Nice – Monaco via Èze is the ultimate Riviera hiking adventure: a full-day traverse from the elegant streets of Nice to the glamorous harbor of Monaco, with the medieval cliffside village of Èze as its crowning stop. Along the way, you’ll climb high above the Mediterranean on rugged paths and historic routes—including the famous Nietzsche Path—where nearly every opening in the scrub reveals that dazzling blue coastline. You’ll wander through Èze’s honey-colored lanes and exotic gardens, then continue along panoramic ridgelines before descending into Monaco, finishing the day with the surreal satisfaction of walking straight into one of the world’s most famous principalities. It’s long, steep, and demanding—but as a way to experience the Côte d’Azur on foot, few hikes can match it.
This is a short version of the GR51 I have come up with. There is a super cheap (probably cheapest) budget airline Volotea who operates flights 3 times a week between Luxembourg <> Nice. Even buying this ticket in last minute can be still under 200 EUR with a backpack, which let’s face it is more than enough cloth for a basically 1 day hike.
The landscape and coastal view is stunning on this trail however there is direct sun exposure on about 50% of the trail so this is only doable outside the hot summer period (Oct-March). In mid October it was still pleasant, I will redo this next year (preferably in the winter period again) however those who are interested can sign up and write it in the comment when would they like to do the hike and I might move it. 10 people max, but a small group of 5 is preferred.
The hike is not recommended to people who have problem with heights, there are two very small sections which are completely exposed only 5-10 meters, meaning its next to the cliff no plants, nothing to hold onto. Both are skippable with a larger detour however when we do our final descend to Monaco if you skip this part you will miss the only scenic trail down to the city.
The hike is planned to be a super short weekend with 1 full day hike. We take a night flight let’s say on Friday night after work to Nice, there everybody should rent a hotel either close to the central station or the coast line. We start the hike from the coast. The goal is not city sightseeing, those who also want to see Nice fly there 1-2 days earlier. The hike will have about 1500 m in altitude depending on which version we do and 30 km in distance, I would not call it hard rather moderate doable in 8 hours so no need to wake up super early, we start at 09:00 in the morning.
There are 2 variations of this trail, we can skip the in between small coastal town and take another scenic route to Eze. The Èze market unfolds each Thursday and Sunday from 7:00 to 13:00 in the Place du Général de Gaulle, right at the foot of the medieval village. Think of it as a weekly ritual: farmers and artisans set up their stalls below the perched houses, the scent of olives and fresh bread mixing with the sea air. Depending which day we do the hike the market might be open or not, again it’s not the goal of the hike to do shopping here but we will have a coffee break for 30 mins before we do the final ascend and descend to Monaco.
Upon arriving it is recommended to stay on the French side for economic reason, even that will be super expensive, expect a small windowless Airbnb in an alley to start from 160 EUR. Beausoleil, a French town famously situated directly on the border of Monaco. It feels like one city, there is no actual border in between the two or checkpoint you take some stairs down and you are in Monaco already. The downside staying on the French side that it is built upwards to the mountain, you will need to do a lot of stairs to get back from the coast to your apartment. Hence yacht owners are welcome to provide us with accommodation 😉
We can finish the hike in daylight but there won’t be more time for anything else that night except a dinner at the harbor. Nevertheless next day everybody will have the whole day to go around Monaco, the whole country can be walked around in about 3 hours from one end to the other one! The palace has museums and other activities but even those who would like to see and visit everything can do it in +1 additional days, for the rest of us from 9-15 will be enough.
Coming back from here will be super easy, there is a direct French bus line ZOU 80 which goes every half an hour and stops at multiple places in Monaco, this is a direct line which takes you to the Nice airport in 30 mins.