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Paris to Annecy to ???

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We are Planning a trip to France/ Italy, and need some help with the logistics.
I wanted to see some cool small towns in France, and Annecy looks perfect to me, however it looks like getting from Annecy down to Nice, and on into Italy is not very easy/direct by train. We are not trying to spend time in big cities as much as smaller towns. I have a few questions that I am hoping to get help with.

  1. Would it make sense to rent a car in Annecy and make our own route towards the Nice area?
  2. If so what other neat spots would be worth seeing along the way?
  3. If we went on to Tuscany would it makes sense to just keep that same car or is it best to use trains wherever possible?
  4. If we decided to go by train from Annecy South towards Nice what other towns along the way would be worth stopping/ staying overnight in?
Posted by
16895 posts

Trains are not direct to reach most mountain towns. From Annecy to Nice can be done with just one train connection at Lyon. However, I would drive to take advantage of more scenery and small towns along the route south through Grenoble; see www.viamichelin.com for route ideas, especially their "discovery" route recommendation. Dropping the same car in Italy adds a hefty fee, while dropping it in Nice normally does not.

Trains from Nice to any of the Cinque Terre towns, for instance, do again require a connection (either at the border or at Genoa, or sometimes both) and are not fast trains, but that is a common trip for visitors to make by train. A car would have to stay parked in the Cinque Terre, doing you no good there. If picking up a second car for Tuscany, then La Spezia is a convenient location and you could drop it at a different Italian town.

How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.

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