Nice stay safe · Nice travel safety advice
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Nice travel safety advice
Nice travel safety advice
Nice is no more dangerous than other cities in western countries - indeed in many cases it's a lot safer - however, you can stay more safe still following a few pieces of advice:
Take precautions against pickpockets, who are a constant and serious problem on the Cote d'Azur. They operate usually in teams in any crowded areas like buses, train stations, and tourist sites. They may well look harmless fellow passengers but are extremely skilled and will lift your wallet from either your front or back pants pocket without your noticing. You are strongly advised not to carry anything valuable or annoying to replace in your pockets. Use pouches underneath your clothing for anything valuable, including cash. In restaurants and cafes opportunist theft of handbags is a constant risk - keep them close at hand.
Beware of gangs that prey on the beaches: stealing unattended bathers' belongings is routine. Avoid taking anything valuable or important to the beach if you will be swimming without anyone to look after your belongings.
The vol à la portière - the practice of opening the door of a car stopped at a traffic light and stealing the passengers' goods - has decreased over the last few years, but a few are still reported every year. To avoid it, keep your car doors locked and make sure that purses, cameras or other expensive items cannot be seen from the outside. Note that cars registered outside the Alpes-Maritimes (with a number plate ending with something other than '06') are more at risk. A more sinister development recently has been gangs targeting mobile homes at night whilst their occupants are sleeping.
Rental Car keys should be given special protection. A number of car rental companies will bill you for the entire cost of your rental car if it is stolen by your losing the keys to theft. Victims of apartment burglary where car keys are taken have reported receiving demands for 15,000 - 25,000 euros to replace the car.
Areas to avoid are Les Moulins and l'Ariane, which are high-rise suburban social housing estates (HLM) with high crime records, in addition to lacking anything of interest to tourists. The streets around the railway station are also not recommended in the small hours of the morning. The rough-sleeping alcoholics that gather here are generally harmless but there are sometimes more sinister people according to local press reports.
If you do fall foul of Nice's criminal practitioners, the National Police Station is where you need to go to report problems such as being pickpocketed. It's at the junction of Ave Marechal Foch and Dubouchage, a couple of hundred metres east of the Nice Etoiles shopping centre. They will supply you with the necessary statements to support insurance claims, but don't expect Inspector Clouseau to solve your case. You will find the station very busy with other victims towards the end of the evening.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Nice
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Nice Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.