Villefranche-Sur-Mer Travel Guide, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France (B)

Villefranche-sur-Mer, or Villefranche, is a harbour town on the French Riviera about 4km east of Nice, and 10km west of Monaco. It’s a rich town that’s become a haven for cruise-ship tourists due to its stunning beach and extraordinarily deep harbour, allowing massive boats to anchor close-by.

We would normally avoid somewhere like Villefranche as it’s not our usual style, but we found ourselves there after booking our accommodation for Nice on the Villefranche hills. Nice was expensive and difficult to get to, and we were thoroughly burnt-out after a manic tour through Italy, so we wisely decided to spend our days in the area lying on the beach, soaking in the sun and losing count of swims at Villefranche. If that’s your thing, this blog is for you.

We arrived to Villefranche from Levanto in the Cinque Terre (Italy). From Levanto to Genova we caught a train for €6.30 each, which took 1.5 hours and was a lovely journey along the coast (although I slept most of the way). From Genova to Nice we booked a Flixbus about 30 minutes in advance of departure using their mobile app and some pilfered WiFi. The three hour journey cost us €9 each but it goes to the airport, which means another bus journey and another €1.50 for a ride into Nice. It also meant a two hour wait at the airport for a bus because of a strike. From Nice we were fortunate enough to have our host collect us from the beach and take us to his house. All up, including wait times for buses and hanging around in Nice waiting for our host, it was a 10 hour journey that should’ve taken around five. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).