If Belgium and Netherlands are important to you, you make time to visit them by setting priorities. For travel day constrained trips, which most trips are, days don't just become available to visit places.

I suspect that you have already bought your airline tickets. But if not, one way to do what you mentioned is to fly into Nice, stay in Nice. Visit Monaco and other places in French Riviera from Nice, train to Paris, train to Brugge, train to Amsterdam, and fly home from Amsterdam. If you have 20 days, you can do more. Some have fixed formula for places. Paris visit must be at least n-days, if there are 14 days, you cannot visit more than 4 places, etc. You have to decide if this type of planning is for you or you want to play with so many days here, so many days there, until you come with the number of destinations you like within your constraints.

Thank you greg! I still haven't booked my airline tickets. 14 days is what is on our mind, but we wouldn't mind extending it a bit. We are not very particular about belgium and nehterlands. but since they r neighbouring places I thought it would be wise to visit them too. My husband hasn't been to Europe at all.
What places do you suggest to visit in French Riveria? other than Monaco and nice. We are coming from India so I am not sure if there are many flights to Nice. maybe our best option would be to Paris. we are not very particular about the number of days per place. But my husband is not very keen on seeing too many places he would prefer staying at one place for at least 3 days. so if it is a 14 day trip maybe we would like to see paris for 4 days and 3 other places maximum 3 days per place.

And I also wanted to find out, 2 years back I travelled to Brussels and Germany. We took a Euro rail pass. I absolutely loved it. is it possible to take the same here in france too? I read in some forums that there are mostly high speed trains only.

If you want a leisure holiday and if you have just 14 days you should stay in France: 5 days in Paris and 9 days at the Cote d'Azur would be my recommendation.

If you have 20 days you might include Belgium and Netherlands. Start in Paris, take the train to Brussel, proceed from there to Brugge, from there to Utrecht and then to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, take a Transavia flight to Nice (around 100€ p.P. if you book early).

At the Cote d'Azur you find many beautiful spots. Nice is the largest city in the region, with many museums, a shopping district, an old town and a promenade along an ugly beach consisting of large grey pebbles. This said, I would rather base myself elsewhere.

Cannes is much smaller and more luxurious than Nice. Here, you find a wide sandy beach with a row of luxury hotels (the most famous is the Carlton, however many say the Majestic is better). If you want a unusual Hotel for your honeymoon, look for the 3.14:

http://www.314cannes.com/en

Cannes has a beachside promenade with a high density of Rolls-Royces and Ferraris. It has the most splendid yaught harbour at the Cote d'Azur and a charming old town.

Between Cannes and Nice you find Juan-les-Pins - a seaside resort with a wide sandy beach and 3- to 4-star hotels which is popular among families. Nearby is Antibes, a small town on a peninsula with a Picasso Museum.

If you prefer more spectacular scenery, stay west of Cannes at the Esterel Coast with its rugged red cliffs. A most attractive hotel in Theoule-sur-mer is the Miramar:

http://www.tiara-hotels.com/hotel.asp?id_hotel=10

Another nice place to stay is east of Nice, on the peninsula St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat or in nearby Villefranche and Beaulieu.

In any case, whereever you stay, rent a car and explore the Cote d'Azur. Here are my favourite experiences:

- Drive the Corniche de l'Esterel from Cannes to St. Raphael - one of the most scenic drives on the planet. Stop at the lookouts and climb down into the coves and swim and snorkel between dramatic red cliffs.

- Drive the Grand Corniche (with a stop at La Turbie, an impressive Roman mounument) and the Moyenne Corniche (with a stop in Eze, a perched village) and the tiny roads with the hairpin curves between both corniches (drive carefully, Grace Kelly had her fatal accident right there).

- Walk along the beach in Cannes and have a glass of champagne in the bar of the Majestic Hotel.

- In Monaco, visit the Royal Palace, the cathedral (with Grace Kelly's grave), Jacques Cousteau's museum, the cactus garden and the casino.

- Visit a few of the outstanding art museums:

- The Fondation Maeght in St. Paul with its spectacular surrealist garden, created by Joan Miro.

- The Chagall Museum in Nice with his huge colourful paintings of biblical scenes.

- The Museum of Modern art in Nice with outstanind contemporary art, especially of French artists like Yves Klein and Ben.

- The Fernand Leger Museum in Biot, devoted to the works of this spectacular artist.

- The Picasso Museum in Antibes.

Also, drive into the hinterland, where you find dozens of picturesque perched villages, e.g. St. Paul, Tourettes, Gourdon...

September is a beautiful month at the Cote d'Azur. The crowds are gone and the weather will be fine. Seawater will be warm and balmy.

Thank you so much traveller1959.
We would like to fly into Paris. stay for 3-4 nights and then go to Cote d'Azur. My husband would like to rent a nice car and we would like to drive around.. here we want to stay for 6 days. I am a bit confused as to where to stay. Nice looks like a big town.. But I don't mind Avignon also. Can you please suggest? What we are looking for is a comfortable hotel not very fancy. shopping and good food at the place we stay for 6 nights.And obviously easy to get around to other places around the Cote d'Azur.
Thank you in Advance.

HI MJ,

> My Husband is very fond of luxury cars and racing so Monaco is a must visit.<

The Grand Prix de Monaco is held in May. Are you going to visit the museums?

>We are planning on visiting Paris and the French Riviera.<

Not going to Provence?

With 14 days, I would
spend a week in Paris,
Train to Avignon and rent a car
Take 5 days to visit the area enclosed by Avignon, Arles, Apt and Aix-en-Procence,
drive to Nice, drop the car, visit the Riviera.

With 20 days, you should easily be able to include the low Countries, but why?

Aix-en-Provence