Can you really get a weekend in Nice for under £250pp? Including flights, food, drinks, sightseeing and a decent hotel? You can - if you know where to look...
Friday night
The late-night eat: The sandy sundowner: Sprawl on cushions or rock in a two-person swing chair at the city’s newest, coolest beach club, Hi Beach (47 Promenade des Anglais; pastis, £5.30).
The hip hotel: Kooky Hotel Windsor (11 Rue Dalpozzo; 00 33 4 9388 5935, www.hotelwindsornice.com; doubles from £111, room only) has 25 artist-designed guestrooms, including a gold cube of a space and a graffiti studio.
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Saturday
The on-the-go lunch: The morning market: Marché de la Libération, the Riviera’s largest street market, kicks off from 6.30am north of the train station. It’s a locals-only affair with plenty of banter: the egg-seller from Grasse claims his chickens have a sea view; the cheese man from San Remo (across the border) insists on speaking Italian dialect. Allow around £3.90pp for picnic treats from the 200 outdoor food stalls.
The pick-me-up: Keep it Niçoise with a café noisette (a muscular mini-cappuccino) and a slice of pissaladière (anchovy ’n’ onion-topped pizza) at Kiosque Tintin (33 Ave Malausséna; £3.90). Add a bottle of Côtes de Thongue rosé to your picnic basket from nearby Cave Nicholas (18 Ave Malausséna; £2.60), then ride the 90p tram (from Gare Thiers on Ave Jean Medécin) to Nice’s six-kilometre-long beach.
The historical highlight: The Belle Epoque Musée Masséna (65 Rue de France; free) lords it over the Promenade des Anglais. It exhibits highlights of Nice’s glamorous past, including exotic menus from the roaring ’20s.
The Michelin-starred meal: The three twentysomething chefs at Restaurant Flaveur (25 Rue Gubernatis; 00 33 4 936 25395, www.flaveur.net; three-course set dinner £31) earned their stellar spurs in early 2011 with a menu that includes cod and citrus miso with ginger soba noodles, and crispy fried lychee pudding.
Sunday
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The morning bite: Enjoy a pain au chocolat with coffee at Granny’s (5 Place de l’Ancien Senat; £2.60), a low-key cafe spilling onto a sunny Old Town square.
The secret stroll: The sublime coastal path (inaugurated in 2010) from Nice to the pretty port of Villefranche makes for the perfect Sunday potter.
The starry lunch: When you get to Villefranche, seek out the Place Amelie Pollonais, backdrop for many a movie. Glamorous visitors frequently pop into Le Cosmo (No. 11; 00 33 4 9301 8405) for a salade Niçoise (£12.30). Decades ago, artist Jean Cocteau chased young men through the adjacent Welcome Hotel in a haze of opium smoke, but still found time to paint the frescoes in the Chapelle St-Pierre (00 33 4 9376 9070; £1.75) across the road.
The dramatic route: The 90p bus to Nice passes seascapes and billionaires’ villas.
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Get me there: EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) has weekend returns from Belfast and seven UK airports from £52 return. Or try Flybe (www.flybe.com).