Eze, France is a small medieval town outside of Nice, France. Google it and you’ll see exactly why we decided to make a day trip out there. It is an incredible place to explore a little outside of Nice. Here is our guide to a day trip to Eze and Mala Beach including how to get there and what to see!
Getting There
We quickly figured out the easiest way to get from Nice (where we were staying) to Eze Village is by public bus. We took the 112 bus but the 82 bus also goes to Eze Village. Either way make sure it’s going to Eze Village and not Eze sur-Mer which is the beach. The buses are very easy to figure out and run fairly often. We also used the same public buses to get to and from Monaco and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
After a 25 minute scenic bus ride, we arrived at the stairs to Eze Village. The bus ride is incredible so make sure while driving up to turn around and look at the view behind you. Once off the bus we immediately started climbing up and it just keeps getting better and better the higher you go!
Travel Truth: Eze and Eze village are considered two different places so beware when you’re planning a visit. If you’re taking the bus to Eze you’re going to get dropped off down at the water at Eze Beach. If you take the bus to Eze village you’ll get dropped off up at the top where the medieval village is. You can hike up from Eze Beach to Eze Village but it is extremely steep. The hike up will probably take you close to 2 hours. Scroll down and read our experience hiking down.
Things to See
The pathways and walls are all made of stone and built in to the top of the cliff side. Eze is one of those places where you take out your camera, take a picture, put it away and then take it out again because you realize you need to take another picture every five steps. We probably spent a good hour walking through the stone pathways and stopping to take pictures. There really is no wrong way to walk in Eze. It is fairly small and all of the pathways wind up the cliff to the top.
At the top is the Jardin Exotique, a botanical garden that holds the best view of the surrounding areas. It costs 6 Euros to enter and looks like a desert on top of a cliff on the Mediterranean Ocean.
Travel Truth: When we went, we paid the student rate, 3.5 Euros, which seemed much more reasonable for a relatively small garden. We would recommend if you are a student and have a student ID using it to get the student rate.
Otherwise there are a couple nicer restaurants within the village that are a little on the pricier side. So if you’re not looking to spend a lot on lunch we would recommend bringing snacks and water!
Hiking Down
There’s two pretty fancy hotels on top of Eze and a few restaurants. So after exploring for a while we walked back down to the bottom to where we were initially dropped off by the bus. To the right of the Chateau de Eze there is a dirt pathway leading down. You’ll see a few people standing around. We asked one of the people (who were noticeably out of breath) walking up if this was the path down to the ocean and they nodded.
The path is mostly dirt and fairly uneven. We both wore sneakers and were thankful to have sturdy shoes. A few different times it looks like you are not really even on a true path but don’t worry you’re going the right way. A lot of people choose to start down by the water and hike up the path to Eze Village. We’d estimate it would probably take 1 ½ – 2 hours (depending on how fast you hike) to hike up. We chose to take the bus up to the village and hike down because we wanted to end at the beach and continue on to Cap d’Ail. The walk down took us about 50 minutes.
Travel Truth: Definitely bring water and sunscreen for this part of the day. This is a very doable hike, however, beware that hiking from the water up to Eze village is pretty steep. We passed a lot of red-faced people struggling to get to the top. Even walking down we had to stop a few times to cool off.
Eze Beach
At the bottom of the trail, you will reach the main road. Cross the street, walk over the train over-pass and down the stairs. You will walk down the stairs and pass some very nice houses. On your left you’ll see a public beach access sign which is Eze Beach. We walked right on the beach for free!
The beach was a typical, rocky beach for the area. We were one of the only people there so it was easy to find a shady spot. We did not see any amenities such as restrooms so be prepared for a beautiful beach and little else!
It was definitely a nice beach, especially to cool off after the hike down. However, I don’t know if we would suggest going just for Eze Beach. If you just want a beautiful beach we would recommend Mala Beach or one of the lesser known spots along the Mala Beach Coastal Path that just had a bigger wow factor than Eze Beach. But if you are looking to do Eze Village we would say definitely check it out since you’re so close!
Should I go to Eze?
We would definitely recommend a day trip to Eze, however you chose to do it, as the views from the top are absolutely stunning. At any glance you see a desert, lush greens, surrounding villages and the turquoise Mediterranean Sea.
Walk from Eze Beach to Mala Beach
After resting at Eze Beach for a little we put our sneakers back on and continued walking. We decided to walk to Cap d’Ail instead of taking the bus. Our end destination was Mala Beach and after walking 50 minutes down from Eze Village we thought why not.
We found this walk to be a little difficult to navigate properly because our maps app was telling us to walk through tunnels that pedestrians aren’t supposed to walk through. Just to paint you a picture we were basically walking on a very thin sidewalk on a curvy, highway type road. Then the road got to the entrance to a tunnel and we spent about 10 minutes going back and forth about whether to walk through it or not. Ultimately we decided no and we took a detour. We did make it to Mala Beach and I would say it took about 1 hour to walk there.
Travel Truth: If we’re being totally honest we wouldn’t recommend doing this route. It would have been easier to just take the bus from Eze Beach to somewhere in Cap d’Ail and still be able to get to Mala Beach. It was just difficult to walk on a busier road and we were the only ones walking. There were some nice views while walking but overall it wasn’t the scenic experience we thought it was going to be.
Once you get closer there are plenty of signs pointing you down to Mala Beach (called Plage Mala) which requires climbing down stairs. At this point though it was very easy to navigate to the beach. There are a couple stores and a patisserie to grab water or a snack before walking down to the beach.
Mala Beach
At Mala Beach there are two restaurants, neither of which we ate at, if you want lunch but other than that there are no shops or other amenities. We grabbed a baguette from a store at the top of the stairs as we were walking into town and had ourselves a little picnic on the beach. There are public restrooms there also, however, they were very basic and nothing special.
Mala Beach (or Plage Mala) is known for its secluded beach cove protected by limestone cliffs on one side. It is without question worth going to even if you don’t plan to hike the Mala Beach Coastal Path.
This beach is just under 5 km to Monte Carlo, Monaco so you could easily stop to check it out on your way to Monaco as it sits significantly closer to the border than Nice or Eze.
Mala Beach Coastal Path
Past the restrooms at Mala Beach is a walkway which is the beginning of the Mala Beach Coastal Path. It is a coastal path that follows the coastline from Plage Mala to Plage Marquet which is just before the border to Monaco. If you do any research about Nice, Cap d’Ail and the surrounding areas you will learn it is a pretty common path to see the landscape of the area. That being said we only passed a few people while we were walking. That honestly made the experience that much better!
We walked it starting from Mala Beach walking towards Monaco, however, many people decide to do it the other way and end at Mala Beach. Regardless of which way you do it or even if you don’t go all the way to the end consider just walking a portion of it because it is one of the highlights of our entire time in Nice!
It typically takes about 45 minutes to walk one way and roughly 1 1/2 hours to walk roundtrip, depending on how fast you walk and how many times you stop. We found it to be a pretty consistently paved walkway but we still both wore sneakers and were happy to have the extra support. We also both wore bathing suits because we started at Mala Beach and wanted to enjoy it before starting the walk. However, along the coastal path there are numerous swimming spots that you can stop and cool off so don’t forget your swim suit!
The coastal path was incredible and we would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the south of France.
