. And you can buy your return ticket from Eze-Sur-Mer back to Nice at the ticket machines in Nice-Ville train station, so then your return train ticket is sorted. Check out the latest train times here. So getting the train from Nice to Eze train station is really cheap and easy.
Eze train station is next to the beach, at sea level. However, Eze village is high up in the hills, over 400m above sea level. So this part of the journey is a little more challenging. Eze train station is very small so there’s no taxi rank outside, so your options are to either take the bus or walk.
Bus from Eze train station to Eze village
There are buses that run from Eze train station up to Eze village. The bus journey takes about 15 minutes, so it’s not far.
However, the buses are quite irregular, and it can be difficult to work out the bus timetable at the bus stop. When I visited, it looked like the buses were roughly every 60-90 minutes. And the bus times don’t match up with the train times. So you could get to Eze station by train, and end up needing to wait over an hour for the bus up to the village.
The buses can also get quite crowded in peak tourist season. As the buses are quite infrequent, there can be a lot of people waiting for each bus.
So the bus is an option, but it would require some careful planning to make sure your train gets in just before a bus leaves. And it might be a slightly uncomfortable 15 minute journey up steep, winding roads if the bus is very full and you need to stand.
Walking up the Chemin de Nietzsche
If you’d rather not take the bus, the other option to get up to Eze village is to walk up the Chemin de Nietzsche. This footpath is well signposted from just opposite the bus stop. It’s a beautiful walk, but is fairly steep and challenging. The sign post warns you that you should be wearing proper trainers or walking shoes, not flip flops or sandals. The sign also says the walk takes about an hour, although it took me about 1 hour 15 minutes as I was stopping frequently for photos – and to catch my breathe because I climbed up on a very hot, humid day.
The beginning of the walk is fairly easy. It’s fairly steep uphill, but the path is concrete so it’s easy.
However, after about 10 minutes of walking, the path changes to loose rocks, stones and steps. It’s like this the rest of the way up.
It’s not too difficult to walk on if you have decent walking shoes, but it’s not an easy climb. A couple of people who began the walk around the same time as me decided to turn back at this point, deciding it was too difficult.
The views back to the sea are lovely, so it’s worth taking your time to look back and take photos.
About halfway up, the path heads into the trees. This can make the walk feel even more hot and humid, as you lose any air movement from the wind. It was only about 24 degrees on the day I climbed up, but the humidity made the walk very sweaty and challenging. If you’re attempting this walk in the warmer temperatures, it’s very important to make sure you have plenty of water with you.
The final section of the walk felt a bit of a hard slog, as I was very hot and tired by this point. I’m quite an experienced walker and hiker, frequently doing 7+ mile hikes at weekends at home in the UK. However, I did find this walk fairly challenging. It was do-able, but not too easy. But I think I still preferred it to waiting an hour for a crowded bus!
Top things to do in Eze village
Eze village is really beautiful, so it is definitely worth the climb up. One of my favourite things to do in Eze village is just to walk around the beautiful streets.
The hilly streets give great chances to take some lovely photos, especially if you can avoid getting too many people in your photos!
There are some shops in Eze, so you can spend time browsing the cute independent shops and buy some souvenirs to take home.
There are also some art galleries and art shops, which are also nice to browse.
Eze village has a good selection of restaurants. There are some posher restaurants in some of the more exclusive hotels here. Or, for a more relaxed and affordable options, I’d recommend a restaurant called Le Cactus. It sells French food and a good selection of drinks, with an outdoor seating area with lovely views. The salads here are great, and perfect for lunch after a long climb uphill. They’re served with great French bread as well. And of course, a refreshing drink like an Aperol Spritz is perfect on a hot day.
Eze beach
After walking or taking the bus back down from Eze village to Eze train station, make sure you leave some time before your train back to Nice to visit Eze beach. It’s only 3-5 minutes walk from Eze train station, so it’s really easy to pop down here while waiting for your train.
Eze beach is a pebble beach, not sandy, but it’s really beautiful. The sea is really blue and clear. You can go for a paddle in the sea, which is refreshing after the long walks, even if the pebble are a little painful to walk on. Relaxing on Eze beach before taking the train back to Nice is the perfect ending to your visit to Eze village as a day trip from Nice, France by public transport.
Enjoy your visit to Eze village as a day trip from Nice, France by Public Transport! There are plenty of other amazing places to visit on the South Coast of France. Check out my guide to spending 4 days exploring the French Riviera from Nice, and also the top day trips from Nice. There are plenty of other great places in Europe to explore as well, such as Lisbon, Seville and Austria.
