The Tête de Chien is a viewpoint that looks directly over Monaco, giving you the best view of the country that you can find anywhere…but from France! You can choose to hike from Monaco itself or take a short (very easy) walk from La Turbie. Either way, the Tête de Chien view is one that you’ll never forget.
How to Get to Tête de Chien (Dog’s Head)
From La Turbie: The Easiest Option
The easiest way to get to the Tete de Chien viewpoint is from La Turbie. Although you may only be interested in getting to the best view of Monaco, I guarantee that taking a stop in La Turbie will be a highlight of your trip, as well.
From the center of La Turbie, you only have to walk about 20-30 minutes on a very gradual uphill to get to the Tete de Chien. It’s a 1.7 km walk each way and you get to see amazing views of Eze and the whole coastline on the way.
If you’d like to get to La Turbie on a tour instead, check out this one that takes you to Eze, Monaco, and La Turbie which includes a ride around the Monaco Grand Prix Track!
You may notice that there are signs to walk to the Tete de Chien (tour) that are pointing up a hill. If you’re looking for a longer walk, you can follow those.
However, to get straight to the viewpoint just follow the paved road the whole way.
Once you reach the end of the paved road, you’ll get to a small dirt trail that leads you past a few abandoned houses and through a rock tunnel, and then you’re there!
The viewpoint is mostly a bunch of large rocks put together, so you have to be very careful while walking around and make sure to never get too close to the edge.
From here you can see straight down into Monaco and even off into Menton, Eze, and Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat!
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How to Get to Tete de Chien From the Principality of Monaco
Although you’re looking straight down into Monaco from the viewpoint, you can’t actually start the hike in Monaco! The start of the hike is quite a bit away from the main tourist spots of Monaco.
On our trip to Monaco, we had the Tete de Chien on our itinerary before actually realizing how far away it was.
If you are staying in Monaco or even just visiting, I don’t think a trip to Monaco would be complete without seeing this view from above!
Choose to visit La Turbie and then walk just 30 minutes to the view or start the hike from Cap d’Ail.
How to Get to Tete de Chien From Cap d’Ail
If you are looking for a workout and a challenge, then this hike is for you! Instead of an easy 30-minute stroll to the viewpoint, you will be starting the hike in Cap d’Ail and heading straight up to the viewpoint.
Since you are most likely not staying in Cap d’Ail, you will either take the Zest Bus Number 100 to get to Cap d’Ail or you can take the TER train there.
From there, you can either use Wikiloc or Google Maps to follow the path up to the Tete de Chien.
Depending on where you start, it could be a 9 km hike or a little less if you take a bus. You will gain about 530 meters of elevation on the way up and it will take about an hour and a half each way.
It may take longer though as you will be stopping to take a lot of photos along the way!
You could also choose to just hike up and then finish your hike in the village of La Turbie, which is a beautiful city if you haven’t visited it yet! On Sundays, there is a public bus that will take you back to Nice from La Turbie.
Make sure to use the Ligne d’Azur app so you don’t miss the bus!
The Difficulty of the Tete de Chien Hike
From La Turbie, the walk to Tete de Chien would be barely considered a hike. I walked there in a skirt and flip-flops without any problems.
The only issue would be the exposure to the sun, so make sure to wear sunscreen and bring water!
From Cap d’Ail, the hike will be much more difficult. You gain over 500 feet of elevation and the hike is a bit steep, however, the beautiful views along the way would make you forget how hard it is!
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Best Time of Day to Visit Tete de Chien
As always on the French Riviera, you will be hard-pressed to find a bad time to visit the Tete de Chien. However, I recommend checking the weather ahead of time making sure it’s a clear day and not hazy.
If it is hazy, wait until just afternoon to visit when some of the haze may have burned off or be less visible because of the sunlight hitting the view.
Clouds usually start rolling in after 3 pm and could obstruct the view of Monaco.
What You Can See from the Tete de Chien
Obviously, this viewpoint is most famous for the ability to look straight down into Monaco (it seriously feels like you’re paragliding over the country!) but there are a few other places visible from this area!
On the walk from La Turbie, you can look to your right and spot the medieval village of Eze perched on top of a hill!
After you pass through the tunnel, you can look to your left again and get an incredible view of Eze Beach, Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat (the first big peninsula), and the Cap de Nice (the second big peninsula).
If you look carefully at the view from Tete de Chien itself, you can spot Menton in the bunch of warm buildings clumped together, and after that, you may be able to spot Italy!
The Tete de Chien is the perfect add-on to your Côte d’Azur itinerary, so make sure not to miss it!
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Dayna Brockbank is a travel and language-learning blogger who has lived around the world but has now settled in Nice, France. She speaks 3 languages at varying levels of fluency: Spanish, Italian, and French, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Spanish Education. She and her husband focus on making travel part of life by living cheaply and traveling on a budget.