We will be flying home from Nice on July 9th. Our flight leaves at 7:15am and we are wondering how early we should arrive. We are flying first class so we can go to the expedited lines, but I know that doesn't mean much in some airports. In Rome you definitely need 2-3 hours, but in Venice we were checked in and through security in fifteen minutes. Any insights from someone that has flown from Nice recently is greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Seattle
922 posts
I flew out of Nice last October. My flight was at 11:50 a.m., and I was at the airport around 9:15. As the airport bus stopped at Terminal 2, and my flight was leaving from Terminal 1, I had to take a short (free) shuttle ride to the correct terminal. I was still at the check-in counter ten minutes too early to actually check in. When I was finally able to check in, it took maybe two minutes, then I had a long time to hang around and get coffee and a croissant. The flight was called and boarded quickly, and it even took off ten minutes early!
I don't know how much that helps. If you're flying first class, you may not be worrying about catching the airport bus (which was a 30-minute journey from the eastern end of the Promenade des Anglais), so you can time your arrival better. At any rate, there's no point in getting there any earlier than two hours prior. If you will be arriving by public transport, check to see if you will have to switch terminals once you arrive at the airport. It didn't take too long, but it's something to be aware of.
Posted by
CA, USA
1245 posts
On a RS tour people were asking how early to get to the airport. Our guide answered with a remark that has really stuck -- "you can be either stressed or bored". If it were me I'd plan to be at the airport 90 minutes before the flight, giving time for getting stuck in traffic, sorting out a problem, any other exigency. Others would do it different.
Posted by
northern CA
2766 posts
Last August the cherry on top of my vacation was getting a Mercedes mini-van to myself from Cap d'Antibes/Juan les Pins to the Nice airport for the flight home. No stops, and traffic was light, your-mileage-may-vary.
So, when I checked in, pretty smoothly and within a few minutes, the counter and the info boards could only guess which gate the flight would be at, and this was true for many flights, so there is a big sunny waiting area beside the ripoff mall stores where the un-privileged can twiddle their thumbs. That's the only 'strange' part that stood out to me, that the final gate is often not announced until maybe 15 minutes before boarding.
Note that there was an open, manned quick lane for the aristocracy -- I remember a momentary sheepish grin on the agents standing there doing almost nothing while the 99% were going through the rope maze.
I've been to a handful of other airports in France, and I'd say the one in Nice is at the top of the list, although the decor materials tend to be a little hard.
Let us know what the furniture is like in the first-class lounge when you get back in July!
PS, I take it as a challenge to time my airport arrivals so that I get to the gate as the boarding begins, not much sooner, and in this case I think I had about an hour or slightly less, so that shows you that this airport is somewhat quicker and easier than you might imagine. Everyone around me in the security line was on later flights.
Posted by
Williamstown, MA
260 posts
Airport is very close to the city. Take a cab. Don't remember it being a difficult airport and don't recall taking a long time to check in, etc. nothing awful like Heathrow or Newark!