The cost of a private beach starts at €23 for a lounge chair and umbrella and runs to €55 per person. Since it is forbidden to bring your own food to a private beach, add in the cost of a meal. A main course at a private beach-restaurant starts at €21 for a pizza, pasta or large salad and runs to €30 for a grilled fish.

At first glance, it's easy and obvious to say that going to a free public beach is cheaper than laying out money for a managed private beach. If you live on the Cote d'Azur that's certainly true because you already have a beach towel, mat, umbrella, shoes and plenty of other equipment to make your day at the beach comfortable. When you come as a visitor however, your beach experience can require a substantial cash outlay. Hotels do not provide beach towels or beach umbrellas. Buying a towel and umbrella in central Nice can easily run about €25. By contrast, the cheapest private beach in Nice is Opera which costs €23 for a lounge chair and umbrella with a towel for €6. Front rows there and elsewhere cost more.

To be truly comfortable on a public beach, you would want a rubber or bamboo mat under your beach towel. Count on at least €12. Obviously, that can't compare to a lounge chair topped with a mattress. To get from the water to your towel, you'll at least need a pair of flip-flops (€5) but even better are rubber water shoes (€10). On a private beach, bambou mats run down to the water's edge, making the extra footware unnecessary.

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And what about food and drink? You can picnic on a public beach for much less than a beach-restaurant. The pan bagnat sandwich that you can buy for €6 in a sandwich shop costs €14 in a beach restaurant and that's usually the cheapest item on the menu. You do not save money however, by ordering a meal in a cafe/restaurant along the Promenade des Anglais as their prices are roughly the same as their counterparts on the beach.

The bottom line? For just a day at the beach as part of a visit-the-French Riviera experience, it's more comfortable and not much more expensive to spend the day at a private beach. If you'll be hanging at the beach for two or more days, invest in the proper acoutrements and you'll have a fine time at a public beach.

Private Beach Prices in Nice 2023

Note that the prices below are for early summer and are correct at the time of publication. Some beaches may raise prices from mid-July to mid-August. Off-season you can usually get a few euros shaved off. In most cases the half-day price is only for the afternoon after 2 or 3pm.Hotel Amour plage is one of the few to offer a half-day price from 9am to noon. In most places you'll pay more to relax in the front row with an unimpeded sea view.