The beach in Nice are all pebbly. Pebbles don't feel as hot as sand but that's the only good news. To walk on this stones is a torture if you don't wear shoes. And returning to the beach from the water... To lie on the beach without a good mastress is not nice either. It seems that each one of these damned stones wants to get between your ribs.
Moreover, the beach is overcrowded in summer. To avoid the crowd come (early) in the morning.
To find sand beaches you have to go elsewhere. Read this article about the beaches of the Martime Alps.
The good news is that the water is clean. Nice got the Pavillon bleu once again in 2015 for the Fabron and Coco beach beaches.
There are 20 public beaches and almost as many private beaches. The private beaches all have a restaurant. Some of them offer water activities such as jetski, flyfish, flyboard, parasailing...
Note :
- that there are 4 non smoking beaches in Nice : Centenaire, Lenval, Bains Militaires & Ste Hélène beaches.
- 2 beaches are equipped to welcome disabled people : the Centenaire one, in front of the Albert 1er garden, and Carras, near the airport.
Here is a list of all public beaches, from the West to the East:
- La lanterne
- Carras
- Aubry Lecomte
- Ste Hélène (in font of the Radisson)
- Fabron
- Lenval (in front of the blue tainted glasses hospital)
- Magnan
- Poincaré
- Florida (in front of the centre universitaire méditerrannéen)
- Voilier
- Forum
- Neptune (in front of the Négresco)
- Blue Beach
- Sporting
- Lido (in front of the palais de la Méditerrannée)
- Ruhl
- Centenaire (in front of the Albert 1er garden)
in front of the old town:
- Beau rivage
- Opéra
- Ponchette
- Castel
- Bains police
- Roba Capeu
East of the harbour:
- Bains militaires
- Réserve
- Coco Beach (not really a beach; rather a bathing location among rocks)
- Plateforme