Nice questions

To the west you can travel as far as Marseille and even beyond, although that's a bit far for a daytrip from Nice.

To the east you can travel to Ventimiglia/Vintimille(in French) the first Italian station and continue to the Italian Riviera(although the train rides are in ghastly tunnels).

To check train schedules(all over Europe) use www.bahn.com

I recommend using www.openstreetmap.org instead of googlemaps, because this shows railways and station much more prominently than google.

Let's not forget that you can take trains from Nice to the mountainous hinterland which is in many ways more interesting and authentic than the coastal towns.

You can take the Tenda line up to the Italian border or the Train des Pignes up to Digne.

https://blog.rail.cc/tenda-railway-nice-turin/

https://www.tourisme-alpes-haute-provence.com/train-des-pignes/

Of the coastal places you've probably heard of, only St Tropez is a challenge. It has no train station. The hill towns like St-Paul-de-Vence nearly always require a bus trip.

St. Tropez is not a big loss if you skip it. It's only famous because some celebrities frequented it 50-60 years ago and it's now full of tourists and rip off prices.

There are plenty of nice hill towns/villages along the 2 rail lines I mentioned above.

GREAT information! Thanks

Nice to Antibes is as low as 13 minutes -- as low as 24 minutes to Cannes -- 7 minutes to VSM. I say as low as because the times can vary based on the train type and number of stops.

There are three main trains to be concerned with: the TGV, the SNCF regional train (TER) and Thello (Italian). They are separate tickets. Note the TGV needs to be reserved in advance and it is at low speed down the coast. There is also the Chemin de Fer de Provence (train des pignes) as mentioned previously to Entrevaux (the line to the end beyond Digne-les-Bains is still under renovation; it leaves from the Gare du Sud in the Liberation area of Nice), and the tourist version of the Tende line (Train des Merveilles).

Some interesting places are only reached by bus: St. Paul de Vence (#400), Eze (#82/112) or by a combination. Ligne d'Azur is the main system of buses and trams in Nice -- the app is useful. Envibus goes from Antibes/Cannes and reaches certain interior locations with inconvenient schedules. Some really can only be reached by car.

Thank you!

Rick's Provence And The French Riviera book has all the information you need on transit by train and bus in this area. Note that his general France book has MUCH less information on this region.

Local trains run along the coast from Cannes through Nice to Ventimiglia (just over the border in Italy) twice an hour (last trains about 11:30 PM) and are cheap. Buses run along the coast from Nice to Menton four times an hour and from Nice to Cannes three times an hour (last buses about 8:30 PM), and are even cheaper. For destinations west of Nice (towards Cannes) the train is substantially faster; for destinations east of Nice, both trains and buses work fine. All of these services are unreserved - just turn up and get on the next one.

Train fares vary by distance. Nice to Cannes is currently €7.20, and Nice to Ventimiglia is €8. Note that the ticket machines do not accept paper money or credit cards that are not chip and pin, and ticket windows (which do accept paper money) can close early. You will want to buy round trip tickets if you'll be returning late, or carry enough coins to buy the tickets from machines.

Buses are €1.50 for single tickets, €10 for a ten trip ticket, €5 for a day pass, and €15 for a 7 day pass (I told you they were cheap!).

For inland destinations like Eze Village or St. Paul de Vence, you need to look at bus schedules, as frequencies vary. These buses are also very reduced on Sundays. The buses work fine as long as you know the schedules (I was almost stranded in La Turbie, which at the time I visited had only four buses a day to Nice and six buses a day to Monaco).

Note that Monaco has its own bus system. While Monaco is famously small, it's also hilly with a lot of water dividing the various sections, so I got a lot of use out of my bus day pass. Single rides are €2, and a day pass is €5.50.

If you want to go further east than Ventimiglia or further west than Cannes, you will need regional or TGV trains.

Thank you for the info!!!

In 2017 the tourist office on the plaza in front of the Nice Ville train station had lots of good information. If you tell them what neighboring towns you plan to visit, they can probably provide you brochures with maps, etc.

I ran into some delays at Nice Ville when I wanted to use the vending machines to buy train tickets. I am not an early riser, so that may have been the issue, and the trains are frequent, but still it was frustrating to spend 10 or 15 minutes in a line at a vending machine. If you're sure of where you're going the next day, it's a good idea to buy the ticket the evening before.

The TER prices vary depending on the time of a day; the tickets are not train-specific. It's basically a rush-hour concept with some variation by day of the week, but some dates are special and have different rules. If you're lucky the white and blue periods will be posted on a small graphic on the front of the ticket machine and it will still be legible. It's worth spending some time Googling to see whether you can find the information on line, but it can be challenging to find the current year's information. I assume there's a substantial fine if you buy a cheap ticket and travel during the peak period. If you do the reverse, you've wasted money (though not a lot if you're just taking short trips along the Riviera).

Thank you Acraven, Harold, Gooster, and Marduk - this information helped me, too. :o)

Is there an option to buy a preloaded card say with €50 on it and just use it as I go?

@eminvielle --

In the past, they've offered a summer day pass for 16E. I don't see it offered right now. They do offer combined tickets with attractions, however.

There are other passes and discount cards, but mostly targeted at residents and either point-to-point or via a discount scheme. The Carte Zou has many different forms -- you need to go to the ticket office. It really only is useful if you are staying a few weeks or more, and are eligible for one of the large flexible discounts. Nothing like a prepaid credit card. There is a handy photo booth next to the office, btw, for those passes that require it.

https://www.ter.sncf.com/paca/offres/cartes-abonnements/demandez-votre-carte-zou

And there are etickets available via the app and the ability to import tickets, but I have not used it:
https://www.ter.sncf.com/paca/gares/services/appli-sncf

To supplement my note above, please note that the ticket machines for SCNF are different than the ones for Thello (the Italian competitor that offers services along the line from Nice into Italy, including Monaco).