When I want to book an extravagant trip abroad, there is only one person who I ask to join–my sister. In 2015, we decided to rent a car and explore the French Riviera. It was our first holiday where we both had jobs (paying jobs, that is) and couldn’t wait to make reservations in nice restaurants, not worrying if we should split an entree or dessert in order to pay the bill. We had four days and our itinerary was set: Nice, Monaco, St. Tropez, Cannes.

Nice

Our first day was set exploring Nice and relaxing on the beach. The pictures do not deceive, the beach was uber rocky…but free in most places. My sister used up some hotel points for our stay at Le Meridian right on the coast. I mentioned this was our fancy trip, right? Because we felt like the Kardashians sitting on our rooftop bar watching the sunset over the Mediterranean every night.

There is not a whole lot to “sight see” in Nice but we jumped at the opportunity to take our very own motorized life size hot wheel through the streets on a GPS guided tour. This service was quite nice (get it? HA!) as we drove in the hills for some gorgeous views of the city below. However, we later found ourselves off the designated route and on the busy main streets of Nice.

Monaco

I collect countries. I like to tick them off my list and get a magnet for my trophy wall. I was so excited when I found out that we were close to Monaco; naturally we wanted to rub elbows with the celebrities or maybe the royals inside the casino. The drive from Nice to Monaco was absolutely stunning. We stopped a few times along the way in smaller towns to have lunch and just soak in the scenery.

But when we got to Monaco, we stayed a total of 10 minutes–long enough to get my trophy and to see the infamous casino. Maybe it’s for you? It wasn’t for us. Half of the city/country was under construction and a glass of wine was something like 1000 million thousand euros. Don’t get me wrong…it was beautiful and we were glad we went. But, we headed on back to Nice to lay on the rocky beach and do sea activities. You should be sorry we didn’t take any pictures during parasailing…sigh, it will haunt me forever.

St. Tropez

We had one destination in mind: Club 55. My sister knew of this place before we landed in the French Riviera and was on our must do list. We arrived early that morning to pick our spot close to the sea. We pulled in our rental Peugeot and tossed the keys to the valet who parked it next to a Mercedes and Lamborghini. We paid 60 euros for two lounge chairs and umbrella; a bit on the pricey side but hey, it’s the French Riviera. We also follow the travel rule to fully experience the things on your must do list. We sat there all day and watched the yachts come and go…oh, and sending pictures to our friends back home.

Cannes

Do you have a million dollars to spend in a day? Then, grab my sister and head to Cannes. The city is quite small with the main activity being shopping. And when I write shopping, I mean the Gucci, Prada, Dior shopping. No Zara and H&M’s to be found here! In fact, I was afraid we would be charged a fee just to step foot on the pristine boardwalk. We had a nice stroll through the town; my sister looked like she grew up there with me fumbling behind her taking pictures inside movie cut-outs.