I had no idea what to expect as our Contiki bus drove into Nice that evening, but it definitely was not beautiful beaches and palm trees.

I’d never really thought about it before – the views and chill vibes were stunning.

As was normal on this trip, we had just enough time to drop our bags at the hostel and get ready for a fun night out on the town.

That night’s adventure included dinner at an Irish restaurant and then we’d all head to a pub where we’d see a band play, and where it was normal and encouraged to dance on the tables. I love dancing, so I was pretty pumped.

*Our entire Contiki fam for the second leg of the trip ♡*

Having dinner that night was interesting because we had a lot of new people who had just joined us on the trip, and my roomie and I had two new girls in our room that we were eager to get to know. So we had that opportunity to chat and get comfy before a night of craziness.

After this whole trip has come to and end and I’m writing about it in reflection, I have to be honest and say that dancing on the tables at Wayne’s Bar was probably one of the most fun nights on the entire month.

All 35 of our group arrived and slid down the room-length table, were each handed a drink and had little time to get it down before the band got on stage and the tables were pushed together to become a dance floor.

Contiki crew dancing at Wayne’s Bar

The band itself was great, they played a ton of songs that everyone could get excited about – “Stacy’s Mom”, “Hey Jude”, “Does Your Mother Know”, the Friends theme song, and of course they ended on “Mr. Brightside”.

Honestly, the amount of times I heard “Mr. Brightside” on this trip was ridiculous, and 100% appreciated every single time.

It was so much fun jumping up and down on the tables, having a mini concert in the back of a tiny pub in Nice.

When the band finished for the night, a couple of us helped each other through the crowd and headed back to the hostel. The only thing cooler than having a super fun night in Nice was walking through the city in the middle of the night – fairy lights in the trees and making new friends of strangers.

The next morning we woke up bright and early for a bike ride around the city. We picked our bikes and hopped on, following our tour guide to the waterfront and taking in the gorgeous views of Nice.

Biking along the Promenade des Anglais on a beautiful sunny morning was definitely a trip highlight.

Eventually the route started to get a bit harder and we biked up a huge hill for even more gorgeous views of the city. I couldn’t believe it was only the end of January and the weather was so sunny – back home people were struggling with snow and cold, and I was in France soaking up the sun under a stretch of palm trees.

Once we biked back into town and said thanks to our lovely tour guide, I split off from the group with my new roomies to grab some lunch and wander Nice.

We were all craving pizza, so we walked around the square a bit until we found a cute cafe that had pizza on the menu and asked for a table. One of our new roommates was actually from Montreal, so having someone in the group whose first language was French made navigating France a little easier.

This pizza was probably one of my favourite meals of the trip, honestly. It was nothing super special, but it was the first time the three of us sat down together and had a nice, relaxing afternoon, and that in itself was kind of special since I ended up spending a lot of my time with these fab women.

*New roomies bonding over delicious pizza*

Once we’d had our pizza, we wandered around the city. That included getting some ice cream, going into every lavender soap shop Nice had to offer (and they are literally everywhere), and just enjoying the lovely weather.

Eventually we met up with a couple of other people from our group and wandered together, finding the really cool library in the photo below and then all going on a ferris wheel adventure.