Where to Hike on the French Riviera: 10 Coastal Walks and Mountain Trails, Year Round

Most people picture the Côte d'Azur as beach clubs and boat days. The reality, if you're living here for a month or two, is that you're sitting between the Mediterranean and the Alps, and the distance between the two is about forty minutes on a bus.

You can close your laptop at 17:00, walk out of the coliving, and be on a cliff path above the sea by 17:40. You can also, on a Saturday, be standing at 1,200 metres looking down at the entire coastline from Menton to the Estérel, having started your day with a coffee in Nice.

The French Riviera is one of the few places in the South of France that's a year-round hiking destination. The coast stays walkable in every month of the year, and some of the best days are in January, when the air is clear enough to see Corsica and you have the whole trail to yourself. Spring brings wildflowers across the limestone. Autumn brings warm sea and empty paths. Summer is for early mornings and long evenings, with a swim built into the middle.

This is our list of the ten hikes worth building your weeks around. Five hug the coast, five head into the hills, and almost all of them are reachable on public transport, which matters when you're staying here without a car.

The Coastal Walks

1. Sentier du Littoral, Cap Ferrat

Roughly 6 to 10 km depending on your route · 2 to 3 hours · Easy · Train to Beaulieu-sur-Mer

If you only do one walk on the Riviera, do this one. The path wraps the entire Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula at sea level, threading between rocky coves, a lighthouse, and the garden walls of some genuinely absurd villas. There's no real climbing. You just walk, and the water is that colour the whole time.

Start at Beaulieu-sur-Mer station, walk to Plage de Passable or the port at Saint-Jean, and loop. The southern tip past the Phare de Cap Ferrat is the most dramatic stretch, with the path cut into the rock and waves breaking a few metres below.

Why it works for a workday: the loop is flexible. Do half of it, stop at Plage Paloma, take the bus back. From our coliving in Nice you can be out and back in three hours including travel.

Any season: walkable all year. In winter the light is sharper and the villas' gardens are still green. In summer, bring swimwear, because there are half a dozen places to get in the water and almost nobody uses them.

2. Nice to Villefranche-sur-Mer via Mont Boron

About 8 km · 90 minutes to 2 hours · Easy to moderate · Starts in Nice, no transport needed

This is the one you do in your first week of a coliving in Nice, because it starts at your front door. From the Promenade des Anglais you follow the coast east past the old port, then climb into the pine forest of Mont Boron on a network of shaded paths. The detour up to Fort du Mont Alban, a fortress built between 1557 and 1560, gives you a genuine 360 with Nice on one side and the deep-water bay of Villefranche on the other.

You finish in Villefranche, which is the prettiest small port on this coast and knows it. Ochre buildings, a tiny beach, restaurants on the water.

Why it works for a workday: it's the classic Friday-afternoon walk. Finish work, walk over as a group, eat dinner in Villefranche, take the six-minute train back.

Any season: the pine forest gives shade in the warm months and shelter from wind in the cold ones. This is a genuine 12-month trail.

3. Chemin de Nietzsche, Èze

2.1 km one way · 1 to 1.5 hours up · Moderate to hard · Train to Èze-sur-Mer

Short, brutal, and one of the most satisfying hours you'll spend here. This is the old goat path from the sea up to the medieval village of Èze, roughly 400 metres of climbing in barely two kilometres. Friedrich Nietzsche walked it daily in the 1880s and reportedly composed part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra on it, which you will think about somewhere around the halfway point when your legs are burning.

The path is rocky, uneven, and mostly stepped, climbing through Mediterranean scrub with the sea opening up behind you the higher you get. At the top, Èze village is a car-free cluster of stone lanes with an exotic garden built into the ruins of a castle at the summit.

How to do it: train from Nice or Antibes to Èze-sur-Mer, walk up, wander the village, then take the bus back down. Walking down is possible but harder on the knees than you'd think.

Any season: best in the cooler months, honestly. The climb is exposed, so in spring and autumn it's a pleasure and in winter it's perfect. In summer, go up early and be at the top by 10:00, before the coaches arrive.

4. Sentier de Tirepoil, Cap d'Antibes

About 5 km · 1.5 to 2 hours · Easy to moderate · 15 minutes from Biot, train from Nice to Antibes

The Antibes coastal path is wilder than Cap Ferrat. Where Cap Ferrat feels curated, Tirepoil is scrambling over wave-battered rock with spray in your face, past the walls of the Baie des Milliardaires and the villas hidden behind them. It starts at Plage de la Garoupe and works around the tip of the cape to a stone grotto.

This is the closest great coastal walk to our villa in Biot, which makes it the default afternoon escape for anyone staying there. From Nice it's a 25-minute train.

Pair it with: a morning at the Picasso Museum in Antibes old town, or the Marché Provençal, one of the better food markets on this coast.

Any season: open year-round, but genuinely exposed. The path closes in rough weather and the signs saying so are there for a reason. Check conditions on windy days.

5. Pic du Cap Roux, Massif de l'Estérel

About 8 km loop · 3 to 4 hours · Moderate · Train to Anthéor-Cap-Roux or Le Trayas

The Estérel is the surprise for most people. Red volcanic porphyry rock dropping straight into a turquoise sea, an hour west of Nice, and it looks nothing like the rest of the Riviera. It looks like Arizona decided to move to the Mediterranean.

Pic du Cap Roux tops out at 454 metres, which sounds modest until you realise you're starting at sea level and the summit sits directly above the water. The panorama takes in the jagged Estérel coastline, the Bay of Agay, and on clear days the Alps behind you.

The best version starts at Le Trayas train station and finishes at Anthéor-Cap-Roux, so you never need a car. The whole coastal train line from Nice through Cannes and out to Saint-Raphaël is one of the best rail journeys in France anyway.

Any season: superb in winter and spring. Note that the red rock has excellent grip when dry and turns into a skating rink when wet, so skip it the day after heavy rain. Access to the massif can occasionally be restricted, so it's worth a quick check with the local tourist office before a long train ride.

The Mountains

6. Mont Chauve d'Aspremont

About 6.5 km from Aspremont · 2.5 hours · Moderate · Bus from Nice

Mont Chauve is the bald dome you can see from almost anywhere in Nice, topped with an abandoned 19th-century fort. At 854 metres it's the easiest real summit from the city, and the 360 from the top is the one that recalibrates your mental map of where you're actually living: the whole Baie des Anges below you, the Var plain west, and the first serious peaks of the Mercantour to the north. On a clear winter day you can see Corsica.

Start from the village of Aspremont, reachable by city bus, or make a longer day of it by walking up from Nice Nord on the GR hillside trail.

Why we like it: it's the perfect first mountain. Enough climb to feel like something, short enough to be back for a late lunch, and it reframes the coast completely once you've seen it from above.

Any season: excellent from October through May. Bare and exposed at the top, so it's a cool-weather favourite and an early-morning one in summer.

7. Baou de Saint-Jeannet

About 7.6 km · 2.5 to 3 hours · Moderate · 25 minutes from Nice, 30 from Biot, bus to Saint-Jeannet

The Baou is the great limestone tooth rising behind Vence, 802 metres of it, visible from half the coastline. Climbing it is a proper hike: switchbacks through oak and pine, then a rocky final section onto a broad flat summit that drops away in a sheer cliff on the seaward side.

From the top you get Nice, Antibes, Cannes, the Estérel, and the Mercantour all at once. It's the best value-per-effort view in the department. The cliff face is also a well-known climbing spot, so you'll usually see ropes.

Make a day of it: the village of Saint-Jeannet at the base is a small, mostly unbothered hilltop village with a couple of good cafés. Vence, ten minutes away, has the Matisse Chapel and a proper old town.

Any season: year-round, with the caveat that the summit is windy and the upper section has no shade. Layers in winter, early start in summer.

8. Cime de Baudon, from Sainte-Agnès

Roughly 12 to 15 km depending on route · 5 to 6 hours · Hard · Bus from Menton

This is where it stops being a walk and starts being a hike. Cime de Baudon sits at 1,266 metres above Menton, and the classic route from Sainte-Agnès, the highest coastal village in Europe at nearly 800 metres, involves close to 1,000 metres of climbing. The reward is arguably the single best viewpoint on the entire Riviera: Mercantour to the north, Mont Agel below you, and the coast running away west past Nice to the Estérel.

The terrain is limestone and scrub, dry and open, with sections that feel much more alpine than anything nearer the sea. Sainte-Agnès itself is worth the trip alone, a stone village clinging to a ridge with a ruined castle on top.

Logistics: train Nice to Menton, then the Zou! bus up to Sainte-Agnès. Check return bus times before you set off. The last one is earlier than you want it to be.

Any season: best in spring and autumn. Possible in winter if the forecast is clear, but there can be snow and ice on the upper ridge. Bring two litres of water minimum and real hiking shoes whatever the month, because there is very little shade.

9. Plateau de Saint-Barnabé and the Gorges du Loup

About 12 km · 3.5 to 4 hours · Moderate · Car recommended, closest to the Biot villa

Inland behind Grasse, the landscape changes completely. The Préalpes d'Azur regional park is limestone karst country: bare rock plateaus, sinkholes, shepherds' huts, and almost nobody. The Plateau de Saint-Barnabé, usually walked from the village of Courmes, gives you the Cheiron massif to the north and the perched village of Gourdon hanging over the Gorges du Loup to the south.

The Gorges du Loup themselves are the other half of this day. Deep, narrow, green, with waterfalls and pools, and a road that winds through them past the Saut du Loup.

Why include it: because after a few weeks of coastal paths you'll want something that doesn't look like the Riviera at all. This is the one. It feels like Provence proper.

Any season: spectacular in spring when the waterfalls are full, and the coolest place in the department in August. Can be icy in the gorge in deep winter.

Reality check: this is the hardest of the ten to reach without a car. It's an easy drive from Biot, and worth renting a car or carpooling for the day if you're based in Nice.

10. Vallée des Merveilles, Mercantour National Park

Day hikes from 12 km, full traverse around 27 km · Full day to multi-day · Hard · Car or Zou! bus to the Vésubie/Roya valleys

Save this for a weekend. The Vallée des Merveilles sits high in the Mercantour, a glacial valley of black schist, alpine lakes, and more than 35,000 prehistoric rock engravings, most of them carved in the Bronze Age around 5,000 years ago. Marmots, chamois, and, if you're very lucky, wolves. It is about as far from a beach club as it is possible to get while remaining in the same department.

The full crossing via the Baisse de Valmasque, Lac du Basto, Lac Noir, and Lac Vert is a serious day at around 27 km with 1,250 metres of gain. Most people do it over two or three days staying in the refuges at Merveilles or Fontanalba, which is the better way to experience it. Book refuges well in advance.

Season: this is the one genuine exception to the year-round rule. July to September only. There's snow up there the rest of the year, and certain engraving zones require a guide.

Rules: it's a national park. Camping is prohibited, bivouac is regulated, fires are banned, drones are banned, and dogs are not allowed.

Practical Notes

Transport. The TER coastal train line from Cannes to Ventimiglia is the backbone of everything here. Villefranche, Beaulieu, Èze-sur-Mer, Cap-d'Ail, Monaco and Menton going east; Antibes, Biot, Cannes, Le Trayas and Anthéor going west. Trains are frequent and cheap. Inland, the Zou! regional bus network reaches most villages, but services thin out at weekends and in the evening. Always check the return before you commit.

When to come. All of it works. October, November, March, April and May are the sweet spot, with warm days, clear air and empty trails. Winter on the coast is often 17 degrees and cloudless, which is when the long views are at their best. Summer means early starts, long evenings, and a swim in the middle of every coastal walk. There is no dead season for hiking here, which is exactly why people who stay for a month end up staying for three.

Kit. Proper shoes with grip, more water than you think, sun protection even in winter, and a windproof layer for anything above 800 metres.

Water. Almost none of the inland routes have water sources. Fill up before you leave.

Hiking as a Coliving Community

The thing that changes hiking here is company. A solo walk on the Sentier du Littoral is lovely. The same walk with five other people who all closed their laptops at the same time, followed by a swim and dinner somewhere in Villefranche, is why people extend their stay.

That's roughly how a week works in a coliving in Nice: someone posts in the group chat on Thursday, four people say yes, and by Saturday afternoon you're on top of the Baou watching the light change over Antibes. Nobody planned it more than 48 hours out.

Our two spaces sit at opposite ends of that map on purpose. The Nice apartment puts you a few minutes from Mont Boron, the Villefranche coastal path and the trains east toward Èze and Menton. The Biotiful Villa in Biot sits inland from Antibes, closer to Cap d'Antibes, the Estérel and the karst plateaus behind Grasse, with more space, more green, and a slower rhythm.

Both run on the same idea: remote work during the day, and a community that actually goes outside afterwards. That's the whole reason we set up a coliving in the South of France rather than anywhere else.

Come Hike These With Us: The Outdoor Activities Coliving, 12 November 2026 - 10 December 2026

From 12 November to 10 December 2026 we're running an outdoor-focused coliving on the French Riviera: work during the day, group hikes, coastal swims and weekend trips. Several of the ten routes above are already on the plan. November is the sweet spot here, with empty trails, sea still warm enough to swim, and clear air for the long views.

Find out more →