What are the best day trips from Cannes?

The Îles de Lérins sit 15 minutes by ferry from the Vieux Port, and they're the single best day trip from Cannes for two people who can't agree on what to do. Île Sainte-Marguerite has the Fort Royal, where the Man in the Iron Mask was held from 1687 to 1698, plus 3 km of shaded trails through Aleppo pine forest that smell like warm resin by midmorning. The history-inclined partner gets the fort and its small museum (around €6 entry). The one who wants to do nothing gets a rocky cove on the island's south side where the water feels bracing in June and warm enough by mid-July that you'll stay in for an hour. Trans Côte d'Azur runs ferries roughly every 30 minutes in summer for about €15 return. Île Saint-Honorat, the smaller island, belongs to Cistercian monks who still make wine and a lavender liqueur called Lérina. You can buy a bottle of their red at the abbey shop for around €15-20. The whole two-island circuit works in 5-6 hours with a packed lunch from Forville Market. No restaurant on either island is worth the markup.

Antibes is 12 minutes on the TER from Gare de Cannes, around €3 each way. The Picasso Museum occupies the Château Grimaldi above the ramparts and holds 245 works Picasso left after a productive stretch in 1946. It's small — you'll finish in 45 minutes, the right amount before a less museum-inclined partner starts checking their phone. The Marché Provençal on Cours Masséna runs every morning until 1pm and sells better socca than anything in Cannes. Walk the ramparts after lunch for views back toward La Croisette and the Esterel. Cap d'Antibes is reachable on foot from the old town in about 40 minutes; the Sentier du Littoral coastal path loops the cape in 2-3 hours and passes the sheltered Plage de la Garoupe, one of the better swimming spots on this stretch of coast. The whole Antibes day works without a car and costs under €20 per person excluding food.

Nice is 30 minutes by TER from Cannes and costs around €7 each way. The Promenade des Anglais runs 7 km along the Baie des Anges and works as a morning walk before the heat sets in. Vieux Nice behind Cours Saleya has the best food market on the Riviera, open every morning except Monday. Colline du Château gives panoramic views from its summit, reached by a free elevator near the eastern end of the promenade. The Matisse Museum in Cimiez is free and rarely crowded. MAMAC near Place Garibaldi costs €10 and holds a strong collection of Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle. Nice merits a full day on its own; trying to combine it with another stop dilutes both.

Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence both sit inland and both need a car or the Zou! regional bus, which runs infrequently enough that you should check the schedule the night before. Grasse calls itself the world capital of perfume, and the Fragonard and Galimard factories offer free tours lasting about an hour that end in a gift shop. The old town has a cathedral with three Rubens paintings and almost no tourists. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a walled medieval village that became an artists' colony in the 1920s. The Fondation Maeght just outside the walls holds one of Europe's best private modern art collections — Giacometti, Miró, Chagall — in a building designed by Josep Lluís Sert. Entry is around €16. The village itself takes 30 minutes to walk end to end. Both towns pair well with a rental car; by bus, pick one and give it the full afternoon.