Nice Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Buses stop at the bus station (Gare Routière; 04 93 85 03 90; 5 blvd Jean Jaurès).

A single €1.30 fare can take you anywhere in the Alpes-Maritimes département (with a few exceptions such as the airport), provided you’re making direct connections (within around an hour).

There are services until about 7.30pm daily to Antibes (1¼ hours), Cannes (1½ hours), Grasse (1¼ hours), Menton (1¼ hours) and Monaco (45 minutes). Buses also run to Vence (50 minutes) and St-Paul de Vence (one hour).

For long-haul travel, Intercars (04 93 80 08 70), at the bus station, serves various European destinations; it also sells Eurolines tickets for buses to London, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Train

Nice’s main train station, Gare Nice Ville (av Thiers) is 1.2km north of the beach.

There are fast and frequent services (up to 40 trains a day in each direction) to coastal towns including Antibes (€3.60, 25 minutes), Cannes (€5.50, 40 minutes), Menton (€4.10, 35 minutes), Monaco (€3.10, 20 minutes) and St-Raphaël (€9.60, 1¼hr).

Direct TGV trains link Nice with Paris’ Gare de Lyon (€103.20, 5½ hours), with additional connecting services.

From July to September, the SNCF’s Carte Isabelle (€11, available from train stations) lets you make unlimited trips in a single day (except TGV express trains) from Théoule-sur-Mer to Vintimiglia in Italy, and from Nice to Tende.

Lost luggage and other problems are handled by SOS Voyageurs (04 93 16 02 61; 9am-noon & 3-6pm Mon-Fri).

For an enchanting train trip through the mountains, two-car diesel trains operated by Les Chemins de Fer de la Provence (www.trainprovence.com ; in Nice 04 97 03 80 80, in Digne-les-Bains 04 92 31 01 58) chug four times daily from Nice’s Gare du Sud (04 93 82 10 17; 4bis rue Alfred Binet) to Digne-les-Bains (€17.65, 3¼ hours).

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Boat

The fastest and least expensive ferries from mainland France to Corsica depart from Nice. The SNCM office (04 93 13 66 66; ferry terminal, quai du Commerce) issues tickets (otherwise try a travel agency in town). Italian-run Corsica Ferries (0 825 095 095; www.corsicaferries.com ; quai Lunel) also sells tickets at the port. From av Jean Médecin take buses 1 or 2 to the Port stop.

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Air

Nice’s international airport, Aéroport International Nice-Côte d’Azur (0 820 423 333; www.nice.aeroport.fr), is about 6km west of the city centre. Its two terminals are connected by a free shuttle bus (at least every 10min 6am-11pm). The airport’s served by numerous carriers, including the cut-price BMIBaby (www.bmibaby.com) and easyJet (www.easyjet.com).

For the shortest and most stylish transport to Monaco, aboard a helicopter (for calls outside Monaco 00 377 92 05 00 50; www.heliairmonaco.com). Seven-minute flights departing from Nice airport start from €75 per person, one way.

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